Pseudohemiodon Apithanos ap. Chameleon Whiptails have always been a bucketlist fish for me. In December 2022 I got the chance to purchase 9 of these at roughly 3cm. It was a big risk to take but I hadn't seen them around for a few years so I jumped at the opportunity.
I knew the risks, with a 3cm fish being so young and unstable I lost 7/9 in the first few weeks. At no fault of my own, they just weren't ready to be moved around as much as they had been. That was a big loss for me monetary wise, so I kept my 2 that survived and slowly grew them out in the background.
Fast-forward to Feb 2024, I had another opportunity to purchase some adults! These came in at between 15-19cm. The risks were a lot lower and they were still a bucketlist fish for me to try and breed. Their patterns and the way they walk along the sand and burrow in it to hide always intrigued me. At this time I purchased 5 adults. With what I hoped would have been 2M, 3F.
As with all my fish, before they go in my main system, I treat them for internal worms, parasites, bacterial infections and protozoans. I like to cover all my basis, as I dont know what the other person has going on in their tanks, nor do I trust anyone but myself. It took me roughly 2 weeks to finish treating them and making sure they were perfectly healthy, and eating well all throughout my rigorous quarantine routine.
First 5 adults purchased.
Having read about them extensively, I fed them a varied diet of the EBO Foods range of high quality fish food during the 2 weeks of Quarantine. I was extremely happy they took to it immediately and wouldn't leave anything behind when fed.
Once I was happy the fish wouldn't bring anything nasty into my system, they went into a 5ft tank set between 27-28deg Celsius, that had sand as the substrate and an internal filter lightly pushing the water around. There was plenty of space for them to roam and enough water movement to push their waste into the drain hole to the sump.
Since they were adults, I focused on conditioning them to breed. Based on a 7day week I fed:
Not necessarily in that order. I mixed it around to give them a variety but I made sure I fed heavier on the Seafood Softgran, since it containe astaxanthin to help encourage egg growth, fertility and a stronger immune system.
On the 19th March 2024 we had our first egg lay! Our feeding routine had been successful and we had an estimate of 30-40 beautiful eggs. Unfortunately the male didn't pick them up to care for the egg batch as they are lip-brooders. So we gave it a shot to try tumble them ourselves. This turned out fruitless after a 1.5days with the eggs fungusing overnight.
My one rule I follow when caring for all my fish is to let them learn how to successfully spawn and hatch their own fry. I will never pull the eggs from any of my Plecos or Whiptails that I keep. This has yielded me a higher rate of success when it comes to breeding fish, and letting nature take its course.
After this failed hatching attempt, we continued with the feeding routine, this time we added in an extra day of Spirulina Softgran instead. Just to boost the amount of greens the fish was consuming. Though the Chameleon Whiptails much prefer a protein heavy diet, I wanted to make sure they still had an extra source of nutrients from the Spirulina.
We purchased 2 more adult Chameleons Whiptails on the April 5th 2024. I like having multiple bloodlines in my fish, and because I love them. These 2 went through the same quarantine process as everything else and was added to the system once it was complete. This brings us to a total of 7 adults and 2 juveniles/subadults.
On the 18th April 2024 we had our second spawn! 4 weeks after our first. I was a bit skeptical on whether it was the same female since it had only been a month since the last time they spawned. But again, the eggs were found on the sand substrate with no male to care for them. I left them on the sand overnight in the hopes that a male would pick them up. But that didn't happen.
Male holding the eggs under his lips.
After 2 unsuccessful spawns, on the May 14th 2024 we did it! I noticed one of the Whiptails was sitting on the side during feeding time. They're smart fish, whenever its feeding time they all rise up from under the sand and start walking around. This one however didnt move. So I had a peak with the torch and he was holding eggs under his lips! Having read they take 14days for the eggs to develop, it was the longest 2 weeks I have waited for the fish to hatch.
I kept up my usual feeding and water change routine and even with the torch, it didn't spook the fish to consume the eggs which was a good sign.
Egg batch taken from the 2nd male on the 16th day.
May 24th 2024, 10days after first spotting the eggs we had our first 2 fry hatchlings! I was surprised because I expected them to start hatching on the 28th. So I placed them in a breeder box and were they the cutest things I've ever seen. Their eggsacs were prominent belly bulges and they were very different from the Royal Whiptail and Pleco fry I have encountered. With a fully developed head, tail and body.
To top it all off I found a 2nd male holding eggs! 2 breeding pairs. In the my group of 7 adults!
Slowly over the next few days they started hatching. On the 27th of May I had 14 healthy fry in my breeder box.
Hatch Day
On the May 29th we fed them EBO Foods Sealife Proaktiv. Their eggsacs had been consumed and Since they measured at 10mm from head to tail, we found the very fine granule size was suitable for them. We watched them devour it slowly and cleaned up any excess in the next feeding session. We fed the fry twice a day. Morning and Night, and from hatch day to 1month old, they grew exponentially!
We alternated Sealife Proaktiv with the Artemia Paste, Spirulina Paste, Youngster Grow Paste and Seafood Paste. You can see how greedily they took to the Paste and Fine Granules here.
1 month old side view.
1 month old top view.
With the one month old babies now measuring at 35mm, we have moved the juveniles into a 600x600x350 grow-out tank where we can hopefully expect to see even more growth over the next few weeks/months.
