Rainbow Shark breeding advice needed

[Ishpan]

Thanks for letting me post here and thank everyone for your help! 

I have a 75 gallon tank, fairly new setup, started the tank on 2 Dec. I have 2 rainbow sharks and several other community fish including 3 Bala sharks, 3 gold tetra, 3 rummy nose, 1 Cory cat, 4 small bristlenose pleco, and 2 deino barbs. Everyone gets along. 

One rainbow shark chases the other, mostly when it's feeding time, but nothing too aggressive. Seems like stay away from my area. On 14 Feb however, I noticed the two rainbow sharks dancing close to each other. They were spending a lot of time together and lots of this close dancing. 

I looked up mating for rainbow sharks and they were doing exactly what the video showed. 

The smaller shark is now spending a lot of time in a small cave. I assume to lay eggs. Then I guess the male will spray them at some point to fertilize. 

I read that breeding rainbow sharks is difficult. 

Any advice on what steps I can take to possibly save the babies and raise them up. 

 

Thank you! 

 

[Brandy]

From what I gather they are egg scattering fish, so most likely eggs and fry will be eaten by all your other fish loong before you see them. If you were lucky enough to see eggs, then you could try putting them in another container and hatching them yourself--not easy. If you want to give fry in your tank the best chance you would need lots of cover like plants and rock piles the adult fish can't access and then you would need to be constantly feeding tiny food in case fry was hiding in your tank. If the food is ignored by the adults, you run the risk of fouling the water, just like any overfeeding situation. 

It isn't impossible, but you definately picked a difficult fish to try to breed. Maybe just enjoy the adults and learn about fish breeding with an easier species.

[CorydorasEthan]

On 2/14/2021 at 1:43 PM, Ishpan said:

I have a 75 gallon tank, fairly new setup, started the tank on 2 Dec. I have 2 rainbow sharks and several other community fish including 3 Bala sharks, 3 gold tetra, 3 rummy nose, 1 Cory cat, 4 small bristlenose pleco, and 2 deino barbs. Everyone gets along. 

I don't know much about breeding rainbow sharks. Unfortunately, the articles I skimmed through say that breeding has never been documented in an aquarium before. But I would follow @Brandy's advice on this one. I do have a couple suggestions though about your community tank as a whole. Gold tetras, rummy nose tetras, cory catfish, and deino barbs are all schooling fish that prefer to be in larger schools. I would say build up each school to at least six over time.

Anyway, good luck with those rainbow sharks! And if you do successfully hatch the eggs, great job!

[Ishpan]

I do plan on getting more of the schooling fish for sure. Since it's such a new tank I only went with a few of each. Will be adding tank mates shortly. Thanks for the help! 

[Brian]

Aggression.  I would bet this is aggression and not spawning behavior.  
They tend to be very aggressive towards its own species, or species that look very similar to themselves.  
I would either keep just one, or try to purchase 6 or 7 more.  Also provide plenty of cover.  A fish that is harassed all day with no hiding places will very soon become stressed and that is never good.

Good Luck