Crabby

If the mother is still large, chances are it’s because she just ate most of her fry! The birthing process isn’t long, so unless you found the fry while she was in the middle of giving birth, she probably is done. I think from memory that live-bearers also still have larger than usual bellies for the first couple days after giving birth. For your current fry, you’ll have to decide whether you trust your betta with them. I wouldn’t trust newborn fry with either of my betta fish, but it depends on your one’s individual temperament. As for cories, they’re not gonna touch the fry. They’re one of the nicest fish there is. My advice would be to do as you said you were thinking, and put them in a breeder box with a little bit of moss. If you don’t have it already, you can get a product made by Hikari called First Bites; it’s a great food for young fry. You can keep it around for next time your platy gives birth (probably in about a month, if she’s still in with a male!). For next time they breed, if your current breeder box doesn’t have a divider, maybe get a cheap one with a drop-down divider that allows fry to fall into a cavity below the hungry female. I’ve used those for good breeding success. Super cheap too, and very handy.

So I would recommend platies simply for the reason that they will be a bit less in-bred, and therefore hardier. Although it probably won’t make a significant difference, I just feel like platies are tougher. I’ve also had a total guppy disaster when I was breeding lots of endler guppy hybrids. I probably lost 100 fish in a month from some combination of problems - the only one I could identify was flukes, which I treated, and then they just came back. So anyways, I’d say if you wanna try platies, go for those. As lovely as guppies are. To be fair you could go with both and it’ll probably be a similar outcome. The benefit of guppies would be that it is much easier to sex the fish and make sure you have a good male to female ratio. The most important thing about the fish you get will be where you get them from. Either get them from a hobbyist who has really healthy stock, or from what you guys in the US call a ‘mom and pop’ shop - don’t get them from a chain store like PetSmart or whatever. Second thing - it’s awesome that you’re using a 25 gallon tank, that’ll make it way easier. So the main things to keep in mind when setting the tank up will be these: You want to use lots of plants. That’ll always make your job easier as a fish keeper. Since you keep bettas I assume you’ll use water conditioner, as well as a heater and a filter, which is definitely good. Try to use an inert substrate - it’s usually cheaper anyways. And make sure you cycle the tank for a good month. Guppies and platies are so simple that that’s all the general advice you should usually need.

Wow, your female beats up your male? What’s their size difference? My female is definitely more active during their spawning, but my male is probably twice her size. Or I guess it could be because you’re doing it in a 12 gallon. That would make a lot of sense too.

@Nik_n Why pull the eggs? It’s so much of a hassle. I prefer to let natural selection complete its course. You’ll still get a bunch of fry, and you get to watch the amazing parental behaviours too! I’ve successfully spawned apistos countless times in a community tank by using this method: Feed loads of frozen foods. Have some dry stuff too, but mostly frozen and live if you can. Also feed some tiny foods like microworms, vinegar eels, BBS or hikari first bites so they know the fry will have a good food source. Drop the pH below 6.5. I’ve had best success at 5.5 or 6, but at least get it down to 6.5 using driftwood and almond leaves. Use a couple caves, and obviously lots of plants, but you said your tank is already planted. Temperature should be in the high 70s to very low 80s, but it’s okay if it’s mid-70s. Then just sit back and watch the magic, and if you feed BBS, get them ready.

I would recommend a pair for this variety.

To be honest I’m not sure exactly why my pH is so low in the 29. I get why it would be down to 6, but not any lower than that. I’ve got a big piece of driftwood I collected, some inert substrate, 30 or so fish (plus a new spawn of bristlenose fry), and a bunch of plants. Oh, and SOOOO MUCH JAVA MOSS (and xmas moss). Seriously, it’s crazy. It’s growing faster than my duckweed. I didn’t think that was possible. Anyways, I think the plants partially contribute to the low pH, and the driftwood definitely does, but I’m not sure why it’s so low. To be fair, I haven’t tested pH in 6 months, so it could’ve changed? But nothing in the tank has changed. Anyways, yeah, you’re right, I guess I’ve got a bunch of options to play around with. I’ll let you know when I figure something out. In the meantime I’ll be feeding mine up on lots of fatty and protein filled foods, and waiting for an update on your fry! I discovered yesterday that my microworm cultures didn’t die (yay), so the CPDs will definitely be getting some of that. Cheers mate!

