Huck

I have some clowns that I am hoping to breed. I got them a long time ago, have been feeding them well, but am not getting fry. Is there something specific I need to do, or do they need to be really mature to not eat their fry?

Looks like it is really settling in! Beautiful fish.

I would tend to say male, but the surefire way to tell is the pink belly the female gets from time to time.

I keep reading that it is fine to have different Taiwan Bee shrimp breeds in the same tank, but won't they interbreed and wind up as a wild type like Neos do? I have a colony of blue bolts and would love to add some shadow pandas in there, but I don't want to mess up my genetics. I would rather start a new tank if I needed to.

Did they shine blue from hatching or did they take time to color up?

No problem, but I am thinking the answer might not be all that helpful! I had gone to the lfs and bought a trio of 2 females and a male and lost a female, so I moved the pair I had into a small shrimp tank I had to get them fattened up a bit and grown out some more. They seemed like they were not fully grown to me given how small they were. I was sure they were too small to be spawning and I never saw them spawning. Then, one day I happened to see some tiny fry in the tank. I moved the adults into my display 20 long and started the fry on infusoria. The tank has just about neutral ph with pretty soft water. There isn't any nitrate to speak of because it has only a few shrimp and some ramshorn snails. The tank is planted pretty heavily with Christmas moss, anubias, a few small buce, and some water lettuce floating. No idea what the fish chose to spawn in. After I removed the adults, I noticed fry kept hatching for several more days. I will probably move over all but a pair when these grow up and give the best looking pair a few weeks to spawn again and repeat the process. I wish I had more description to give that was helpful. I didn't really do anything aside from keep them separated for a few weeks and feed frozen daphnia.

Currently raising up some pseudomugil luminatus fry that were a pleasant surprise. I just got a starter pack of blue bolt shrimp in the mail, so I am trying to get them going. My main display tank has a blue dream colony that is massive and growing despite there being lots of predators in there. I have some of the biggest, fattest cardinal tetras I have ever seen right now, and I have half a mind to throw those in a spawning tank after the pseudomugil grow out. I also have some great chili rasbora that I would love to spawn just so I can have a bunch more. The thing I really want is to find a good starter group of clown killifish. I used to have some in my display tank, and I would see them spawn, but never got fry. I have had lots of trouble finding more. I want to set them up to colony breed. Edit to add that out of nowhere I have a giant urge to set up a zebra pleco breeding tank and grow some out to breed. No idea why, but they look so awesome to me even though I have never been a pleco guy.

I agree with the other answer about time. It takes time for fish to get comfortable. I would not change anything in the tank for a few weeks and see what happens. Regarding the feeding, you could maybe try hatching some baby brine shrimp. The bbs are irresistable to most fish and since they are live they won't sit on the bottom rotting. They can survive for a good while in fresh water. All in all, unless you are seeing some indication of health issues, I think time is the way to go.

Are you running co2?

Adding pic of fry that does not glow blue.

Hello all, I've got a batch of pseudomugil luminatus fry that I am currently raising up. I noticed very shortly after they hatched that some of them displayed the shining blue eyes and even a blue sheen to their bodies while others were the a normal dull brown. I have attached pics so you can see them. It isn't the way the light is hitting them or anything. I am wondering if it is just the males being more colorful even from birth or what? Anyone have any idea? Thanks!

This thread is amazing. I love hearing the updates. I downloaded the book here and really like the way there is so much in there that is still relevant.

I had a group of trigonostigma somphongsi that I was spawning fairly regularly, but sadly lost them when I lost all my fish due to an ice storm earlier this year. When I first got them, I knew I wanted to spawn them, and did quite a bit of reading. I found a spawning report on seriouslyfish, and followed those steps with quite a bit of success. Later on, I tried spawning them without doing anything to the water and also had success with my near 7 ph somewhat hard water. So, I don't think you actually have to do much outside of conditioning them (which I did by feeding bbs for a few weeks) and separating a pair out so they can have some peace. One thing I couldn't find, that I am providing here, is what their spawning behavior looks like. The article said they spawn by turning upside down near broad leaf plants, but again, they used leaves on everything from water wisteria to java fern and others. I never did see the eggs, but that could just be my eyes and how small they are. I would just condition them, pull two and put them into a small planted tank I call the love shack, and then pull them back out after three days of feeding them brine shrimp in there. Usually I would see them spawn somewhere along the way. Sometimes I wouldn't, but I would almost always find fry 5 to 7 days after I pulled the parents. No idea if that is how long the eggs took to hatch, or if that is how long it takes for the fry to be visible. I would feed them hikari first bites for the first several days and then get them on bbs after that, and I always had success.

Yesterday really, but I did a larger than usual water change and really cleaned the front glass on my main display tank. Then, I took the time to really deep clean the lid which had some gunk built up on it. Monday, I am going to come back here and declare myself duckweed free, because I have decided to completely pull all the duckweed out of my 4 tanks that have it.

I never mess with that stuff, and always do just fine by using a sponge that I have stored in a seasoned tank for a while.

Oh that is perfect. What are you using for the valve and tank?

That is worth a try. I am going to give it a go. I have been starting to go a bit deeper down the rabbit hole of planted after years and years of only growing plants in sand or gravel with diy lights, easy green, and no co2. Thanks so much.

I am sure everyone remembers or has watched videos where Cory and the gang visit Ocean Aquarium in the Bay area. In the first video, they looked at the way the owner of the shop was using a little CO2 gun or something to fill bottles that floated and let the CO2 slowly absorb into the water. I want to try something like that, but can't even think of where to start trying to replicate that. Any ideas are welcome, and I am almost hoping someone else is already doing something similar.