Siren intermedia egg.

[Jacob Bidinger]

I found this egg at the bottom of my Siren intermedia tank. It has to be a siren egg, it's bigger than an axolotl egg, and it was stuck to the rock. It's the only one I've found, but I didn't want to disturb the tank more than I had to. The water temp has been about 42 degrees for the past several weeks, and this week it got up to 56 degrees F. From what I can tell, there is one male and 3 females in the tank. All of them are about 12 inches long.

Hopefully there are many more to come.

[Jacob Bidinger]

Well, I found another egg in the tank about 5 inches from the spot I found the other one. I think they're duds, but are siren eggs supposed to be that white?

[Peter Lembcke]

Congrats on the eggs! They look like duds to me, but my first dwarf siren eggs were duds too. I wound up getting good eggs a few months later, though I don't know if you'll have the same kinda luck.

[Jacob Bidinger]

Thanks Peter!

The last few weeks I've noticed breeding behavior, and then found these two eggs when I was feeding the adults. Both of the eggs were laid on top of the rocks at the bottom, but I haven't really checked under any of the rocks for more because I don't want to scare the adults out of mating. Hopefully they're like your dwarfs though.

[Jacob Bidinger]

Well, I found 6 more eggs in the tank today. Does anyone know if they're supposed to look cloudy from day 1, or are they clear if they're fertile? I've never had siren eggs before, so I don't know. I'm assuming there are many more than the 6 I saw in the tank because they could fall between the rocks and be hidden, I didn't even reach in the tank after I saw the new eggs.

[jean raffaelli]

Well, I had egglaying too from Siren intermedia some months ago, and the eggs were rather translucid. Most of them were attached together under a stone. You might have more under stones. Tell us please if they develop. From all the eggs, I have now 3 subadults. The eggs seem to need a lot of oxygen, that you can supply with a air pump. You can see photos of the eggs on the same topic. Good luck.

[Jacob Bidinger]

Originally Posted by jean

Well, I had egglaying too from Siren intermedia some months ago, and the eggs were rather translucid. Most of them were attached together under a stone. You might have more under stones. Tell us please if they develop. From all the eggs, I have now 3 subadults. The eggs seem to need a lot of oxygen, that you can supply with a air pump. You can see photos of the eggs on the same topic. Good luck.

Jean-
Do the eggs need more water current too? I wouldn't doubt if there are more eggs under the stones at the bottom, they're all about the size of my fist and cover the bottom of the tank, so I'll have to carefully poke around.

Did you have problems with the eggs being eaten by the adult sirens?

Did yours lay most of the eggs at one time, or randomly over weeks/months?

Good to hear your 3 are still alive and well.

[jean raffaelli]

Sorry for the late reply
Yes, I have used a small pump to oxygen the eggs. Then when the animals hatched, I separated the larvas in a small box with a low water level. But I have lost a number of eggs at the first stage. Many seemed to be not fertilized, which tends to prove the external fertilization for these species.

[Jacob Bidinger]

Originally Posted by jean

Sorry for the late reply
Yes, I have used a small pump to oxygen the eggs. Then when the animals hatched, I separated the larvas in a small box with a low water level. But I have lost a number of eggs at the first stage. Many seemed to be not fertilized, which tends to prove the external fertilization for these species.

I've also noticed a very high number of infertile eggs, 100% of the eggs so far in fact. I've found about 15-20 so far. I'll try your method for rearing young if there are any.

Thanks for the advice.

-Jake

[Jacob Bidinger]

Well, I found which female is laying the eggs today, I caught her in the act

Sorry about the poor image quality, but I hope you enjoy the subject.

[snow4aaron]

This is very interesting. Does this egg look fertile?

[Jacob Bidinger]

Doesn't look fertile to me, but maybe others think differently?

I'm almost positive they have a method of external fertilization.

[John Clare]

I must say that I find Sirens very appealing after seeing some video footage of them. How do you find them as pets, Jake?

[Jacob Bidinger]

Originally Posted by John

I must say that I find Sirens very appealing after seeing some video footage of them. How do you find them as pets, Jake?

Sorry if this sounds really stupid, but I don't think I understand what you're asking here.

If you mean how do I go about aquiring them, then the answer is I just wait until friends of mine get them in random orders of tropical fish, the first ones I got were from a girl on the forum who got them in a "package deal" on aquabids.

However, if what you're asking here is what is my opinion on sirens as pets then I think there's only one word to sum it up...Amazing!

They are by far one of the most interesting animals I've worked with. The healthy adults are almost always active. They're about as hardy as axolotls or tiger salamanders. My adults have been eating a diet of about 80% trout chow and 20% nightcrawlers. They are extremely fast growing. For example, I had a group of five that were from 3.5-6 inches long about a year ago, and now they're all just about 12 inches. I love to give them plenty of rocks and other objects because they are very interactive with the environment they live in. If you put one adult in a 250 gallon tank I would be shocked if it didn't use every inch of the tank. When I first get them they all seem very shy, but after they figure out that I'm not going to shred them up and eat them, they tend to mellow out a bit.

I have a couple siren videos floating around on the net somewhere, but they're pretty short. I want to get a few more vids because there's never a dull moment when you've got a siren in the house

Hopefully some of these eggs are fertile, and I'll have some c.b.'s later in the year, but I'm not holding my breath on it.

[John Clare]

The question was the second one - thanks for answering :).

[audrey]

Congrats Jake! that is a really awesome accomplishment! I have my fingers crossed for you!

[Jacob Bidinger]

Well they laid upwards of 50 eggs as far as I found. Then stopped for several weeks. After doing a 30% water change last night, I found this at the bottom of the tank about an hour ago...

[Jennewt]

I assume none of the eggs were fertile? If they had been, I would have heard you whooping all the way out here

[Jacob Bidinger]

Originally Posted by Jennewt

I assume none of the eggs were fertile? If they had been, I would have heard you whooping all the way out here

I'd probably do backflips all the way there to tell you!lol

Better luck this time around. It's weird this happened because just the other night I was thinking about moving them to a larger tank, but decided against it, that probably would have disturbed them.

I'll definitely keep updating on this, but for now, they're shooting blanks.

[Peter Lembcke]

At least it's a start, hopefully you'll see some better results out of them later this or next year.