SPONTANEOUS VOLITIONAL SPAWNING, FRY CULTURING, AND SPAWNING INDUCTION VIA WATER HARDNESS MANIPULATION OF Otocinclus vittatus.

Bryan L. Danson* and Cortney L. Ohs
 
Indian River and Research and Education Center
University of Florida
Fort Pierce, FL 34945
bdanson@ufl.edu

Otocinclus vittatus are small, South American armored catfishes belonging to the family Loricariidae and are popular in aquaria.  Currently, all O. vittatus are collected from the wild and captive culture methods have proven elusive for commercial producers.  Little is known about spawning cues or fry and juvenile culture.  To date methods have not been defined to reliably spawn or culture O. vittatus.  Other South American loricariids have successfully been triggered to spawn via a simulation of a dry season followed by a wet season as found in their native range.  Water hardness and temperature are two of the water quality parameters commonly manipulated to trigger this simulated change in seasons.  In addition, the little information available on fry and juvenile culture suggests that they consume the same plant and algae based diet as the adults.  Several commercial diets with varying nutritional composition are available but have never been compared in research with loricariids.

We will present the results of the manipulation of water hardness and temperature on spawning induction, results of spawning data from wild caught and the F1 generations, and various diets on juvenile growth and survival.