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Best beginner breeding projects


SandBkeeper
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For fish, I'd think it out this way...

Livebearers: Platys. They're awesome, bulletproof fish. Feed them, and they will multiply. Add loads of plants for fry to hide in.

Egg Layers: Kribensis. (Pelvicachromis pulcher). African river fish. Unreal colors once mature and healthy. Great parents. Add stones and cave. Love this video. My son made this video.

Cave Spawners: Ancistrus. (Bristlenose Plecos). There are many varieties. I find the Lemon blue-eyed ones adorable. @Guppysnail has glorious adults that lay regularly.

Egg Scatterers: White Clouds. Reach out to @WhitecloudDynasty for unbelievable source stock!

 

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On 2/7/2023 at 1:46 PM, JettsPapa said:

You can raise guppies, shrimp, and plants in a 10 gallon tank, but I'd probably stick to shrimp and plants.

 

On 2/7/2023 at 1:48 PM, jwcarlson said:

Cherry shrimp!

 

On 2/7/2023 at 2:22 PM, Theplatymaster said:

I agree with the cherry shrimp.

 

Sorry guys, I should have said, but I already have 3 cherry shrimp breeding set-ups with plants. Thanks for the advice anyway!

On 2/7/2023 at 2:22 PM, Theplatymaster said:

Possibly a killifish (NOT WITH THE SHRIMP), im pretty sure @Fish Folk has some interesting ones.

 

On 2/7/2023 at 2:32 PM, cavdad45 said:

Enlers, platies, mystery snails

 

On 2/7/2023 at 2:49 PM, Fish Folk said:

For fish, I'd think it out this way...

Livebearers: Platys. They're awesome, bulletproof fish. Feed them, and they will multiply. Add loads of plants for fry to hide in.

Egg Layers: Kribensis. (Pelvicachromis pulcher). African river fish. Unreal colors once mature and healthy. Great parents. Add stones and cave. Love this video. My son made this video.

Cave Spawners: Ancistrus. (Bristlenose Plecos). There are many varieties. I find the Lemon blue-eyed ones adorable. @Guppysnail has glorious adults that lay regularly.

Egg Scatterers: White Clouds. Reach out to @WhitecloudDynasty for unbelievable source stock!

Thanks for the suggestions!

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Least killifish are great livebearers to breed in 10 g. 
10 is to small for lemon pleco though add fry and there will be no room for water. However get a 30-40 gallon they are a treat above and beyond to breed. 
Mystery snails are fun 10g breeders. 

Melini bandit Cory or Pygmy Cory or habrosus. All 10g appropriate with the 5 for egg hatching and fry

I just got some Asian stone mini anchor cats which are 10g appropriate breeders 1D99B849-69AF-4803-B97A-51ADBC56C7BC.jpeg.8a1e1ccc82192e632c208dc4c3b12a8a.jpegA278AA69-C7F0-40CB-B06E-06C203E982D7.jpeg.85d254a02708ccc1bcc15af0f4ce4937.jpeg

White wizard Filopaludina martensi snails can do 5 gallons 04F0729D-BC58-4AF4-975F-B6C3081DC719.jpeg.feb6981384aafeb84f375f0ce942ca74.jpeg

a trio of celestial pearl danio can do a 20 using a 5 as a hatchery and fry tank  

Find what you enjoy  

 

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In the past couple of years I've bred platies, guppies, Endlers and swordtails.

One thing to think about is what you will be doing with the offspring. I have sold mine locally via Facebook groups and Craigslist, and I have taken some to a local store. I was breeding them for fun, but did have to find someplace for the hundreds of offspring to go live.

In all of these markets, Endlers, guppies and swordtails are more sought-after than platies. Swordtails need a lot of space.

Endlers are (in my experience) less likely to eat their fry and are much hardier fish than guppies. They are smaller and therefore you can keep more of them in a tank and maintain healthy water parameters. However, they don't have the giant tails and therefore are slightly more of a 'specialty' market than guppies who will sell based on looks that lots of new hobbyists find appealing.

If I was looking for a small tank breeding project I'd probably go with Staeck Endlers. They are eye-catching enough that stores and people will be drawn to them even though they are tiny. They can be pricey from Aquabid or Amy's Best but you'll get your money back. My second Endler recommendation would be Scarlet Endlers for the same reasons and they are less pricey.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 2/7/2023 at 1:32 PM, cavdad45 said:

mystery snails

Absolutely not mystery snails. They poop far too much for those sized tanks. When I advise people on hatching a clutch I recommend a 20 gallon. A 10 gallon can work in the beginning of hatching a clutch but once the snabies grow they will need more room. A clutch has the potential to hatch 50-100 babies. 

