Fish Folk

Trying lots of species too... Bettas next, Goodeids, Molly’s in process, Killifish (Scheeli) and Dwarf Gouramis are all up to bat 🤦‍♂️

Very cool! So much to learn about different species...

Thanks very much! For us right now, everything is about breeding various fish for BAP points with our fish club. Just shy of “advanced breeder” award now. But sure don’t feel advanced at all! There’s so many fascinating things to learn. And we’re just limited to relatively small freshwater species.

Cool! We got into breeding big time because of Rams. One LFS told us, “Don’t try to keep them. You’ll kill them. They’re hard.” The other LFS just down the road was like, “They’re the best! So easy. No problems. Here, get this pair!” We got them... they spawned... we eventually raised a few... and now we’ve raised hundreds.

Green water is good. Vinegar eels maybe could work. Newly hatched live baby brine shrimp (artemia) are staple and essential. If you can prep some catappa leaves so that there's infusoria going into the breeding tank, the fry will have a bit of first food prepared. An old method is boiling an egg, then extracting the yolk, putting it in a panty-hose stocking, and then gently squeezing a bit of the yellow powder into a small dish with tank water through the hose so that it is fine, then extracting the yolk-water with a pipette and feeding that to fry. Another trick some guys use is to squeeze a sponge filter out into a container, and then sparingly feed some of that bacteria to fry. It is REALLY EASY to foul up the fry water that way (as well as with egg yolk). Altogether best plan is to have live plants enough to provide infusoria for a day or two before they are large enough to eat baby brine shrimp.

That's cool! So you pull the shells, and they drop out through the grating? (Sorry if I misunderstand . . . never raised shellies before)

With the cessation of regular fish club auctions, our tanks have really filled up with various fry raised for our club's Breeders Award Program. We sell some to our local fish stores, but there comes a limit to that. Shipping is tricky in the cold . . . and December is just insane with package deliveries. So for now, we're just enjoying watching our fish grow.

We keep discus in pH around 7.8. They’re happy. 55 gal, 2x large sponge filters, extra air for circulation. Water changes 50% 1x per week. They like it hot. Ours are happiest around 87-degrees F. At that high temperature, you’ll want to watch out for plants “melting.” For breeding, pH needs to be low. Having soft water is preferable. We do buy ours pretty small and let them grow and adjust to our water.

Oh yes! I have seen those. Very nice.

Yeah . . . I think that a livebearer you really enjoyed would be most prolific. Curious: is that a matin filter on the side? Trying to figure out the inflow tube.

CPDs would be glorious. Not sure how the Betta may interact with fry... and CPDs might be a bit challenging to breed. Very pretty tank! Thanks for sharing.

It would be inspiring to see a photo of your setup. Provided this is a planted tank, I’d select a quality endler strain from a reputable breeder who will sell you a few males and females of the same strain. Grabbed a free-usage photo of a nice male example. There are other even more inspiring gems too!

Can’t top a Cory recommendation! We use sponge filters on our 55 gal. One thing we did was to run additional air bubbles up from the middle to add more aeration and flow. Our 40 gal breeder developed a sort of “dead spot” with inadequate flow, so don’t be afraid of adding extra air!

Yeah. Lesson learned!

Good tips. Thanks. Yeah . . . we found that both alder cones and catappa leaves generally do help. But in this case, the pH crash _appears_ to have been too much. No sign of other sickness on the Tetras. If more die, then perhaps it's something sneaky. But knowing how fast pH can drop when water is soft is an important learning step! Always learning . . .

True! Quote source?

Found a dead Colombian tetra in an established tank last week, and another today. Because we had recently added them, left off being overly concerned with the first death. Mistake! Before doing a water change, I tested the water. Point of reference: water from our tap is 7.8-8.0 pH, but on the soft-side. That means there is not a lot of hardness to buffer the water and protect from pH swings — one reason why we’ve not ever really gotten into CO2. So, tested Ammonia... Nitrite... and Nitrate... Ammonia and Nitrite were fine. Nitrate was up (ca. 40 ppm) meaning definitely time for a water change. However that’s not unreasonably high. One more test... pH... 6.0 😬 Best I can figure, we added a lot of oak leaf litter, wood, and alder cones to the tank — and recently, several full sized Catappa leaves (Indian almond leaves). What happens is that the biological breakdown of those leaves releases large amounts of humic acid. So! Though Catappa leaves are fantastic for releasing healthy tannins... they can easily negatively contribute to a pH crash — especially if you have softer water.

