AllFishNoBrakes

For my personally, I keep the fish I like in planted community tanks. When they breed I enjoy trying to hatch the eggs and raise the fry. When they’re at the right size I hit up my LFS’s and see who wants em. I’ve had great success with this system. The only thing I’ve been stuck with is like 30 Kribs as I kept the whole first couple spawns and flooded the market… Other than that I’ve been lucky, and I only raise 15-20 of each fish. Way easier to move that small number than, say, 200 angels, and it pays for what I need moving forward (fish, food, hard scape)

You could try to spot treat it with hydrogen peroxide. Just do a small spot and see what it does. I would caution against dosing the entire tank with hydrogen peroxide as it can kill all your beneficial bacteria. That being said, I’ve used hydrogen peroxide to help with black beard algae and haven’t seen detrimental results to the beneficial bacteria when I spot treat.

I would say you have 2 options. 1. Breed the fish that you know sell well in your market 2. Breed fish you enjoy breeding and hope they sell I guess you’d also have a third option of a mixture of the two!

@modified lung Appreciate the kind words. For whatever reason, it’s way easier for me to feed fry to other adult fish, or the thought/action of feeding fish to another fish feels way better than simply euthanizing fish. After all, it’s common knowledge that “fish eat fish” and “if it fits in another fish’s mouth it’ll eventually go there”. I simply don’t have that option available to me even though it’s preferred. If another hobbyist doesn’t want the less-than-perfect fish I have, I know what I need to do. I’ve researched culling before, but it seems like nobody wants to actually talk about it. I get it, it’s not the fun part of the hobby, but I am curious what others do to keep their stock/offerings of the best quality. If nothing else, I hope that others can learn from this thread and some resources of what people actually do and why are available to other hobbyists.

Clove seemed like the most humane, and most approachable option when I researched this early on. I’ve never heard of the other option; I’ll have to look into it. For this specific purpose I almost wish I kept an Oscar or a Bass or something, but honestly I’ve made it this far without having to make this choice until this point. FWIW for anyone that thinks euthanizing is a terrible thing; I also listed the fish in question for free on Craigslist, with the caveats that the interested party must prove to me proof of testing that they have a cycled tank via photos of test results, and must prove they have a tank size large enough via photo proof as well.

Hey everyone. I know not everyone likes to think about this aspect, and most don’t want to talk about it, but I’m curious; when you need to cull, how do you do it? I’ve had to euthanize a couple fish throughout my couple of years hobby, unfortunately. I’ve had some fish with tumors, some that appeared to not be having a great quality of life, etc. The best way I’ve found/used is with clove oil. I’m currently in a bit of a quandary in that I have a couple Angels I’ve raised and want to trade soon, but I’ve noticed a couple are missing gill plates on one side, and another has a bent ventral fin. While the fish are absolutely healthy and otherwise are doing incredible, I really don’t want to taint my reputation with my LFS’s by knowingly trading fish that I feel are subpar. I also have a couple of Glowlight Tetra’s that swim almost vertically. I’m chalking this up to old age as I’ve had them for 2.5-3 years, and they still look healthy. I believe these fish are still living a great life, so I have no need to euthanize them at this point, but should the day come that they cross the line to not living a good life I want to be prepared. This post is mainly about the Angels as the whole reason I raised them was to trade them. As much as I’d love to keep a separate tank of misfits I couldn’t sell it’s just not possible due to space. My 2 bedroom apartment is MAXED out with tanks at this point, lol. When you have to cull fish, what’s the most humane way you’ve found to do so? Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts, opinions, and experiences on such a sensitive topic.

For something completely passive I would suggest more livebearers. Mollies or swordtails could be fun, assuming you have the water parameters to support them. I’ve had fun with Platy’s but quickly get overrun. Some bigger livebearers in general could be a good time. A single pair of Angels could fan, hatch, and raise their own fry. It’s super cool to see! Other fish that will eat the fry obviously makes that more difficult and much less passive. Kribs are cool; their parenting skills are some of the best I’ve personally seen. I also learned a hard lesson in that I raised too many and have like 30 left that I can’t get rid of. They were my first project that wasn’t a livebearer, and I quickly learned my lesson about raising full spawns of fish. Most importantly, do something that you’ll enjoy!

That yellowing leaf is dying and won’t come back in my experience. Clip it off so the energy is focused on new growth. More root tabs could help, too! Swords are heavy root feeders

@Cinnebuns Word up. Makes sense to me. I should add that I’m not altering water parameter, doing cold water changes, matching water changes with a storm coming in, etc to try to encourage anything to breed. I simply enjoy the challenge of trying to hatch eggs and trying to raise the fry. Passive things are excellent as well, but I do enjoy a bit of a challenge.

Nice! CPO’s are fun, but I find them to be like shrimp. I’ve bred some, but it’s all passive.

I’ve had Hydra 3 times, and they’re always in low to no flow tanks. 1. Shrimp tank. Killed it with flubendazole. 2. Single pair Kribensis tank. Killed it with flubendazole 3. I currently have it in my Walstad 6 gallon cube. Leaving it be, for now. Haven’t seen any adverse effects. Looking to source a pair of Sparkling Gourami’s to see if they’ll naturally eat it. Early on in my hobby I was scared of it and heard it would kill shrimp and fry. At this point I’m more curious as to what happens if I just leave it while I source a natural predator that will eat it

I’d be talking about Cardinal shrimp or Crystal shrimp; species that require certain parameters. For my shrimp tank, when I set it up, I kept it super simple and just let it grow a bunch of algae. Shrimp did fine for me and I’ve sold hundreds at this point. Now that the tank is a couple years old, has shrimp, snails, and CPO’s (dwarf crayfish) there’s basically 0 algae, but I just feed really well and still have no issues.