Edited by Cinnebuns
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I'd argue your biggest challenge isn't the project you choose and having success, but what are your plants with a ton of fry if it goes that way...

Do you have a local store that is willing to purchase some?

A Bolivian ram, white clouds, or barbs would be a great beginning project. Same with corydoras and plecos.

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The best breeding project is whatever you're of fish you wouldn't mind having more of or you know you could find a home for.

Everybody loves shrimp right now and you can almost guarantee that you'll get $1 each of there are any other hobbyists in the area.

Another option is to breed a fish that is short lived. If you want to try your hand at annual Killifish, then you could give Nothobranchius Fuzeri a shot. You can buy the eggs online. They live for 3-6 months and start breeding after only about 6-10 weeks. Then the eggs hatch about 6 weeks later. They also only need like 2.5 gallons per pair/trio.

If you want an easier Killifish that lives longer you could go with Fundulopanchax Gardneri. If you ask people online what it takes to breed them people will tell you "water, food, and a mop"

You could also do Aphyosemion striatum like @Slick_Nick, he was able to get fry after about a month and they are amazing looking fish. Similar to that is the Aphyosemion Australe. Both of those live 2-3 years.

Edited by Schuyler
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On 2/23/2023 at 5:23 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

I'd argue your biggest challenge isn't the project you choose and having success, but what are your plants with a ton of fry if it goes that way...

Do you have a local store that is willing to purchase some?

I agree with this.

Shrimp are a good project to start with, because it's very hard to produce too many that you won't have room to house them all should you have no one to give them to.

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Sounds like you’re gonna need even more empty tanks with all these great suggestions!! Like @Schuylersaid I picked up 2 pair of Aphyosemion striatum almost a month ago now and already had 1 fry pop up in the tank with the parents I’m pretty sure it was eaten. But I moved a mop to an empty tank and already have a couple fry that I can see! They are very pretty fish just make sure you have a good lid! All I’ve done so far is feed them and enjoy them it doesn’t get much easier than that! I am going to start a breeding thread this weekend or next 

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On 2/23/2023 at 5:23 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

Do you have a local store that is willing to purchase some?

Yes, there are a couple stores within 1-2 hours of me that would be willing to take some in exchange for store credit. 

 

On 2/23/2023 at 9:53 AM, Schuyler said:

Everybody loves shrimp right now and you can almost guarantee that you'll get $1 each of there are any other hobbyists in the area.

 

On 2/23/2023 at 10:29 AM, tolstoy21 said:

Shrimp are a good project to start with, because it's very hard to produce too many that you won't have room to house them all should you have no one to give them to.

It seems everyone recommends shrimp! If you haven't seen my other post, I already have 3 shrimp tanks. I don't need more shrimp lol. 

Here's what everyone has suggested so far. 

- guppies

- shrimp

- endlers

- platies

- Kribensis

- Bristlenose Plecos

- White Clouds mountain minnows

- least killifish

- CPDs

- ricefish

- bolivian rams

- killifish

- corydoras

 

These are all great suggestions! I'm thinking about killifish, since they seem to only need small tanks and only live for a short time. Also, I think that the chances of them over-reproducing like livebearers is smaller, right?

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Ask the local shop if there is a fish they have that does well. Might be German rams, might be plecos, heck.... Otos would be great.

Usually there's always a species of corydoras that is popular enough.

I dig the killifish idea. You can dry out eggs too, I'm just not sure which king would work for that. I'll add another and mention ricefish that were noted above as well. Dwarf rainbow, like Gertrudae.  The might be easier than killi but hard to say.

One thing to keep in mind is how easy the fry are to raise as well as how they fit into the region. Say the store has a heavy focus on 78 degree fish, tetras, etc then you'd want to pick something that fits that range. If they have a lot of cooler water species, that gives you a lot of options off the list above. 

White clouds + corydoras is a fun tank. 😉

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On 2/23/2023 at 9:51 AM, SandBkeeper said:

These are all great suggestions! I'm thinking about killifish, since they seem to only need small tanks and only live for a short time. Also, I think that the chances of them over-reproducing like livebearers is smaller, right?

Yep, if you don't want more fry you just don't hatch the eggs. At least if you're doing annual killifish. You can pass the eggs along to someone else.

The one caveat is you may have trouble selling the fish if it's one of the really short lived varieties. And I'm biased, I've become a bit of a nothobranchius evangelist.

Edited by Schuyler
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