Madagascar Rainbowfish Breeding

[Vanish]

This year I decided to participate in the Colorado Aquarium Society Breeder Award Program. My first successful entry was Angelfish. I'd raise angels before, so didn't have a great reason to run its own post. I am currently in the middle of the 30 day period for raising Super Red Bristlenose Plecos. They pretty much did all the work, spawning right in their holding tank, so no post there either. There's a million guppy posts, so I'll just mention that one in my journal; I need to intentionally breed a male/female as opposed to just colony breeding.

I had originally planned on trying to breed bronze corydoras next, but I determined mine are not quite old enough yet. I thought I'd had them longer but it appears it has only been since about July. After corydoras, my next options are rainbowfish, as I have five different species: boesemani, australian, sunset dwarf, turquoise and madagascar.

I acquired this pair on February 8, 2021. At the time I was looking for boesemani rainbowfish, and these were an impulse purchase. I'd never seen them before and I haven't seen them since, hence one of the reasons I want to breed them. They aren't rare fish, just rare in the stores near me.

Here they are then, a little bit bigger than an endler:

And here they are now. The male is around 5 inches long.

Today, I took about 8 gallons of water from the 90g where they've been living and combined it with an equal amount of water already in a 20 long. I have a few java fern and a piece of wood in there, plus a couple of spawning mops. Silly me did not pre-soak the spawning mops. I attached some weights to help them soak, but they're still floating pretty good.

They did not seem to appreciate the move and did not eat their meal 4 hours later, but they seem to have settled in over night.

Here is a look from the end of the tank

Adult Food

I have been feeding frozen bloodworms, frozen mysis shrimp and a homemade blended frozen protein of fish/shrimp+vitamins. I will start adding BBS and endler fry as live foods. I may have to investigate other sources of food if this doesn't work.

My dual BBS (one empty until tonight) and egg hatching jar (missing airline since not in use)

Eggs / Hatching

Quote

The females will lay several large brown eggs daily amongst the plants continuously over several months until spawning is completed.

This makes things a little bit more difficult than the angelfish. I'm expecting to need to constantly monitor (daily) the spawning mops to remove eggs to the hatching jar. Then, of course, the fry will theoretically all be at different stages of development.

My current plan is to do the same thing I've done with angel eggs, placing them in a highly oxygenated jar suspended in an 80F tank. The alternative is to just place the spawning mop directly in the fry tank, moving them to the boxes as they hatch.

Fry Care

For the fry, I've got my own version of dean's fry boxes prepared in a different long. I've got vinegar eels cultured, but I will probably need to start an infusoria culture. As soon as I see confirmed spawning behavior, I will get that going.

I've never tried raising fry that couldn't eat BBS from the start before, so this will be a learning experience.

WIP of one of the fry boxes. Will take a photo of the whole setup later this week, the white paint is drying atm.

Edited February 15, 2022 by Vanish

[ScottieB]

That’s a great write up. I’ve always loved that fish! Please let us know about your progress.
And what method did you use for the infusoria culture? 

[Patrick_G]

Great post, you’ve got all kinds of interesting stuff going on. I’m intrigued by your BBS hatching setup. Are the hatcheries in the water for temp control? And definitely post some more pics and info on the fry trays! 

[Vanish]

On 1/29/2022 at 3:02 PM, ScottieB said:

what method did you use for the infusoria culture? 

I haven't done it yet! 😄 I was planning to use kale.

On 1/29/2022 at 3:52 PM, Patrick_G said:

Are the hatcheries in the water for temp control?

Yes, the air around where I am doing this is not temperature regulated. I prefer this over using an incandescent bulb to heat the BBS.

[Vanish]

I had been checking on them to see if there was any breeding behavior and was not seeing any. They still seemed unsettled, virtually ignoring the BBS this morning.

I just happened to look at one of the mops and holy heck, its seems to be happening already!

[Vanish]

Some sources say they will eat their own eggs. Others say they will ignore them. For the time being I will move them to a hatching jar.

[Vanish]

I pulled 20 eggs from the mop. There are more, but I decided to leave them in case 1.) They haven't been fertilized yet and 2.) To give myself options in case the hatching jar is a mistake. The eggs in the jar are floating, which is interesting. I was pulling some hair out trying to see them after I put them in, but wasn't looking on the surface.

[Levi_Aquatics]

I saw some of these fish at a lfs and thought they were stunning! I am kicking myself for not picking them up. 

[lefty o]

On 2/1/2022 at 1:00 PM, Levi_Aquatics said:

I saw some of these fish at a lfs and thought they were stunning! I am kicking myself for not picking them up. 

they are very cool looking fish, especially the males. i had them years ago, someday will again.

[Vanish]

Of the 20 eggs in the hatching jar, only 3 have not turned white. I removed all the white eggs from the jar and mop. There are still some eggs in the mop, too. I am going to leave them in the mop for the time being. Not sure the Male knows his job yet!

Edited February 1, 2022 by Vanish

[Vanish]

A third egg in the jar turned white. However, it is hard to see, I think the other two look viable. Look below and to the right of the white egg and you can see two eggs next to each other that look like they've got eye spots.

[Vanish]

Good news! I pulled the second mop today and found 22 eggs that look fertilized based on the tiny eyeball lookin bits (very scientific). This time, I have decided to transfer them directly into the fry tray with some moss to hold them in place.  You can see a few of them on longer threads if you looks closely. The eggs are about 1mm.

I will say, I am quite concerned that my filter foam is not dense enough to prevent these little buggers from slipping through into the main tank. Only time will tell.

 

Infusoria culture #1 has hit the cloudy stage, so I set up culture #2.

[lefty o]

very cool. hope some of them hatch.

[Vanish]

I see 2 little fellas swimming around!

 

[lefty o]

On 2/6/2022 at 5:57 PM, Vanish said:

I see 2 little fellas swimming around!

 

very cool!

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Rainbow fry are so tiny. Good idea on the infusoria. 

[Vanish]

We're up to four itty bitties! My culture did not look ready so I went for the sponge filter squeeze method.

Update: theres now 7!

Edited February 8, 2022 by Vanish

[Vanish]

Two days and some extreme circumstances, we are still at 7 madagacsar fry ( and now 2 bonus dwarf sunset fry! ). I added a little bit of vinegar eel today. Haven't had a chance to look through the mop again.

[Vanish]

[Struggle]

On 2/12/2022 at 12:56 PM, Vanish said:

Looking great!

[Vanish]

I pulled one of the mops completely. It wasn't necessary to have two mops, just made it twice as hard to find the eggs. After stripping approximately 84 eggs, I placed the mop in the second fry tray in case any further ones hatch out that I somehow missed. I'll leave it there a week and then start trying to intentionally get Dwarf Sunset eggs.

Meanwhile, I've moved the eggs into the hatching jar, but this time used what should be cleaner water as well as a little bit of meth blue. I'll change out most of it tomorrow.

I've decided I need to have a better source of naturally dechlorinated water somewhere nearby, so I'll try to set something up with that tomorrow.

 

[Vanish]

A few of the fry look big enough for BBS now, so I'm a little behind the 8 ball. Who decided to have a baby when there are fry around?! 😄

[Levi_Aquatics]

@Vanish that is super exciting!

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

 @Vanishthe warmer they are the faster they hatch. I would not get them hot hot but 80 or so could get them in less than 24 hours especially since you will want newly hatched bbs. 

[Vanish]

We are over the hump to BBS with quite a few of the fry!

I'd like to try to figure out which ones are sunset dwarf and move them to a different box, but the other box is still occupied by the mop. I see a third box build in my future. It is working perfectly.