Spotted Climbing Perch (Ctenopoma acutirostre) Breeding Guide

Breeding the Spotted Climbing Perch (Ctenopoma acutirostre), an egg-scattering anabantoid whose buoyant eggs float into surface plants and which gives no parental care.

Overview

Ctenopoma acutirostre is an anabantoid that has been bred in aquaria, but there are very few reports of it spawning in captivity, and fry survival is typically low despite enormous brood sizes. It may not reach sexual maturity until five to ten years of age. It is an egg-scatterer that gives no parental care.

Sexing

Males have more spines on the gill covers and a roughly textured area at the base of the caudal peduncle that is absent in females. This patch is the most useful sexing feature in mature fish.

Conditioning

As a carnivore, condition the pair heavily on meaty foods to bring the female into spawning condition. The species appears to be a seasonal spawner, spawning regularly for a period of months and then stopping.

Breeding Setup

Provide floating vegetation at the surface to receive the buoyant eggs, since this is where the eggs collect after spawning. Because the adults eat neither show parental care nor protect the spawn, plan to remove them once eggs are released.

Spawning Behavior & Trigger

The pair embrace in the usual anabantoid fashion, at which point eggs and sperm are released. The eggs float to the surface, where they come to rest among the floating vegetation. Several thousand eggs may be deposited in a single spawning. The adults exhibit no parental care and should be removed at this point.

Egg & Fry Care

Eggs hatch within about 48 hours and the fry become free-swimming quickly. Offer infusoria for the first couple of days, then graduate to Artemia (brine shrimp) nauplii. Despite the large number of eggs, survival is usually low, so a clean, well-managed rearing tank with abundant first food is important.

Common Challenges

The combination of very late maturity, scarce spawning reports and low fry survival makes this a difficult species to reproduce. The seasonal spawning pattern also means a productive period may stop without obvious cause.