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Interesting paper on Colomesus asellus reproduction

Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 12:13 pm
by nmonks
I found this paper very interesting. It is about Colomesus asellus and how it breeds. The science explains a few interesting things about this fish:

It's a schooling fish, even when breeding, because it casts eggs and sperm into the water and "hopes for the best". There's no nest or brood care. This explains why they are not aggressive to one another (though in small groups I think there is a heirarchy, just as with barbs or tetras, and you need to work around that).

The larvae drift down stream, developing on the way, sort of like plankton. This suggests that Colomesus is closer to its marine ancestors in this regard than the Asian and African nest spawners. So far as I know, marine puffers are non-guarders, and throw their eggs to the mercy of the plankton.

They spawn at a certain time of the year, in rivers and not lakes, at the start of the flood season. Presumably by spawning in flooding rivers, they ensure the larvae get carried by the river for the longest possible time, giving scope for proper development and eventually colonising other bits of the river system. If they spawned in a lake, the eggs would sink, and during the dry season, the larvae might not be carried so far.

Unsurprisingly, they produce lots of small eggs. For the hobbyist, this means that even if we do get them to spawn, the fry will likely be very difficult to raise, even by pufferfish standards.

Anyway, if you're into SAPs, this paper is definitely worth a look.

Cheers,

Neale

Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 1:24 pm
by RTR
Planktonic larvae - Agghhh! That is no fun at all.

But they exclude the Rio Negro from the natural range...

Thanks for the ref!

Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 7:21 pm
by Pufferpunk
Can we use this for our Profiles, if we get permission or use references?

Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 7:40 pm
by The Fisherman
Very interesting....

Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2006 3:17 am
by Rocker
Pufferpunk wrote:Can we use this for our Profiles, if we get permission or use references?
I have made a link in the profiles already :thumb:

Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2006 9:51 am
by Jayhawk
What a nice article...thanks for sharing.

Eric

Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 1:50 pm
by English George
I know of a guy who claims to have bred these. I shall investigate further....

Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 4:17 pm
by The Fisherman
English George wrote:I know of a guy who claims to have bred these. I shall investigate further....
Yeah, please do. Any information would be awsome.

Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 5:45 pm
by Gomez
what program are we supposed to open this in?

Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 5:59 pm
by Hilly
Gomez wrote:what program are we supposed to open this in?
Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 12:51 am
by saynever
yep, and i agree, i read it a few times. definetly an excellent add to the ever growing pufferpedia.

Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2007 3:24 pm
by Martin Hi.
hi neale,
where in the text did you find something about "shooling"?
martin

Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2007 4:05 pm
by manutius
very interesting, thanks for sharing

Re: Interesting paper on Colomesus asellus reproduction

Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 7:26 pm
by Visionist
Any updated information on breeding these guys?

Re: Interesting paper on Colomesus asellus reproduction

Posted: Thu May 10, 2018 6:27 pm
by Crom
Does anyone still have or know where to find a copy of this article? The link in the op is dead. Would love to read it. :geek: