My cuckoo catfish have finally bred.

[fishmosy]

I have had my cuckoo cats since they were 3-4cm, going on 2 and a half years now, patiently waiting for them to breed.

Figuring they must be close to breeding age I grew out a colony of blue dolphins for hosts. Plans changed and I sold the hosts (which had just started to breed) just before Christmas. The cuckoos are in my display tank at home which is all males except for a pair of blue dolphins. As luck would have it, I suspected the dolphins had spawned as the female wasn't eating and i'd noticed some spawning type behavior about a week earlier. Anyhow here is what she spat out, a fat little cuckoo.

I'm so stoked that they have bred but kicking myself for selling the host colony now. Likewise i put the cuckoos up for sale just before Christmas, maybe the threat of being sold kicked them into breeding mode. Now I have to decide whether to keep the cuckoos or forgo some new high grade CBS for my new tank. Decisions, decisions. I think the CBS will win out, maybe.....

[ineke]

Please explain:confused: why do you need hosts? I haven't read up on Cuckoos and it sounds very interesting .

[Garnelchen]

Cuckoo catfish??? I never knew that there was such a thing...

How interesting. Please tell us more :encouragement:

[Squiggle]

They are called cuckoo cats for a reason, they usually wait till the host fish are breeding(usually mouth breeders) & when they start laying eggs the cuckoo swoops in & drops an egg or two in the mix & hopefully the host fish pick them up in their mouth & incubate them till they release the fry, hence cuckoo cats. Awesome work Ben, cuckoos are definitely my favourite cats with L047's close behind. :victorious:

[fishmosy]

Sorry should have explained better. Cuckoo catfish are just like cuckoo birds. They require a host to brood their eggs until they hatch. The hosts are mouthbrooding cichlids which carry their eggs in their mouth until they hatch and absorb their egg yolk.

So the cuckoos detect the pheromones of spawning cichlids, scoot in and eat the cichlids eggs whilst they are being laid and lay their own. The cichlid picks up the cuckoos eggs as its own. The cuckoo eggs hatch first and begins to feed on the hosts eggs and fry. The cuckoos are also cannibalistic and will eat each other if not spat out before then.

[BlueBolts]

Congratz, but the cuckoos don't sound very nice.....definitely a win for the CBS's :barbershop_quartet_

[BristledOne]

Interesting fish to say the least o_0

not too sure how I'd feel about breeding them myself, the CBS would win for me :p but cool all the same, thanks for sharing

[warren63]

Well done with breeding a very interesting species.

[Garnelchen]

Sneaky little bastards!

That's amazing!

[Wraithie]

To be fair, now that you have achieved them breeding you can tick it off the list and move on to the next thing!

Congrats :)

[KillieOrCory]

Breed more of them! They are a great fish! Well done!

[ineke]

Thanks Squiggle and Ben for the explanation I thought that might be the case but haven't seen them before. Great work Ben but its hard to make decisions when you just managed to breed something that has been a challenge. Sometimes the challenge is why they are so interesting but once achieved we tend to look forward to the next challenge. Good luck with which ever way you go or you could just get more tanks ;)

[fishmosy]

I have too many tanks and desperately trying to lower the number by upgrading to fewer, but new, tanks. I think the CBS will win out, I like them too much.