Guest Posted April 10, 2008 Report Share Posted April 10, 2008 Hi again guys. I'm going to try and breed my fighters again this weekend. This time I've got everything ready like brought the proper fry food, set up the tank properly, fed them up on 1-2 feedings of flake a day and a feeding of daphnia and mossie larvae. My questions are how big do the containers that you put the male babies in have to be. Also has any one made a good contianer that is easy to clean as I understand that you need to clean them out once a day and cleaning out all the containers will take a loooooong time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted April 10, 2008 Report Share Posted April 10, 2008 Are you going to have individual containers in a heated room for the young males? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 10, 2008 Report Share Posted April 10, 2008 I'm going to have individual containers floating inside my tanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted April 10, 2008 Report Share Posted April 10, 2008 Do you have any spare big i.e. 4ft but not too high tanks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 10, 2008 Report Share Posted April 10, 2008 Not really I have an 18 litre a 22 litre a 35 litre and 60 litre. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 11, 2008 Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 Anyone have a good design? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leroy Posted April 11, 2008 Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 Depends on how generous you feel like being when it comes to the space they have I guess Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted April 11, 2008 Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 Being pretty blunt here but that is not nearly enough tank space if you are intending to breed fighters. You can't control how many fry you will get, could be several hundred. If they make it past the first 3-4 weeks you will need some big tanks or many jars particularly if the majority are males. On average I use 1-2 4ft tanks as growout tanks per spawn. I keep my mature males in another 4ft which can accomodate up to 50 containers and I also cull pretty heavily so only the best get to grow on past about 9-10 weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 12, 2008 Report Share Posted April 12, 2008 Alright I put the female in with the male this morning and over the last 1-2 hours he's made a nice little bubble under his lid (I put a polystyron cup a lid and some floating plants and he choose the lid so I took the rest out). So he's got his bubble nest down one end corner and the female swimming around the other corner. Every minute or so he'll go down her end and flare up and then swim back to his nest as if to say "come on follow me" but she just flares up and doesn't follow. Then sometimes she'll go down to his nest and check it out while he sits under it with his gills puffed out but then she sort of jst goes up to his and "sucks" on his side :roll: he'll then chase her off. Is this normal behaviour? Last time I was at school and didn't see what hapened last time so I'm not 100% sure about this part. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted April 12, 2008 Report Share Posted April 12, 2008 her nudging his side is the sign that she is ready to spawn and the touching is encouraging him to wrap around her. you will probably have had them spawn by now as its well into the day time. let us know how you got on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 12, 2008 Report Share Posted April 12, 2008 OK someone PLEASE help. I looked in the tank and on the bottom of the tank right under the males bubblenest there are tiny and I mean tiny white thing moving around. They move like my platy fry they sort of dart around and you can't see them for more than a couple of seconds. Are they fry? I'm sure I'm not just seeing things Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 12, 2008 Report Share Posted April 12, 2008 Also they are the same shape as fry and should I take the female out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 12, 2008 Report Share Posted April 12, 2008 The female is still going up to the nest with her fins clamped and her head down but the male chases her away. Does this mean she wants to breed as the havn't already or does it mean that the males already bred with her but just left the "fry". Please help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 13, 2008 Report Share Posted April 13, 2008 Can anyone help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted April 13, 2008 Report Share Posted April 13, 2008 Your time frame doesn't seem right for fry. It takes a minimum of 24 hours for fry to hatch, they look like grass seeds when they do. Another 24-48 hours for them to start free swimming - darting around as such. How long exactly have you had the male and female together in the tank? And I do mean together, not seperated by anything. I'll go see if I can get a pic of my fry which hatched this week but I don't think the camera will be able to pick them up. They are just free swimming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 13, 2008 Report Share Posted April 13, 2008 I put them together yesterday morning. UI'm not sure if they're swimming upwards or not . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted April 13, 2008 Report Share Posted April 13, 2008 Okay - I think I did very well here. Had to put a magnifying glass on the outside of the tank and then take a photo through it. This is what they look like. To give you some guide as to their size the brown things in the pic are empty brine shrimp shells. The fry are minute at this stage. You would be luck for them to be as long as the head is in this picture when they hatch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted April 13, 2008 Report Share Posted April 13, 2008 If they spawned immediately they were put in it is possible they have hatched. In this case the male will want the female out of it. He will be picking up the fry and spitting them back up into the nest constantly. Can you get a pic or something? Even if you don't know how to post the picture email it to me and I'll have a look and post it for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted April 13, 2008 Report Share Posted April 13, 2008 If they spawned immediately it is possible that they may have started to hatch, but they wouldn't be darting around, more like sinking down. The male would be picking them up in his mouth and spitting them back into the nest. If that is the case he won't want the female anywhere near him. I think its more likely there is something else in the water. Can you get a pic and post it or email it to me and I'll post it for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 13, 2008 Report Share Posted April 13, 2008 They're to small to take a pic but I'll try of they're about a 1/4 of a mm and the and every now and then they move around. He isn't picking them up or spitting them in his bubblenest . Some may be swimming upwards I'm not sure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted April 13, 2008 Report Share Posted April 13, 2008 if you look at the bubblenest side on if there are hatched fry in there you will see what looks like fine cotton threads hanging down. These are the tails. The heads are normally up in the bubbles. Can you borrow a magnifying glass or something like binoculars to magnify what you see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 13, 2008 Report Share Posted April 13, 2008 They are deffinately fry as I've got my torch out and shone it on one and it turned it from a tiny wee dot to a dot with a tail. The male isn't a good parent I'd say cause he hasn't put them in his nest. Should I take the male out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted April 13, 2008 Report Share Posted April 13, 2008 No leave him there, he may be better than you think. You'll need to get her out though if you haven't already. They must have spawned immediately they were put together and he must have blown the bubble nest later. Leave him with them for another 24 hours and then carefully remove him as well making sure he doesn't have fry in his mouth when you do so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 13, 2008 Report Share Posted April 13, 2008 The fry are swimming normally not upwards. So all the stuff that was ment to happen in about 72 hors happened in 17. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted April 13, 2008 Report Share Posted April 13, 2008 Is this the tank that you tried a spawn in the other time? If so did you leave the water and heater in there all the time in between. I'm thinking that maybe these are from the previous spawning. If they are they will not have grown a huge amount if they haven't been fed specifically for them. It is not possible for this to happen in such a short a time at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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