tolstoy21

I'm excited to hear about these! I always thought they were fascinating fish I'd like to someday keep. Please keep us posted on how breeding them goes!

Unfortunately, I'm not well-versed in multis enough to answer some of those questions. I can only say that in my own experience I had maybe 60+ multis at any given time in a 40 gallon tank. I had so many shells that you could barely see the bottom of the tank and this gave them plenty of hiding spots, shelter, etc. The fish did fine without noticeable aggression. I don't know my male-to-female ration was, but I suspect I had many more females than males. I raised them for probably a little over 2 years, then wound up selling them off over time.

I do keep the Gh much lower these days, but the TDS is still in the 200s. Most of the TDS is made up something that's not measurable by an aquarium test kit. My guess is that some of it, but certainly not all of it, is sodium ions from ion-exchange resin I use to remove nitrates from my well water.

Multis are very hard to sex, especially when young, so unless you are buying fish that are older, where the males are much bigger than the females, you'll likely be unable to request specific sexes. Multis do spar, but I haven't seen them kill one another in my experience. A few years back, I started with seven fish and wound up with too many to count. However, they do breed slowly. The colony will grow slowly at first, but once it hits critical mass, there will be enough breeding adults to make up for slow speed at which they spawn, and you'll soon have a lot of them. When you colony breed multis, the fish will mate with their parents and siblings, etc. This is fine. It would probably take some time before this had a negative impact on their genes. If you worry about this, just introduce some a few new fish from a new source every now and then.

A lot of my apistos will breed in various conditions. My agassizii and cacatuodies have both bred for me in a Gh as high as 9. The TDS in a lot of my tanks is close to 300, but not all of that is comprised of Gh/Kh. Even in tanks that have little to no Kh/Gh, my TDS is very high. However, this doesn't impact the species at all. In fact, I have caridina shrimp living in that (the hitch hiked into one of my tanks on some plants and I just left them there and they are as happy as can be!). All of this is to say that both the species you currently have 'appreciate' soft/acidic water, but don't require it to successfully breed. Especially if they are many generations removed from wild caught. My guess is those two species won't show an interest in breeding, but it won't be because of the water parameters.

I breed both Agasizzi and Cacatuodies (separately, not to each other) in water with no KH and around 3 Gh. I'd agree that it can't be too soft for these fish.

Multis are Lake Tanganyikan cichlids, so they require pretty hard water and a Ph at or above 8 to breed. I don't know much about killifish, but they'd have to do well in that kind of environment to be able to house and breed both in the same setup.

I would think yes, distilled water is 100% fine to use, but probably not necessary. The amount of salt present in your solution, even if you use tap water, should keep the pillow recharged without it reabsorbing enough hardness to become exhausted.

I'll echo what everyone else has said and add one . . . . At the end of the day, it's work, and you have treat it as such during those days when you're just not in the mood for your hobby. This is much different than caring for the one or two display aquariums you may have. Then there is also the logistical and business side of it (so you're not just throwing money into your aquariums like dollar bills were flake food). You have to learn to enjoy those aspects of the process, otherwise you might find yourself just throwing money into your aquariums like dollar bills were flake food (did I already mention that?). 😉

Yeah, if you're going to breed fish, you're going to have to cull. I don't want to wander down the path of ethical/philosophical thoughts on this fact, other than to say it's a necessity. If you feel bad about doing it, that's a good thing and a sign that you're a thinking, feeling being. However, that doesn't alleviate the deed that needs to be done, nor make it any easier. I agree that you certainly do not want to sell fish that have defects, unless the person buying them, or that you're gifting them to, understands what they are getting. But in reality, you'll likely end up with more fish in this category than you can find homes for, or reasonably house on your own. For me, if I have fish that don't meet the standards of what I want to sell, but are otherwise perfectly healthy fish with no genetic abnormalities -- like if the fin color or shape or body color is subpar-- I just sell them at a reduced rate and clearly state why they are reduced, but also that they are still great fish. I'd rather make little profit, or cut even, on these fish than cull them, if I don't have to. Now there are obvious culls, like fish that have horribly bent spines, or under developed swim bladders. These are obvious cases where euthanasia seems more appropriate (and a tad less guilt inducing; at least, this is what I tell myself). But then there is that grey area, like the Angel fish that you describe. Or when you simply have fish that you can't sell and can't reasonably keep. And this is where hard choices come into play. I'm sure none of this reply makes things easier other than to say that this is a reality that goes hand-in-hand with breeding. When I was younger I knew someone who bred show rabbits, and he would give me his culls to feed to my pet python. So, this isn't just a fish breeding thing. What methods do I use personally? Oscars (but only occasionally). More routinely, I give my sacrificial offerings to the porcelain god.