Have you tried shrimp without altering your water? Maybe I’m just crazy, but I’m big fan of not altering my water and chasing numbers that the internet says you HAVE to have. Maybe try a small batch of shrimp and see how it goes? If all goes well either add more, or have just a bit of patience and they’ll reproduce themselves! Obviously if you’re going after specialty shrimp this might be completely irrelevant, but if it’s just neo’s I’d try it as is

As in Amano shrimp? Don’t they require brackish water to hatch and raise? Would love to hear more about your experience with that!

Personally, I wouldn’t dose the whole tank with methylene blue. I’d just let the parents do their thing and see how it goes. That’s just me though!

Thanks everyone! @CJs Aquatics It’s just a tile from Home Depot or Lowe’s. The other side looks like granite and is completely smooth, but they always spawn on the side that would be glued to the wall. Not sure if they like the rougher side (maybe the eggs stick to a rougher surface better?) or if it’s because that side faces the side wall of the tank, creating a nice secluded area for them to spawn in

Likewise. I’m excited to see what others have to say!

For sure. It’s entirely possible that there’s something to it; I’ve just never personally seen it. I tend to take first-hand experience more seriously that something I read or see in a video. I also think that half the fun of this hobby is, “I wonder what would happen if…”, so I like to see for myself and compare that to things I’ve read or seen.

I’ve seen some videos of people claiming “my fish are spawning, so I’m removing water from the breeding tank cuz there’s hormones in the water, and I’m gonna add that to other tanks that I want to breed”. That being said, I’ve never personally seen it. I like to keep community tanks that have multiple opportunities to raise spawns from, and I’ve just never seen it happen. My Peacock Gudgeons spawning hasn’t fueled the Cory’s spawning and vice versa. Rams spawning hasn't triggered the Cory’s in that tank. Even my Angel tank that has multiple pairs; one pair spawning has never sparked a different pair to spawn. Now, that’s just all first-hand jargon, and not scientific-grade research. I’m not sure how you’d quantify “these fish spawned BECAUSE of hormones in the water that I transferred” vs “these fish would’ve spawned anyways without me putting hormone-fueled water into the tank”. Just my personal experience and 2 cents (if it’s even worth that much).

I know I’ve had my fair share of challenges and had to face some hard truths when it comes to breeding fish. I’m curious; what’s the hardest lesson you’ve learned when it comes to breeding fish? Mine would definitely be, to not overdo it! When it comes to the numbers of fish I breed, anyways. I learned this lesson early on with my Kribs. I kept the first whole spawn, and found it so fun and interesting that I kept the whole second spawn, and I’m still paying for it today. I have ~30 Kribs that I’m still trying to get rid of… This helped me make sure I produce/cull numbers to a point that is manageable and easy to get rid of. It’s much easier to tell my LFS “I have 20 Angels at X size, do you want them?” Vs me growing out a full spawn and hoping I can move a couple hundred. Case in point, I have a spawn of Angels I’m currently working on. The fry are eating bbs and going well, probably 2 weeks old at this point. Tonight I came home, and the Angels spawned again. I pulled the spawn and washed the eggs down the drain. As hard as it may be, I know I have 20 that are about to sell, a whole different spawn coming behind them, and I simply don’t have the room or the market for a second entire spawn. What’s the lesson that you had to learn the hard way? Chime in!

I have a group of 6 Angels, and the only way I know the sex is when they pair and spawn. Obviously, from that point on I know the sex of each individual fish, too. I know the sex of 4/6 of the Angels. The other 2 have never paired or bred with anything else. I think one might be a male (from fighting with another confirmed male, but that’s still a guess at this point). I’ll only know the sex of the 2 if they pair and spawn at some point. I’ve had pairs that are paired for a while, and then a new pair forms. For example, my all black female was paired with a marbled male, but now she’s paired with a Panda male. Scandalous, she is… BUT, it makes for interesting new variants and keeps breeding “the same fish” fresh and fun. Best of luck to them pairing up and raising some fry!

I took a chance with this one on Amazon and have no regrets. I agree that rinsing it first makes it drain better! Give it a quick rinse, set it in place, open the hatchery, harvest the brine, and then I give it a hot water rinse and air dry when done. I’ve had this one for probably a year and a half and it’s basically brand new still.

I think it’s a great sign that you have nitrates. Your ammonia has peaked and is almost worked through, and your nitrites are doing the same thing. Having nitrates shows that you have some nitrites being converted, so you’re definitely on the right track! Give it a little more time and all the patience will pay off! Once your tank is established and thriving and a good chunk of time has passed, you’ll forget about the cycling time and it will become a small dot on the timeline of your tank.

Would you enjoy that stocking and would it be something you want to look at and play with? If yes, do it up!!

I’m lucky in that my angels spawn on either Amazon Swords, or the tiles I have set up for them, so I just remove whatever they spawn on to hatch and raise. The tank becomes calm again once the eggs are removed