chopper

I have 3 breeding units of 5 tanks each which I breed different fish in and one unit is solely set up for breeding bullies. I have found upland bullies to be very easy to rear. I remove the eggs from the tank ,this is done after you can see a silvery appearance in the eyes of the fry developing in the eggs for a few days, and place rock etc containing eggs next to an air stone. After they hatch and their eggs sacs are absorbed I start dumping in water from my goldfish ponds about a litre a day, ( I used to have an elaborate system of siphons and taps feeding from header tanks but found this a waste of time). After about a week I start to introduce micro worms into diet whilst still feeding pond water. Instead of microworms I initially tried Artemia and daphnia but these I think are a pain to culture( though I still use them sometimes for other projects) compared to ease of microworms . To ensure the worms don't just sink to the bottom I let them drip slowly from a teat of a baby bottle over an air stone then they float around in the water column. The bullies actually munch quite a few from the floor also. After another week I stop using the pond water but rely solely on micro worms. After a few weeks I start to add white worms to diet. As the fry are still small at this stage I mince the white worms through a sieve , they eat them from the floor of the aquarium also. Then I slowly start to remove micro worms from the diet slowly increasing the amount of and size of white worms in over the ensuing weeks. I also feed mosquito larvae at this stage as a diet of pure white worms isn't completely nutritional( though that's debatable depending upon sources referred to). When feeding on white worms they bulk up really quick. After about 3 months after hatching they are around an inch long and baby bullies and can be fed as usual for bullies. This will depend however on temps and frequency and type of food

Whilst raising the fry I made sure to carry out the following practises:
- raise the fry in shallow water so they are close to food supply
- its OK to just use an air stone ( but i would use sponge fry filter if this is your first time )so long as you do frequent water changes ( I do 33% per day).
- Make sure air flow to stone isn't to great as fry don't like getting buffeted about.
- don't use substrate have only glass so food doesn't decompose and you can see what needs to be siphoned off
- when siphoning if you accidently suck up any fry just put it back in and it should survive
- as they get larger deepen water level, split up fry into other containers( if one Lot dies you have backups) and add filter, ( I used corner filter with me missus tights I stole( she went ape when she found out!) put over it to stop fry getting sucked in), also its good to increase diameter of siphon tube for ease of cleaning. Flow rate of air stone can also be increased.

Other stuff,
- if you don't have much money here are some money saving tips
If you you dont have aquariums spare go to bunnings and get fish bin, Tupperware containers they work just as well.
- you can make most of your own filters from buckets, jars etc. Just buy the motor pump.
- hoses for filters, air pumps etc can be modified from irrigation equipment as can taps, connectors, the list goes on

Note: if it gets warm were you keep them get a chiller or make your own( mine live in an area that stays very cool all year so it doesn't stress them), as native fish don't like higher temps.
Also:
if you want to rear some but don't have breeding pair, go to a stream etc in the breeding season and you will find swarms of fry in shallows, net these and try with them( that's what I initially did), but this will only work with upland, crans, common( some pops) and tarndale( but this one shouldn't be tried )
I used trial and error over many years to figure out method which best suits me. I have dozens and dozens of fish books and thf, practical fish keeper magazines' which I researched to find the breeding and rearing methods of cousins of our native bullies (PhD thesis are a good source of info too). But today's internet is far more accessible and has far more info from people who have far more knowledge than me, including many people here on fnzas.There are many other systems which others including fnzas members use that work just fine so do what's best for you I just put this on to help in future if anyone has difficulties raising bully fry.

Final note : what to do with all the bullies you now have?
Let them go?! No, its illegal!
Sell them? No, it illegal!
Eat them? No, too small! ( I haven't actually tried this if you were wondering, but once did it with a whole heap of huge goldfish and they tasted pretty good)!
Feeder fish? I've done it but prefer not to!
Give em away? Yip that's the best way. Or if ya like me convince ya missus or mister that you have too many fish and not enough tanks and if they comply get another tank ( or spouse if they won't)!
Cheers