hi everybody riley here for another episode of fish keeping jamaica today we're talking
about breeding eggs caterers now ex-cutters are those fish that just lay the eggs the eggs sink
to the bottom of the substrate and uh they don't really care about the eggs the primary purpose
of them extracting the egg is to get it out of the system and the meal is so um driven with
hormones that they release a mint that sometimes fertilize these eggs right ex-caterers are
really fun instead of creatures aquatic creatures because they they actually consume the eggs after
they have actually laid them so a few minutes after the process of laying the egg and fertilize
the egg have actually ended uh both the male and the female will go in search of the egg and
consume them and you know the cycle continues now including uh egg scatter is a little bit technical
uh as a fish breeder because you have to set up a way in which uh the egg is actually preserved
so what i do i have what i call a breeding basket uh an area awareness the fish is placed in
and the fish the male and the female usually one at a time uh is facing to this uh
mesh this basket whereas the male will actually chase the female around eggs will be
um extracting and um the the male will actually split mint on the egg but before the egg
is eaten um well it's the eggs being prevented from being eaten because
the egg actually falls through the mesh right that's the basket right so whenever the
the male and the female have actually completed the process of you know that that little mingling
around uh going inside of the egg is like you know it's impossible for them to reach
the egg so what you do know you remove the basket with the fish and allow the egg to sit there at
the base of the substrate until it hatches right those eggs that doesn't hatch um some
person persons up to actually remove them while some persons actually you know uh let them stay
uh it is good to have grab a substrate whenever you have ex-cutters and you're trying to breed
them because what the gravel does and some persons use marble yeah marble that you use in your
decorations uh in jamaica we say we play marble those little wrong shiny things you place them
in the aquarium what it does is that the egg from from the would it be that they knows whether it be
um tag above filament but uh black square tetra and you know the rest of them right uh the egg
actually fall between the creases of these gravel uh fine gravel and large grab the marble
and the fish is unable to actually go between and consume the eggs the thing is that as soon
as the fries are free swimming the fries will actually swim up above the level of the substrate
and the parents will actually consume them so therefore if you are sure that eggs were lead
uh it would be great for you to actually uh move their parents and the weight on the on the
extra hatch a point to note here is that with x cutters the male can be so uh so forceful that it
actually chases the female around uh that little space that you have them bearing in the basket
uh until the female gets so tired and stressed that it actually dies so you will have to know
know when to start the process and usually in stop in the process you will separate again by the way
before you actually reach the level variance you put the male and female together you will actually
separate the male and the female um x scatterer for example i have some black sky temperature
i place the black skeleton female in one aquarium while the male is in another right after a certain
amount of days or weeks when the uh black square tetra looks a little fat as if it's got the burst
then no i put them in the basket i put it in the basket as the female i do it one at a time
in the basket and the meal i look for the meal and i actually and i actually
so i would actually um condition the excata female and the male for breeding i will feed the ex get
a male and a female independently of each other i mean they are in separate um containers aquariums
whatever you call it i would feed them high protein food uh for a good amount of time
um getting them but they really you know like a little feel of nutrients you know that they're up
there their muscles are built up they're they're ready to go and as soon as this as it is time for
them to actually you know do the releasing and the fertilizing i'll do that and then at the end
of that process what i'll do i remove the female and the male place them in different uh aquariums
again and i will just sit and i wait on the flies to be free swimming now after a while
what i'll do i put all the flies in one one area and as long as the female it doesn't look as if it
has eggs or it is that bulky enough to um to have the the meal um be a hormone driven to chase it
i place them together but once the female look bulky when it be they knows filament barbs
tiger barbs black skirt tetra i separate them because i don't want the chasing to begin
i'm not there eggs are actually you know extracted from the female and uh they are consumed
and they're both or everybody within uh every fish within the aquarium the tank mates within the
aquarium um gold on there and on the fries sorry gulch on the eggs um letting it be a common thing
for them to get a taste and i like to this i don't want that so therefore i separate the females um
females in one aquarium made in one aquarium and whenever it comes on to a time for breeding again
they look fat and ready again to you know extract eggs i place a male and female together and that's
a process right and building the stuff uh going forward that's the best alternative choice this is
right right here for another fish keeping jamaica thank you very much for stopping by bye for now