I would recommend giving it a few months to see how things develop and it you have a true pair or not. You definitely have at least one female. If the other fish doesn't develop exaggerated finnage or grown much larger than your known female in a few months time, then just purchase a male. This way you'll have one male and two females, which is a good combination.

My approach has been to try to breed fish that seem like they should be more common in stores, but that I can't ever seem to find anywhere, in any LFS near me. Like if all the FishTubers are talking about something that seems cool, like multis, for instance (everyone was doing YouTube species profiles on multis a few years ago). If they have convinced me that I gotta try them, and then I drive all over looking for them and find nothing but the same typical fish in every LFS . . . that to me is a good fish to breed for sale. This might not be the best approach if you're trying to sell to stores. But it works if you're selling outside of a store, like at a club auction or swap, or online.

It's pretty common to use vinegar in a jar as a fruit fly trap. They won't live in vinegar, nor reproduce in it. But they they can't resist the smell of it and go in looking for a treat, then drown. So it's not unusual to see them on the surface if you left it open. As for the worms, dunno. Sounds gross! They probably won't affect anything. But if they are able to reproduce in the vinegar and turn into flies or something, they you're just waiting for an outbreak in your house. This would be annoying for you, but I doubt your fish would care. Either way, I agreed. Its best to start a new batch from an uncontaminated source.

To my eyes, I'm seeing two females. But I've been wrong at times, and if these fish are still young, the second fish can develop more. Below is a photo of a younger male that's just coming into spawning age. Notice how much longer the dorsal and tail extensions are. The males dorsal fin will typically extend out past the base of the tail, while a female's will not. Also, the male dorsal will be long/exaggerated around the third spine or so as seen in this slightly older male. Females on the other hand, have a much less exaggerated dorsal, which, in my experience, usually begins with a touch of black (but not always). And the longer dorsal spine is usually much closer to the beginning. Also, notice how the dorsal and anal fins don't extend much past the base of the tail, if at all. As you can see below, fin color can be dramatic in females as well. And while the below female is in breeding yellow, it will be much more drab and olive/grey when it's not in spawning mode. Males's will also typically get this 'new-father/pop-eye' ailment when their mates suddenly surprise them with a very large spawn. Hopefully this helps some. And, as is always the case, some males will just take longer to take on male characteristics, and will retain a 'female look' longer than others.

That setup looks perfect for cacatuoides! The bright yellow fish is definitely a female. However, the other fish could be female as well. I only say this because you can't always go on fin color to sex cacatuodies. It's best to go by fin shape, body size, etc. The fin shape of the fish with the orange fins has some markers to me that would have me on the fence in terms of speculating about its sex, but it is also very hard to tell from a few photos. On the other hand, that one female is so brightly yellow makes me think the other is just as likely to be male. I'm trying to recall if I've seen females color up that much absent a male's presence. In my experience I find that the females can be as aggressive as the males can be towards them. Also, two females will sometimes squabble over caves, breeding spots, etc.

@CJs Aquatics I find that if you rinse the dry sieve in water first by running it under the faucet, it seems to drain much faster. In my experience, it seems like the dry mesh surface creates some kind of boundary layer or something when water is first poured into it. If it's well wetted first so you see water draining through it, then pour your brine in, the drains properly. Unless of course they truly need cleaning. @AnimalNerd98 The sieve that Dean uses is made by Mercer of Montana. I use them and love them. They have a store on Amazon.

They tend to get them very clean, with the exception of green spot algae which you've noticed. But everything else is cleaned off 100%.

That picture is like a 1/8th what's in that tank. It's pretty packed.

Got some dirty looking anubias? No job is too tough for these guys! Just drop it in the tank and wait for the scheduling agent to call you for pickup.

@Fish Folk Is that a school of SAEs? Awesome!!!!!

Will I get more votes if I put googley eyes on them? Everyone loves GOOGELY eyes right?

I can tell you what I'm definitely tired of: Endlers: Bought them for a small community tank, now I have them flowing out my windows and down the street. Orange Rili Shrimp: Same as above!!! Both of these I didn't set out to breed, that's why I tired of them. They are taking up tank space and breed faster than I can re-home them. I was trying to improve the rili line but the amount of culling I need to do just takes too much time (they don't breed very true). I put all my culls in an L397 pleco tank, and now I am over run with culls (at least they keep it clean!). But at some point I'm going to have to cull the cull tank! You can see a theme here . . . prolific breeders I didn't set out to breed. 🙂

Yeah I don't know what happened, but last winter my failure rate with breather bags went waaaay up. Maybe I started being lazy with how I tied them? maybe it was a defective batch? Oddly enough, I still ship shrimp in breather bags and have yet to have an issue with any of those shipments. Since I've switched to double-bagged poly bags and O2 and sealing with an impulse sealer, I find I can pack things much quicker. Not sure why. However, nothing beats breather bags for the economy their box space utilization.

I've posted some of these before, but here's throwing my hat in the ring . . .