Peacock Gudgeon

I picked up my current pair about 3 weeks ago as part of a deal I worked out with a local shop. Since I didn't have any tanks other than what were attached to my Hypancistrus rack at the time, I also got a 5 1/2 gallon tank, air pump, and airstone for them.

Sexing these fish is rather easy once you know what to look for. Males have a rounded head profile and more variable color in the fins. Females have a sharper head profile, more yellow in the unpaired fins, a yellow splotch at the rear of the abdomen, and a wide black band at the distal end of the anal fin.

Once I got them home, I added a heavy dose of daphnia to the tank from my canister filter and allowed them to do their own thing. I didn't realize that they were such slow feeders, and that same daphnia addition is still reproducing in the tank. I haven't had to add any more daphnia since. The only other feedings given to the tank, were 3 small feedings of microworms this past week to help clean detritus from the tank floor. I should mention here that I don't think the microworms were the trigger for this spawn. I believe the real stimulus was the constant supply of daphnia over the 2 prior weeks

After the first feeding of microworms, I noticed that the male was paying more attention to the female than normal, so I made them a spawning cave by cutting the end off a 1/2 inch PVC cap, and cut a 3 inch section of 1/2 inch PVC. I placed an end cap on one end of the pipe, and the cut cap on the other end to hold the pipe level as seen in the photos.

After 3 days with nothing much happening other than a lot of fluttering by the male, the pair moved into their new home. Initially, I thought that it was just wishful thinking on my part that 1 1/4 inch fish were going to spawn. However, 24 hours later, while checking my microworm cultures, I found the pair making loops, inverting, inside their cave. Approximately 3 hours later, the female left the cave and had lost a lot of girth. Inside the cave, the male was fanning and fluttering to the extent that he looked like he was having a seizure over top some 75ish eggs.

The female has to be removed at this point since she is predatory of both eggs and fry, and may be injured by the protective male. The male guards and fans the eggs, but will eat free-swimming fry without discretion. To limit his chances of doing this, I make a cage out of craft grid. Superglue is the fastest way to do this, but can be a bit tedious. I use a hot glue gun, and it seems to work just as well. Once the cage is made, the entrance of the cave is blocked with my thumb as I remove the cave and place it in the cage. This allows for a free flow of water, and the fry to escape the male as they hatch.

When the eggs have all hatched, about 3 days, the male will sit upon the "blob" of fry till they slowly leave. At 6 days post-spawn, the fry are free swimming and ready for their first foods. The male is removed from the tank at this time to prevent predation. Most articles and references of these fish state that they are capable of eating artemia nauplii at this point. However, I don't have the patience to hatch cysts, separate shells, strain nauplii, and repeat. I simply feed microworms to the fry 3-4 times a day for the first 2 weeks. After that point, they are capable of eating crushed flake and newborn daphnia which is reproducing in the tank.

On this diet, and the occasional supplement of microworms, the fry grow rather quickly. They reach one inch at approximately 3-4 months, and begin coloring up at about the same time. Sadly, this is the age and size that most shops get. Anyone basing their purchase from what they see at that size is missing out on what is easily one of the most colorful fish in the world. Once they mature a few more weeks, and reach maturity, their colors really begin to shine.

After several spawns allowing this pair to spawn in the above manner, I realized that I should have had a lot more fry than what were surviving. The conclusion was that the male was eating them before they left the cave. As a result, I built an artificial system to fan the eggs and started pulling both male and female.

The artificial hatcher was easy because the eggs were already mounted to PVC. I placed a 4 inch section of pipe on the straight portion of a tee. An elbow was then mounted on the "odd leg" of the tee. By running air to the bottom of the pipe section, I could create an outward current at the elbow. Any time a spawn was getting close to hatching, I simply removed the end cap from the cave and mounted it to this contraption at a slight downward slope. This allowed the fry to sit in the cave until water movement and their initial swimming attempts push them out into the tank.