Well since it’s an iwagumi scape that hasn’t fully grown in, they don’t even have too many places to spawn right now. Hence the cup of xmas moss. My original plan was to spawn them for a week, pulling the eggs every couple days so I can manage any fungus. Then I would move them into my 29 gallon tank and grow the fry out in that iwagumi tank. The other option is I free up a spare 5 gallon and move either the fry or parents in there. Preferably the fry. My only worry about moving the parents into my 29 gallon is that the pH usually sits between 5 and 6. My fish seem to love it once they’ve been in it for long enough, but it’s the transition that can be iffy, especially with more sensitive fish. What do you think? Sorry to totally hijack your thread btw. And thanks for being so helpful.

Nup, they’re in a little 5 gallon on their own. I don’t have any free tanks right now, but I will soon. I’ve got a couple mesh breeder boxes and a very small plastic one.

No need to apologise, that’s awesome, exactly what I was looking for. Ooh do you reckon there’s any harm in putting a tub with chrissy moss in to see if they do anything? Maybe they’re wanting to spawn but I’m busy thinking they’re too young or not ready to?

Hey Nick, how did you know when your CPDs started spawning? How could you tell? Were there fry, or eggs you could see, or was it just behavioural?

And for a reasonable dream product, I’d like a product for doing a gravel vac on a tank with super fine sand. Or a tiny 1080p wide-angle camera with a light on it, stuck to a stick, so I can look around my tank and behind my driftwood, or into my breeding caves. Or a breeder box system that has segments, and you can add segments together to house all your fry in one tank. Maybe with little notches for planter pots so you can reduce waste. Or little clear baskets for moss to go in, without going everywhere. It just needs to be made of a clear plastic, and built nicely enough that it could go in a bit of a display tank without looking too bad.

Okay, I’ve spent the last couple days reading through this entire thread to see if anyone has the same idea as me, and it appears I’ve come up with something original. My dream product would not be a product, but an app or website. It would be called FishHub or AquariaHub, and would be free, with optional subscriptions for bonus features. I don’t know which features I would consider bonuses though, because I want it all! Essentially, it would be an app/website that compiles all your fishy things. A bit of a home-base for your hobby. It would have forums incorporated into it and would show you notifications for your forums, as well as suggesting topics you may like. It would have the feed from your 4K mini fish submarine. It would have a camera incorporated into it so you can automatically keep all your fish footage in one place. It would have an easy system to store all your water test and change data, with trend lines and everything, and contain a handy note-taking system. It would have reminders to do water changes and algae cleans, and punish you if you didn’t do them by restricting your forum access. It would be connected to all of your automatic wi-fi systems, so you can control it all from one place. Additionally, it would have social media access, so you would receive only aquatic based social media notifications, whether from YT, Instagram, Facebook, or anything else. And it would also have a free breeder function, where you can put up your fish or other aquatic animals that you breed or plan to breed, as well as amounts and prices, and it will send out automatic messages to all the fish stores in your area. Part of this would include an inbuilt aquabid type feature where you can organise easy sales to hobbyists, but without having to handle a confusing website. There could even be a feature that identifies things in your aquarium, such as fish species, plants, types of algae, or diseases, and then refers you to a guide on that thing. And finally, it would have an information section that compiles the most relevant and useful/knowledgeable sources on the internet into a single search function. You would have an option to sign up as a resource via whatever forum/s you use, and if someone was having trouble with something specific that you have selected as a point of expertise, it would direct them straight to you. I know that this is technically possible, but I can’t imagine anyone going to the effort of creating something like this. As useful as it would be, nobody has the time, so while most things I’ve mentioned exist in some capacity, I doubt they will ever be a part of a single system.

I mean the old scape still looked great, but the Dutch style on the left side of the new scape coupled with the overhanging driftwood on the right just creates an awesome aesthetic.

Oh whoops. But hey, that’s cool that you keep them in groups! I had a surplus of females, so I was offering trios as an option to people who had large enough tanks where they could provide the right sort of environment where a trio would be okay (densely planted, lots of caves & line of sight blocks, etc). My general rule for buyers was a pair for 20 gallons plus, I said they could probably pull off a trio in a 40 or 55, and they could go for double pairs or groups in anything upwards of a 55. Even selling them as such, I’ve still got only 2 male fry left, and maybe 6 or 8 females of varying ages. I know it’s not the right way to do it, but I didn’t really have any other option, as people don’t usually take apisto females solo, just males.