Our general measurement is 1 ml. per gallon every 12 hrs, for the first 36 or 48 hrs (so 3x or 4x doses). Since we hatch in the Lee's large specimen containers which measure about 1/2 gallon, we use 1/2 ml doses. On one occasion using H2O2 with Ram eggs, we overdid it and they did not make it. With a bubbler being used, the Hydrogen peroxide can be sprayed generally in the container rather than blasted right on top of the eggs.

We buy black foam board at Walmart, cut to size between upper and lower tank rims, then gorilla tape it to the back rim with some spall tape pieces. It will make planted tanks look very nice, and as others have said, provides some refuge for shy or stressed fish. It also helps to mask darker objects like sponge filters or hang-on-back filter inflow pipes.

All very helpful feedback here! Kirsten is spot on -- you'll make money selling good plants if you can develop a reliable system. Depending on your water, you may do well with something like Wisteria or Anacharis. Our Rotala Indica grows quickly and sells well too. Also try Ludwigia Repens. Invest in a dozen or more quality guppies. Be sure to run Cory's recommended med trio on them (General Cure, Mycin, Ich-X), and let them jam. If they're gorgeous adult stock to begin with, you'll get a good strain you can be very happy with. As others have said, Red or Blue neocaridina shrimp are pretty easy to sell, but beware that you may need to cull a lot of poor quality ones to find the brightest colors. Try making a rock pile in a corner or two in order to allow them to colonize. If you're thinking about adding plecos to the mix, consider trying something like yellow or red ancistrus. They're hardy and beautiful. You'll want to buy pleco caves for them on the bottom of your tank. Use sponge filters, or at least a coarse sponge pre-filter from Co-Op so that you don't lose fry or shrimp.

Not sure where those bags come from, but they're not too cheap. Breather bags can be hard to come by. They're only needed if you're shipping. Are you just selling locally? If you're selling to your LFS or to local buyers, you can probably just use fish bags that your LFS uses. That's what we do. Here are some steps we do for selling locally (NOT shipping): (1) Do a decent water change a day or two before selling so that your nitrates are not too high in your bags (2) Do not feed your fish for a day or so before bagging up for sale to reduce waste (limiting ammonia buildup) (3) We buy fish bags from our LFS - and we always double-bag our fish for sale, separating males form females if possible (4) For local sales, oxygen is not needed - but be sure that you leave about 50% of the bag AIR (5) We add just a few drops of Kordon AmQuel in each bag along with tank water to curb any ammonia spike (6) Try using something like a lasagna warmer bag with a handle (WalMart) to insulate bags and keep fish temperature stable (7) For most fish, lay bag sideways rather than upright - this reduces risk of getting caught in corners

Cory babies are the cutest fry ever. Hands down. Thanks for sharing!

This is pretty common. Sometimes, the stress can be a lot for the female. but males do not go at them as vigorously as (for example) male bettas go after females. Sometimes lowering the light can be calming. We use black cupboard liner over the top to mute / filter light in order to both moderate algae growth and to calm stressed fish. A water change, if appropriate, can also help to "reset" the pair. Also feeding live foods - daphnia, or baby brine shrimp - can go a long way towards calming the pair down.

Assuming that you are referring to African Cichlids, once your cichlids mature, providing you have males and females and also providing that they are "mbunas" in general, you will likely get spawning and holding. As others have said, hybridization is rather frowned upon in the hobby. Once females spawn, they hold the eggs for 18-24 days. Unless they swallow or spit prematurely, the eggs hatching their mouth, and will be released by the female. In a community tank, the vast majority of fry are eaten. A few of the smaller and more agile ones may survive. We find that Auratus tend to be survivors, but others are scarfed up. Some photos are attached . . . (1) Our African Mbuna community tank set up (2) A female currently holding compared to other female not holding (3) Closeup of female holding (4) Male Auratus

Beautiful photos! Kribs are simply the best parents. One challenge we've had is getting the fry to grow quickly. They seem to take their good old time. It took us 6-9 months before we could sex the fry reliably. It's easy to get in over your head with ribs (kind of like angelfish). If your adult parents keep at it, they'll sometimes hatch 100+ fry at a time.