Multi-species Breeding Setup

[Cinnebuns]

I'm doing some planning ahead right now. After what I call "the guppy invasion" I hope to end my time with breeding guppies and move onto other species. I will still be keeping them as they are still my favorite fish, but I would enjoy doing multiple species rather than 1 species taking over everything. I would like some input and ideas. 

The tanks I have is 29, 20T, 10, 10, 10 + a few tanks for backup and hospitals. Other than the guppies, I am currently breeding panda cories, Japanese trapdoor snails, mystery snail clutches (occasionally might hatch one) out of the 29 and blue neo shrimp along with panda cory fry in a 10. I plan to continue those. This would mean I would have a 20 and 2 10s available after the guppies have stopped invading. The more species I can breed out of a tank the better within reason of course. 

This is the ideas I have so far:

20 gallon:  gold white cloud minnows + medaka rice fish. Dunno if something can be added to this. Possibly hatch small mystery snail clutches?  I would only trust small or half ones. 

10 gallon A:  reticulated hillstream loaches + bristlenose pleco. I already have a male/female pair of hillstream loaches that display mating behavior in the 29. I have a feeling they have spawned but likely with the guppies, snails and cories the eggs and fry have a low chance of survival. Idk if these 2 species would work together. Maybe the hillstream would work in with the 20 gal?  They are a fish that like cooler waters. 

10 gallon B:  Killfish (maybe gardnerii?) + juvenile panda cories. I assume there wouldn't be an issue with these 2 together. The idea would be once the cories get full finage and a little size they move from the shrimp tank to here. 

 

 

[AquaHobbyist123]

I've heard that hillstream loaches need larger tanks just because they need a lot of water flow to live comfortably. It may work in a 15-20 gallon aquarium, and u probably couldnt keep plecos with them in that small of a tank.

[Cinnebuns]

On 7/6/2022 at 3:36 PM, AquaHobbyist123 said:

I've heard that hillstream loaches need larger tanks just because they need a lot of water flow to live comfortably. It may work in a 15-20 gallon aquarium, and u probably couldnt keep plecos with them in that small of a tank.

They do enjoy high flow that's true but they do not require it to thrive. I did a ton of research to confirm this before I even got them period. Cory was actually the first person I saw mentioning this but many others agree. 

[Minanora]

Guppy invasion. Lol. Yup. Just wait until your shrimp take over! 😄

That's all the value I have to add. 😛

I guess aside from the usual, "MORE GUPPIES".

[Cinnebuns]

On 7/6/2022 at 9:58 PM, Minanora said:

Guppy invasion. Lol. Yup. Just wait until your shrimp take over! 😄

That's all the value I have to add. 😛

I guess aside from the usual, "MORE GUPPIES".

The shrimp will at least be confined to 1 tank instead of 5 of my 6 tanks lol

[Minanora]

On 7/6/2022 at 8:47 PM, Cinnebuns said:

The shrimp will at least be confined to 1 tank instead of 5 of my 6 tanks lol

For now!!! 😛 

[Cinnebuns]

On 7/6/2022 at 10:58 PM, Minanora said:

For now!!! 😛 

Maybe it's time to rent another apartment entirely for tanks. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/6/2022 at 11:31 AM, Cinnebuns said:

panda cory fry

Yes. Photos would be very fun.  I bet they are all named bandit. 😃

I think Otos is a very fun project, especially zebra otos so you can sell us some on the forums!

I think Otos can work with a lot of species, potentially with some bolivian rams. (or dean's dark ram's if you can get your hands on some!)

On 7/6/2022 at 11:31 AM, Cinnebuns said:

Maybe the hillstream would work in with the 20 gal?

I would say a 29G.  They are going to spend some time on the glass and having more glass is good for them, especially with aufwuchs on it. Mine liked their caves, so maybe clay pots and stuff or those hotels might work as a surface for them (if you use a smaller tank).

Edited July 7, 2022 by nabokovfan87

[NathJK]

Remember you need tanks to grow out fry if you plan on breeding different species.

[nabokovfan87]

Had another idea.  Odessa Barbs from Greg Sage with other fish would work as well.  There's some fish that prefer to have a stack of rocks to lay in, tiger barbs and a few others. I have never done it myself, but they make boxes for the eggs to be laid in and then take those and move them to the fry tanks.  It's a pretty nifty way to handle it and still keep the community tank setup.

[Cinnebuns]

On 7/7/2022 at 1:24 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

think Otos is a very fun project, especially zebra otos so you can sell us some on the forums!

I had a similar thought but idk if any of my tanks are seasoned enough for that other than my main tank

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/7/2022 at 3:17 PM, Cinnebuns said:

I had a similar thought but idk if any of my tanks are seasoned enough for that other than my main tank

From what I've seen, you want something like a wall of stems plants (they lay on underside of leaves) and something where it's large enough for them to get under the leaf.  Something like PSO won't work but will grow like a weed.  Heavily planted stems tank would be what they want.

Repashy / Sera spirulina tabs work well in my view for otos if the tank isn't seasoned enough yet.

[AnimalNerd98]

I've actually thought about doing white clouds and ricefish together in my ponds. My idea was to just put them together and switch out the floating plants every couple days. But now, I am playing with different spawning mops like the ones described here: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/spawning-mop

For the hillstream loaches and bristlenoses, I'm not quite sure. They may want different water temps so it's hard to keep them both happy (but I know Cory has kept hillstream loaches warm before and they bred). I think you could definitely segregate them based on space since the plecos use caves. For the hillstream loaches, I remember that wild fish tanks keeps a pile of river stones in his hillstream loach tank and he's raised several generations of their fry. I do think that the tank should be 20G or larger. 

I can't comment on 10 gallon B since I've never kept either of those species. 

Let me know what you ended up doing! This thread gave me some food for thought and I am thinking up other viable species combinations for breeding. 

[EsJay]

Hey there, I would consider Rocket Killifish and Celestial Pearl Danios if you have not yet. Rocket Killifish do not prey on their fry so might be rewarding to get a group of them together and let them colony breed in their own 10g with some moss. Feed them hatched baby brine shrimp and sit back and enjoy. I would start with one or two trios (1M2F) in a 10. As for CPD's they are egg scattering so if you place them in the 10 for a week while feeding live baby brine and then remove them, you should see teeny fry in a week or so. Both projects I have done in the past and found to be really rewarding. 

 

SJ