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Breeding Rainbow Shiners - Attempt #4


Fish Folk
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Going to try again to get our Rainbow Shiners to spawn. Added a small Aquatop water pump for flow. The Hydor Powerhead we had been using awhile back had slots large enough for them to get stuck in, and (sadly) decapitated a few. Also, following advice from other Hydrophlox Shiner breeders, I’ve layered the stones in the Pyrex container deeper to capture eggs. 
 

Interesting fact: there are two color varieties of Rainbow Shiners. The Red-sided variety, and these — the Blue variety. While both males develop power blue fins, this subspecies does not glow  nearly as orange-red when in spawning mode.

I will pull the container on Thursday to see if any eggs got caught.

Edited by Fish Folk
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24 minutes ago, Irene said:

They're absolutely gorgeous! I had no idea there were two kinds of color variations. Hope you get viable eggs soon!

Thanks! Here’s a few photos showing the variety of colors they come in. Some collectors say that the Red Rainbows are found more frequently in the northeastern portion of their range, while the Blue Rainbows are more in the southwestern portion. PVAS welcomed Michael Lucas from NANFA last weekend. He gave an interesting presentation on collecting Hydrophlox Shiners in the wild. 

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26 minutes ago, Fish Folk said:

The males are all fired up today! First time they’ve really put on the spawning colors. No certain idea what may have triggered them... 

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It the scent of a ready female that trigger them..look for a blond or redder female..thats the female that is ready.

They look great by the way!

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2 hours ago, WhitecloudDynasty said:

It the scent of a ready female that trigger them..look for a blond or redder female..thats the female that is ready.

They look great by the way!

Yes!!! There is one female also colored up!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Bought a school of shiners from @WhitecloudDynasty back in October and they are doing fantastic! I have a 100 gallon Rubbermaid pond in my basement for them and the males just recently colored up for breeding mode! Any idea how long that lasts? Like, what's the window of opportunity for breeding these guys? I remember emailing @WhitecloudDynasty when I bought them about growing them in a pond, but I don't think I ever asked about what kind of setup, (rock piles, plants, ECT.) they should have for best results. I hope to colony breed these guys if possible. If not I am willing to put in the work for these beautiful fish. Will snails be an issue with them potentially eating eggs? 

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32 minutes ago, Rana Loca said:

Bought a school of shiners from @WhitecloudDynasty back in October and they are doing fantastic! I have a 100 gallon Rubbermaid pond in my basement for them and the males just recently colored up for breeding mode! Any idea how long that lasts? Like, what's the window of opportunity for breeding these guys? I remember emailing @WhitecloudDynasty when I bought them about growing them in a pond, but I don't think I ever asked about what kind of setup, (rock piles, plants, ECT.) they should have for best results. I hope to colony breed these guys if possible. If not I am willing to put in the work for these beautiful fish. Will snails be an issue with them potentially eating eggs? 

He’s got several helpful Rainbow Shiners spawning set up videos.

Option 1: pile small round rocks in a removable container about 3-4 inches deep and place inside a bare tank / tub. Once shivers spawn, remove the container to another tank. This is what I’m trying.

Option 2: put a few adult breeding shiners into a tank with enough moss to capture eggs. After 35-48 hrs, remove the adults. LR Bretz has a video about - variation on this, improvising on a Ted Judy method for tetras where a smaller tank with the bottom cut out and replaced with a screen is suspended inside of a larger tank so eggs will fall through the screen.

Option 3: in an outdoor tub / pond, place breeding shiners in a small pond basket near an inflow / water pump and let them drop eggs through the holes into the pond.

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1 hour ago, Rana Loca said:

Bought a school of shiners from @WhitecloudDynasty back in October and they are doing fantastic! I have a 100 gallon Rubbermaid pond in my basement for them and the males just recently colored up for breeding mode! Any idea how long that lasts? Like, what's the window of opportunity for breeding these guys? I remember emailing @WhitecloudDynasty when I bought them about growing them in a pond, but I don't think I ever asked about what kind of setup, (rock piles, plants, ECT.) they should have for best results. I hope to colony breed these guys if possible. If not I am willing to put in the work for these beautiful fish. Will snails be an issue with them potentially eating eggs? 

As long as you can get the females ready,.they can and will breed year round

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2 hours ago, Fish Folk said:

So what’s some keys for getting them ready? 

This is how I do mine, since everyone thought about conditioning their fish are different.

Male gets normal feeding with a touch bit more vitamin E. I like my male slim and actively fit. 

Female gets live/dry food. I up the amount of food per week, and I feed food that have more vitamin B6 and vitamin B12(help produce more eggs, and early embryonic development). I like my female plump, not fat. Theyll need time off from the males to produce eggs without all the stress/attention the male givens them

 

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4 hours ago, Rana Loca said:

Bought a school of shiners from @WhitecloudDynasty back in October and they are doing fantastic! I have a 100 gallon Rubbermaid pond in my basement for them and the males just recently colored up for breeding mode! Any idea how long that lasts? Like, what's the window of opportunity for breeding these guys? I remember emailing @WhitecloudDynasty when I bought them about growing them in a pond, but I don't think I ever asked about what kind of setup, (rock piles, plants, ECT.) they should have for best results. I hope to colony breed these guys if possible. If not I am willing to put in the work for these beautiful fish. Will snails be an issue with them potentially eating eggs? 

By the way @CoryI didn't advetise any fish nor I planned to sell any to the forum member. Some people did asked about my stocking lv so I asked them to move it to my personal email.

Hopefully I didn't cross any line, selling fishing on here isn't my intention. 

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12 hours ago, WhitecloudDynasty said:

By the way @CoryI didn't advetise any fish nor I planned to sell any to the forum member. Some people did asked about my stocking lv so I asked them to move it to my personal email.

Hopefully I didn't cross any line, selling fishing on here isn't my intention. 

Yeah sorry, I bought from @WhitecloudDynasty on get gills. I didn't even realize he was on the forum until this thread. I'm glad to see him here! I just recognized the name and the video he posted. Sorry if my post caused any trouble.

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2 hours ago, Rana Loca said:

Yeah sorry, I bought from @WhitecloudDynasty on get gills. I didn't even realize he was on the forum until this thread. I'm glad to see him here! I just recognized the name and the video he posted. Sorry if my post caused any trouble.

It not a problem, I just want to let Cory know, just in case some people would think wrong. 

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