Effects of carbon filtration on breeding

[SludgeMunkey]

I was curious if any one has any insight on this.

Does activated carbon filtration negatively affect courtship of aquatic breeding caudates that utilize pheromone fanning?

 

[eljorgo]

That´s a very interesting question Johnny... Really very curious... Active carbon eliminates NH3, NO3, NO2 Cl2 and some other residuals componds like some metals. Chemical pheromones base is the non metal C (carbon atoms), in adition of nitrogen and of course oxygen and hydrogen so i wouldn´t think those could be really filtrated. But if you are taking that risk, put a sponge inside of the filter for that period, to make sure they breed.
Chip.

 

[SludgeMunkey]

The question hit me while studying. The more I have been thinking about it, I am wondering what other "standard" aquarium products we all commonly use may have an effect. I am researching this in depth, but not finding much useful information.

None of my pheromone "fanners" are any where near breeding age currently.

 

[Nathan]

That's a really good question. I have no idea.

If I had to guess, I'd say the carbon (assuming it is removing the pheremones) may actually more closely simulate natural conditions. The pheremones waft by potential mates when the animal is actively fanning, but do not linger in high concentrations. This would be due to dilution in a natural setting, to removal by carbon in the aquarium.

 

[Otterwoman]

I have a charcoal filter in my Noto tank. The same tank I found a Noto morph in, season before last.

 

[Jennewt]

Interesting question. Lets assume, just for the sake of argument, that the activated carbon does remove the pheromone efficiently from the water. (I don't know, but it might be true.)

Then lets assume that newts normally breed in large bodies of water. Even a small breeding pool may be orders of magnitude larger than our aquariums. And some tail-fanners even breed in slow-moving streams, where their pheromones are quickly washed away. In either case, the concentration of pheromone in the surrounding water would reach near-zero very quickly.

My conclusion would be that the situation in the filtered aquarium is about the same as in the wild. All the pheromone that drifts away from the immediate scene of courtship "disappears", either by being filtered out or by being diluted to the point of non-existence.

It seems likely to me that what matters is the concentration of pheromone right in the immediate vicinity of the tail fanning activity. If the male fails to impress the female with the pheromone he waves directly into her face, he's not going to have any better luck with small residual amounts that might linger in the aquarium water. So I doubt that carbon filtration would affect breeding.

[Note added: I just realized that my post is basically the same point as Nathan's. Either his post wasn't there when I started writing, or I just hadn't read it.]