I’ve been feeding them frozen daphnia for the last couple days, I’ll start mixing it up tomorrow with the other million frozen and dry foods that I use, but they seem to love it. Upon further review (as they’ve coloured up and become less shy when I stick my big nose up to their tank) I think I have 3 females and 2 males!!! I couldn’t be happier about that ratio. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m pretty darn certain. So I’m very excited to see if I can follow along your footsteps and get a successful spawn!

This is totally off topic, but wow, I’ve finally found a fellow nijsseni keeper! Does that label of 3 fish mean you’ve succeeded in keeping them in a 2f1m trio @Daniel? I’ve sold them as trios and double pairs and single pairs, but only ever kept and bred in single pairs. Also I find it hilarious that you have them labelled as ‘Nijsenni’ instead of ‘Nijsseni’ because I can never get it right either, it’s the most infuriating name ever!!! Anyways, sorry for dragging this so far off topic, but I’m just very interested.

That would be called a container on a stick. Or you could just catch them with a normal net and put them into a container underwater, right?

Super cool thread Nick! I just bought a little group of 5 on the weekend to try to breed. I’ve got one definite male, one or two hopeful females, and two that could go either way. I’ll be pretty happy as long as I don’t get 4 or 5 males. I’m already seeing what looks like spawning behaviour, which is hilarious, but I don’t think it’s legitimate because surely they can’t be of sexual maturity if the store employee couldn’t easily sex them, right? Anyways, I’m feeding them up for the next couple weeks at least before trying to see if I can get eggs. They came in really nice and plump, so less work for me at least. I haven’t been able to find many resources on raising the fry (which seems like the hard part) so your thread is really helpful! I definitely want to try keeping them with shrimp to help with cleaning, after reading your method. Your scapes are wonderful by the way. Bit sad about Derpy, but if he was in pain or struggling then I guess it was probably for the best. Do you reckon I could do the whole process without live bbs? I’m really trying to avoid setting up a hatchery because it’s such a hassle, and the eggs get pretty expensive. Anyways, looking forward to seeing more updates!

Just escaped lockdown today to go grab a little group of CPDs from the LFS that I hope to breed. So cute. Also algae cleaned and water changed the tank that they’re going into. And I didn’t make my bristlenose insane today by poking a flashlight and my big nose into his cave, so that’s progress I guess 😂

It’s okay, my calico bristlenose just spawned for the first time kinda out of the blue, and I’ve raised them since they were only an inch long. I feel better now 😂

This is such an interesting thread. Congrats on such successful spawns Joe! Good luck with the ones in the pond over winter.

Argh she has a big chunk taken out of her caudal fin. Pulled her of course. Why can’t it just be easy??

She must’ve somehow squeezed through, as I have a piece of cling wrap on top that covers the whole tank and rests on the divider. I’m wondering whether to take her out, because she’s very despondent right now, just sitting at the surface of the water not really doing anything. No interest in the male whatsoever right now. Clearly she did want to get in with him and try to breed, but I’m not sure what’s happened, and why she’s acting like this now (or what to do about it).

Eek! @Adrian RodriguezI just found my female on the opposite side of the divider! I have no clue how she got through it though - too high to jump over, and there’s no space on the sides or bottom! I checked for eggs but I can’t see anything like what you had. I decided to just remove the divider like I was going to, and I’ll see if it still goes okay.

@Adrian Rodriguez Wow! Easy as that, hey?! That’s really cool. Can’t wait to see the fry! I put my female back in the tank today with a divider. Waiting on the male to build a bubble nest again. Unfortunately I haven’t got my live bloodworm and mosquito larvae bucket pumping food out yet, so I had to condition without live foods, but they both look ready to go. This is my setup: Male on the left, female on the right. 2 almond leaves, some Java moss, a piece of styrofoam and a plastic lid for the bubble nest, with a heater and sponge filter just cuz it’s been pretty cold, and I wanted to keep the male in there while the female was reconditioning. Cling wrap over the top to maintain humidity. It’s a 5 gallon tank, cuz that was the easiest thing for me to set it all up in. Not paying much attention to any parameters besides keeping the temp roughly in the 26° ballpark. The water is pretty thick with tannic acid. Should I try putting some sort of sheet or something over the tank so it’s a bit darker? I assume you wouldn’t have any light in your buckets with the lids on. Cheers mate!