caserole

If you fined yourself a female this is how you to breed them.... viewtopic.php?f=1&t=35662

Females have very little to no colour(like most rainbows). If you are having trouble sexing them it is likely you only have males. Google Melanotaenia Lacustris female (images) one pic should show up.

I don't know, read the articles it should say if they are.

:lol:

You probably wont succeed, however if you place a cyrpt or sword plant in the tank (broad leaves) for them to lay their eggs on you may.

I haven't breed them. :oops: Can you do it and let me know your experience?

You have not Googled it have you > Do so, there is all you need available. Like they spawn on the under side of leaves. Good luck.

Erythromycin isn't supposed to affect you filter bacteria.

Warren hit your answer on the head spink. There IS phosphate in our tap water!

Happy to help. Congrats on the spawning :bounce: :bounce:

WOW that's really unusual and annoying. Is it possible they have died and haven't floated yet?

Yeah ph going up is confusing, unless a water change had taken place.

When breeding fish it is important to (a degree) to understand the water you use. Hutt river water is very low in buffers. This means if excess pollution seen and unseen is in your small breeding/grow out tank it will become very acidic quickly. This is why removing such waste is important combined with little water changes and often - to prevent ph swings. Then you get comments like alanmin said and you must remember what works for others may not work for you. You must find what is achievable and what is not to succeed. I had 5 containers of Fundulopanchax fry all doing just fine, then one morning all of the fry from 1 container had expired over night. There was nothing special about this container of fry compared to the others, now I have 4.

This is a bacterial problem caused by a low ph Cam that should clear. The tap water in this area is 7.2-7.4ph how on earth did your ph get up to 8, it shouldn't cause this problem thought. Your tanks glass maybe covered in bacteria continuing the problem.

Cam.... If the fry have or are coming right then what Barrie and I have said is correct. Follow the information in the posts and you should be right. Keep your water changes up > little and often.

No, I have seen what Cam has described. The original point that Barrie made > low ph > causing a bacterial infection is correct. It's a killi thing.

Yeah it sounds like your water quality is/was out of wack. You may have a bacterial problem caused by a low ph as Barrie said. This may be cause by your filter not working properly > Biotechnology. Do you have an ammonia and nitrite test kit to test your water( both are acidic). When spawning non-annuals I place a small chip of lime stone in the water container with the eggs to prevent a ph spike and this very thing happening when the fry hatch and the egg shells rot. If your filter is not doing the job a water change may fix the problem only temporally, keep doing small water changes often. If your fry health improves you will know this was the likely problem.

That information is available and used in this country but I doubt anyone will say anything.

All Tilapia were band 15-20 years ago as some can live in cold water. I knew someone with one (tropical sp.) and they had to destroy it.

Yes forgot that the fry do grow slowly, until you get them on to BBS then things speed up heaps.

I don't have them and never breed them however I have breed a strain of M. Splendida. Both species are breed in the same way. Your fish are more then big enough. To breed all you need to do is give them a place to lay there eggs, plant/spawning mop, feed normally >>assuming you feed them well. If your fish are in a community tank the other fish will go for the eggs and or fry - that are very small. Best to remove and place in a tank of there own, over all size not importand as long as it is not to small. In this tank should be a sponge filter and a clump of spawning mops( dark like black, navy or deep green I use black for my killies). The eggs have a hard shell like killies and can be picked from the mop and placed in a container of tank water with a little blue to keep fungus of the dead eggs to a minimum. Any dead eggs should be removed on a daily bases. Eggs hatch in 10-14 days. The fry have small mouths and need microscopic foods. Microscopic foods:- Green water, liquid fry food #1, eggs wash and the liquid from a microworm culture. There are many others. I can't remember how long it took before they were able to take bbs as I breed M. Splendida close to 10years ago. Spawning Difficulty :- dead easy!! Raising fry Difficulty :- not so easy, but not difficult. Was this what you were after??

I noticed 2 days ago many of the eggs I collected at the beginning of this tread had eyed up. Today my first fry had hatched they are quit large, larger then many Fundulopanchax fry.

Everything that has been said >>but to sex them LOOK DOWN on them not from the side.

Clean = biologically, For best results. There is validity to your comment Alanmin. The 2 week thing may be excessive though. Scientists in the States use Notho. guentheri as a lab animal, this is because they understand it very well. It has been found if a female is feed well as a matter of cause she will ovulate a full compliment of eggs every morning with in the first 2-3 hours after lights on / sun up. After which time she can choose to breed. It has been found that if a single female is then place in a tank with a male (or the other way around) she is capable of releasing all her eggs in a hour.

There should be salt in the tank all the time @ 1tp per 4 to 5lt. Oh just five things about Notho's... For the most part they're not difficult if you follow the rules, having there own tank for best results is one of the rules. 1tp of salt per 4 - 5lt for best results is another. feed them well on meaty foods for best results is another. keep the water clean for best results is another. See where I'm going, really hard A.