# Biotodoma cupido info request



## joemc (Sep 23, 2012)

Hi, I keep a group of these amazing fish, but what i am really looking for is information from anyone who has or knows someone who has got these fish to spawn while in their care.
regards
joe


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## joemc (Sep 23, 2012)

just bumping my post to the top again in the hope of getting some advice!
here is a short video of the cupids in their tank

click on the pic to get it to rum
tks
joe


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## BelieveInBlue (Jul 17, 2011)

Have you checked the profiles page? I'd start there while I wait for someone knowledgeable to reply.


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## joemc (Sep 23, 2012)

tks for the reply, yep i have checked the profile section
joe


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## joemc (Sep 23, 2012)

just looking back at my previous posts, well this one I cracked and got them to spawn.


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## BelieveInBlue (Jul 17, 2011)

How did you manage that? I've never actually seen cupids in real life. almost seven years of fishkeeping experience, and two years working at a LFS, and not a single cupid. Odd, isn't it?


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## joemc (Sep 23, 2012)

patience was the main ingredient in the mix! I bought the fish at about 1inch total length, it took them 2 years to become mature at 4-5 inches, I kept the 16 of them together in the tank and by the end of the first year I was pretty confident that I had both sexes based on their behaviour, then from the 1st of April of this year they started spawning after a bit of tweaking with the tank, I have had 6 spawns from them since then one of which I have been raising, the young are nearly ready to be given new homes now, they grow pretty fast !


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## joemc (Sep 23, 2012)

sorry, missed you saying that you never see them, yes it is odd, I see them on south American trade lists very often, but when you do see the fish in the shops they don't look pretty, maybe not going to be a good seller for the shops compared to rams or guppies, plus they are generally in very bad condition and people that buy them suffer a lot of losses


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## ahud (Aug 22, 2009)

Congrats man!!! Got any pictures of the spawns? How is the brood care? I have not heard of many (Can't remember anyone personally) breeding these. I want the details!


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## joemc (Sep 23, 2012)

tks, both parents play a roll, the female guards the eggs, with the male guarding the outer territory, if she leaves to chase off another fish or grab a piece of food the male moves in and takes over the eggs until she comes back
the eggs hatched after 4 days, the fry became free swimming on the eight day, I fed them newly hatched brineshrimp and powdered down tetra prima, then I got lazy with the brineshrimp and started feeding them decapsulated brineshrimp eggs, they grow pretty fast, they are not hard to feed and the fry are of a decent size when they become free swimming, once they are free swimming both parents take care of the fry, I took lots of videos of the fish from the build up to the spawning to the fish spawning and then caring for the fry I will post some tomorrow, it is past 4am here in Ireland, I should be in bed getting my beauty sleep!
here is a video I took yesterday, a very quick calculation is the fry are 40 days old, you can judge their size from the group of adult pygmy Corydoras in the shot, I will recalculate in the morning and post a correction if I am wrong on their age! just too tired now :zz: 
click the pic to get it to roll

post any queries, questions etc you can think of and I will answer as best I can based on my experience with these AMAZING little fish


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## ahud (Aug 22, 2009)

What other tank mates if any?

Did you keep the whole group of 16 together? If so, what size was the tank?

Two years is a heck of a mature time. I wonder if that is one of the main factors on why they are rarely bred?


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## joemc (Sep 23, 2012)

yep, all 16 are kept in the same tank
other tankmates..
this has varied over the couple of years, but tankmates present when the fish were spawning were (and still are!) as follows
4 wild angels from Colombia
a very large pair of bristle nose cats
2 spotted talking cats, about 5 inches +long
some cardinal tetras
a shoal of pygmy cories whose numbers always swing from about 20 to 50, then I thin them out back to about 20
Apistogramma macmasteri 2 adult males, 3 adult female, a few young and always a group of fry on the go
a shoal of ottos that's it I think, there are a few other fish in the sump, but they are never in the main tank

the tank is 6 ft x 2ft x2ft and has a sump which is appros 3ft x 1.5ft by 1.5 ft

two years is quite a while for the fish to mature compared to fish like tetras or apistos, but well worth the wait. Is it the reason people do not have success with them? well I think there are quite a few reasons, one of which would be lack of patience, another would be accepting the myths about sexing these fish as fact and maybe not keeping a decent sized group to allow the fish to select their own partners plus some fish keepers I know have said when they started with 3 or 4 fish they ended with only one due to aggression, I have never experienced any aggression with this group of fish, the first cupido I bought were adult sized and in very bad shape, they battered each other and I lost them all within a week or two though looking back I think I lost them more to the shape they were in when I bought them than to their aggression , though that did not help


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## joemc (Sep 23, 2012)

oh I should add that when I bought this group of fish they were only an inch in total length, so from that size to 4-5 inches 2 years is maybe not that long a time


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## ahud (Aug 22, 2009)

last question, what were the water parameters?

I'm really interested in Biotodoma in general, I just usually get bored with fish that won't spawn for me. I'll have to give these a go in the future.


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## joemc (Sep 23, 2012)

ph around 6.5-7
kh under 2
temp 24 c up a degree in summerr, down one in winter.
nitrate under 20
water chnges around 200 litres most days straight from the tap unheated.
feel free to chnge your mind and throw out any other questions that come to mind


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## joemc (Sep 23, 2012)

sorry, I had intended posting some videos of the fish spawning but I made a total mess of my photo bucket account, so I made a u-tube channel and have started to load them there for anyone who is interested in these great little fish here is the link to the channel
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHtQqo5kaaEXRKrJZ2f_Jzg
there are one or two other videos there too, sailfin tetras and angelfish, but mostly cupido, I will load the other cupido videos once I get hold of the computer for a while... having teenagers in the house tends to block the computer, phone, tv etc... though the lawn mower, washing machine etc tend to stay free


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## ahud (Aug 22, 2009)

hahaha, funny how that works.

Thanks for the videos, can't wait to check them out.


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## joemc (Sep 23, 2012)

ha ha kids...... nothing about that in the parenting books!
hope the videos help you with your cupids, let me know if anything is not clear or is missing from the sequence and I will load some more. if you have 9-10 minutes to spare try watch the sailfin video of the male encroaching on another males teritory, when they display and fight they put any apistogramma to shame....... am I allowed to say that on a cichlid forum!


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## ahud (Aug 22, 2009)

Dude those tetras are so cool! Crenuchus spilurus, never heard of them. I'm going to try to find some ASAP. Is that male tending eggs? Kind of weird thinking about a fish like this showing almost the same care that a cichlid does.


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## joemc (Sep 23, 2012)

they are amazing fish, that male was tending eggs, but yet again i messed up, i think i have it figured out now, I will know if I am right by the end of the month...... then agiin, I have been wrong before with them!


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## ahud (Aug 22, 2009)

Let me know how it goes!


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