I've been waiting a while, but my colony of 8 Peacock Gudgeons has finally kicked into high gear. I didn't know they were reproducing until I pulled some plants out of the tank, and inadvertently disturbed one of the male's nests. The others immediately started pecking up the defenseless newly hatched fry, and I panicked and just scooped my hands into the tank-- saving 13. 
That evening I decided I'd check the other pvc tube caves, and sure enough, there were three large nests of newly hatched fry to be harvested. (not yet free swimming, still "stuck" to the wall of the tube)
I removed them to a separate rearing container, and the next morning there were several hundred free swimming fry. When I got home that evening I went to check on them, and noticed there seemed to be significantly less in the container! I re-surveyed the caves-- and sure enough, one of the adult males had hitch-hiked along with the fry. :cry: Rookie mistake on my part, I should have checked more carefully. There are still around 100 left, so plenty for a first batch. I feed the adults fairly heavily, so I should be able to pull around 100 nearly every weekend. From my experience from the last colony I had, if I pull them all on a Sunday, there are usually free-swimming fry out of the tubes on Monday after work, and the tubes are empty by Wednesday. (unless the male was guarding several spawns from a few days apart).
Anyway, here's how beautiful my fry containers look. Green water, floating plants, a zillion microworms, and some cyclops/daphnia. Not much of a display, but it's fun to watch them darting around!
In about 9 months, they'll be just like the adults. Pretty fun fish, if you're looking for something new. The adults are as colorful as killies (except the females are pretty too!), and the males square off like bettas do for spawning areas-- although they usually just do a lot of dancing, and not as much fin ripping. Very cool to watch. When adult males are "fighting" they can move around the tank pacing each other faster than you can see.
That evening I decided I'd check the other pvc tube caves, and sure enough, there were three large nests of newly hatched fry to be harvested. (not yet free swimming, still "stuck" to the wall of the tube)
I removed them to a separate rearing container, and the next morning there were several hundred free swimming fry. When I got home that evening I went to check on them, and noticed there seemed to be significantly less in the container! I re-surveyed the caves-- and sure enough, one of the adult males had hitch-hiked along with the fry. :cry: Rookie mistake on my part, I should have checked more carefully. There are still around 100 left, so plenty for a first batch. I feed the adults fairly heavily, so I should be able to pull around 100 nearly every weekend. From my experience from the last colony I had, if I pull them all on a Sunday, there are usually free-swimming fry out of the tubes on Monday after work, and the tubes are empty by Wednesday. (unless the male was guarding several spawns from a few days apart).
Anyway, here's how beautiful my fry containers look. Green water, floating plants, a zillion microworms, and some cyclops/daphnia. Not much of a display, but it's fun to watch them darting around!
In about 9 months, they'll be just like the adults. Pretty fun fish, if you're looking for something new. The adults are as colorful as killies (except the females are pretty too!), and the males square off like bettas do for spawning areas-- although they usually just do a lot of dancing, and not as much fin ripping. Very cool to watch. When adult males are "fighting" they can move around the tank pacing each other faster than you can see.
