Adam Swarbrick

TL:DR Please help sex the rainbow fish in the pictures. I need some help with my bosmani rainbow fish. I bought these 4 fish a few months ago in the hopes of breeding them long term, when i got them i dropped them into a hospital tank for a week or so. Then when it came time move them to a breeding tank I noticed some little orange eggs on a piece of filler floss. They did hatch out as tiny surface swimmers so likely rainbows but were eaten by some other fry in the system so I wasn’t ever able to confirm. Now the 4 adults below have been in a breeding tank for a few months being fed lots of live food and I have had no eggs so I have started to doubt if there are any females in there at all…. I will try and get a photo in the morning when they have coloured up but in the mean time thanks for any help.

Thanks all, I have a reasonably planted 40 gallon tank with orange Venezuelan corys. Was just looking for something bigger for a centre piece. I’ve allready and and bred Pearl gourami so I was leaning toward a barb but was worried about nipping my long fin pleco.

Hi all, Please could you let me know your thoughts on adding black Ruby barbs or Odessa barbs to the following community. 12 rummy nose 10 corydoras 1 long fin bristlenose thanks in advance

Thank you, emperors look amazing I will be giving them a try

Would a group of congos be okay in a 40 breeder? I’ve seen mixed responses to tank size online….

My water is super soft less than a drop in the hardness test kit and about 6.5pH great for Amazon species. I have had and bred a lot of common big box store type of stuff. So I’m hoping for something a little different?

Hello everyone, I’m after some ideas for my tank. I’m planning to trade in the fish I have at the moment for a more active community. I will have an adult male long fin bristlenose pleco in the tank but that’s all I am set on so far. It’s a 40 gallon breeder planted with some slow growing crypts (pictured below) currently it houses harlequin rasboras, orange Venezuelan corys and some microctenepoma Ansotegi but nobody seams to come out much.

I do trust corys med trio, despite not being able to get it in the uk. But based on my experiences I’ve only been able to cure fish illnesses using salt….

Agreed, If you’re happy to do the work you can be successful keeping them in a 20G. The adults can be surprising once they are fully grown happily reaching 4 inches each.

Hello, I haven’t ever used RO water, I had a couple of questions for those who have. My main question is, is there a difference between rainwater and RODI water? Secondly have any of you had issues using only RODI water to soften water for breeding? -Adam

I forgot to mention that figure is for the last laid eggs to hatch. You could have fry as quick as the next day. The rainbows will last every day so if the mops in for a week the eggs laid on day one will be incubating and be ready to hatch once it’s been pulled. The newest eggs laid just before pulling the mop will still need a week before hatching.

It’s usually around a week. They are absolutely minuscule though so could be easily missed if there aren’t many.

Yes @AllFishNoBrakes I’ve raised a whole batch of praecox on boiled egg and repashi powder then crushed flakes. It is much faster with bbs though. As for size praecox will breed straight out of the store pretty much ( at about an inch) there just won’t be loads of eggs

@nabokovfan87 This is exactly why I just started hatching the eggs in the hang on breeder box then I didn’t have to transfer them anywhere.

I have used plastic home storage tubs before. You could always use that make sure it’s cleaned out thoroughly before hand. Just fastten up the killis in their normal tank then move them into the breeder tub for a day. Assuming it’s all cycled and set up for killi breeding.

You won’t transfer much medicine back to your main tank just Fromm catching them out, unless you’re planning to pour some of the water back in (not recommended). I would say give them a little longer they may not be showing visible signs of infection but there may still be some left which could come back once reintroduced.

It’s the sad part of fish keeping, hopefully they can pull through. All you can do is keep a nice stable environment for them. A lot of people chase parameters adding one chemical to lower X parameter then another to raise Y parameter, in my experience it just stresses the fish. Most fish will be fine in dechlorinated tap water just as long as it’s kept the same over time.

Unfortunately sometimes you just get unlucky with fish. You try the best you can but it just doesn’t work out for whatever reason. It may have been an illness but from your previous post you’ve had a few tries at fixing him that way, have you considered internal deformities? These fish are raised in the thousands so there’s always the chance one will get through. Personally I’d like to leave it a couple months if water is staying in. That should be enough time for most normal illnesses to die off ( no host to live on) However, if you already plan to replace the majority of the tank you may as well do it now. I would use beneficial bacteria from Jupiters tank to kick start the new 10G setup and if you want to use Luciens after a couple months you’ll have a third setup 👍

Not a problem then. But if it’s the air diver hang outside one I’m thinking you are talking about I do use a bit of filter floss on the outflow of mine to stop them escaping. The small grate is not small enough on its own. I can see something right at the end that looks a bit like a water flea but it’s hard to tell for sure. They are unlikely to be harmful and will probably be food for the babies once they are a bit bigger.

I only “discovered” the trick because all I had was morning wood and I wanted to filter off the chunks. What breeder box are you planning to use? It works fine for me because the base of my breeder box is solid but I’ve never used a mesh one @AllFishNoBrakes do you have problems with food on the Ziss breeder boxes mesh?

@nabokovfan87 🎉🎉🎉 Congratulations 🎉🎉🎉 I had a look at your video I can definitely see egg sacks beneath them. It’s more of a white ish blob underneath them rather than the typical orange/ yellow you would normally associate with egg yolk. Here’s an arrival about Cory fry development with a couple of pics. https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Different-stages-in-the-development-of-Corydoras-aeneus-a-eleutherembryonic-phase-36_fig2_225505888 You can kind of see it on these fry too but they are a little older so the egg sacs started to be used up. Next steps the breeder box, I set up mine with a bit of plant from the tank. Ideally moss off you have some and 1 or 2 snails. These two will (especially the snail) keep the box clean of uneaten food reducing ammonia spikes. Personally I wait two days before moving them they are extremely fragile right now and they won’t eat until day 4 anyway so you’ll foul the water. For feeding, you can use the repashi powders it’s plenty small enough for them to take at first. I like to put some into tank water then pipette out the cloudy water. As they have said above a little goes a long way just feed a bit then come back after a few mins if they are still hungry. Then if you can after a week start them on bbs and they will grow like rockets.

I agree with you both. I have been overwhelmed with fry at one point so I have been able to find lfs that will take them smaller than normal. But on the other hand nobody will take my apistos despite them looking absolutely great. It just varies place to place. Keep them clean and well feed and they will grow in no time 👍.

Personally I have only ever had luck tasting fish using salt. All the meds I have tried in the uk have never worked for me but I have saved a couple of batches of fish with salt. I’ve used up to level two on the aquarium Coop salting method with those plants before. As long as it’s not for a prolonged period you should be fine. If you see problems with your plants you can fairly easily water change it out. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/aquarium-salt-for-sick-fish

All I do is up my water change schedule. Plenty of fresh clean water will promote faster regeneration. Think of corys stressors theory. If the fish is already stressed with one thing it’s not going to fight off infections quite as well. So if we’re keeping its quarantine environment as clean as possible then all its energy can go into making new tissues.

Platys are bred all over the world in a whole host of water parameters. In ideal situations they would be better in hard water but there’s no reason why they won’t do well in soft. Especially since your endlers are thriving. I don’t see any reason not to add wonder shells, I don’t think either of those fish would mind but in my option just try them out and if you start to see deformities in them or their offspring then you need to add calcium. Until then if it isn’t broke don’t fix it.