Guest Posted May 6, 2010 Report Share Posted May 6, 2010 I'm not sure what the ph of my water is but I'll tell you when I find my ph test. I'm pretty sure after having 2cm layer of peat as a substrate it will drop the ph a bit plus I can use rain water if needed (does anyone know if it's safe to use water that runs down the downpipes off the roof?) Most cardinals for sale at the lfs are only about 2cms so I'm hoping this will be young enough to breed plus will be conditioning them heaps before breeding to get the biggest spawns I can. You also have to continuously breed the young fish otherwise the ovaries harden like you say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted May 6, 2010 Report Share Posted May 6, 2010 Have you tested the hardness of your water? PH doesn't really matter, well it does but it is alot easier to remedy than hardness. Peat will drop the PH a bit provided your KH is low enough for it to do so. Other things like oak leaves or even the alder cones may help too. The article suggests water of a conductivity of 20uS I know my rain water was around 100uS which is still pretty soft but 5 times harder than suggested. I am unsure if it will have any affect and if they NEED water that soft or not, I guess you will find out if you try it.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted May 6, 2010 Report Share Posted May 6, 2010 I know of people that have bred them with neons. They don't cross but the neons breeding encourage the cardinals. Another way is to use a little acriflavine (too much causes temporary sterility) rather than meth blue and pretreat the water with peat rather than put peat in the tank then spawn them over a net as they have non adhesive eggs. Neon eggs are not light sensitive but the fry are. Cardinal eggs and fry are sensitive to light. Another myth is that cardinals produce only a few eggs---in fact they produce a lot and frequently if breeding is managed properly. You will never get rich breeding fish but you will always sell neons and cardinals (bearing in mind that neons have been on trademe for $1.50). I know people down here who have bred thousands of both in ordinary Christchurch tap water pretreated with peat. The water here is about 45ppm hardness expressed as calcium carbonate. If you make the water too acid you can cause diseases in the fish. The main thing is to start breeding them young and continue to condition and breed them. Most people think you want large mature fish full of roe---not so. You can spawn neons every 4 days and a little longer for cardinals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 6, 2010 Report Share Posted May 6, 2010 Alright just tested my tap water ph and it's about 8.6 . So it looks like I'll have to use pure rain water with peat substrate to get it down around 5.5-6.5. I don't have a test for KH. That means my US (which I don't really have a clue means :lol: ) will be around 100Us. So how do I manage to get my US to 20?? Just want to do all the research before getting the fish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diver21 Posted May 7, 2010 Report Share Posted May 7, 2010 i believe you need a RO unit to decrease the hardness of the water, or there might be a bottled water that would be soft enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 7, 2010 Report Share Posted May 7, 2010 I don't have an RO unit and I'm not too keen on buying water for fish lol. I'm kind of having second thoughts about the cardinals because it seems way too hard to get the water right. I think I could get the PH right but not the KH (i don't really know what that means). I thought I'd ask for ideas on a different type of tetra/small schooling fish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted May 7, 2010 Report Share Posted May 7, 2010 If you did a full measure of all of your water parameters first then you would be able to figure out what you are working with, your water might just be fine to begin with.. Are you a member of a fish club or anything down those ways where you can take water along and get it tested? Maybe a petshop could also help. uS is micro Siemens which is a unit for conductance (ie a measure of the ability of something to allow the flow of electrical current). For this reason it can be used to measure how pure water is as impurities in it increase its conductance, it is a rough measure for softness of water.. There are plenty of other ways of expressing hardness as well. I suggest you have a read up on water chemistry here http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/c ... y_list.php it is all fairly useful stuff to know about because after all our water keeps our fish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 7, 2010 Report Share Posted May 7, 2010 I'm thinking I might start by trying to breed neons. I've read that they breed similar to cardinals but have less eggs and breed a little easier to cardinals. Even though their going to be worth hardly anything to sell it'll still be a bit of a fun challenge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted May 7, 2010 Report Share Posted May 7, 2010 Convicts might be easier but you can sell 1000 neons but not convicts. 1000 neons @ $1 each is still $1000. I used to breed 50000 fish a year and most were sold to wholesalers at less than a dollar each. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted May 7, 2010 Report Share Posted May 7, 2010 Rummy nose tetras are always popular Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted May 7, 2010 Report Share Posted May 7, 2010 Rummy nose are good but you can never have too many neons for sale. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morcs Posted May 8, 2010 Report Share Posted May 8, 2010 How about breeding some of the Burmese Odessa barbs? They are absolutely stunning Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted May 8, 2010 Report Share Posted May 8, 2010 Sounds like you need to try breeding a rummy nosed, Burmese odessa neon :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted May 8, 2010 Report Share Posted May 8, 2010 I saw the picture of those burmese odessa barbs that the wholesaler sent thought. they are pretty darn good that's for sure. I was very impressed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer Posted May 8, 2010 Report Share Posted May 8, 2010 How about the Sawbwa resplendens (asian rummynose)? They do well in hard water and they are the next big thing overseas in planted tanks but are hardly seen here yet. You could beat the oncoming trend as it moves to NZ. They have amazing colouration when seen in a big school - gorgeous blue sheen. I Googled them and found this helpful thread: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/fish/ ... -info.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 8, 2010 Report Share Posted May 8, 2010 I'm thinking I'll try breed the Neons but I'm also considering a different type as well. I'm mainly looking at Golden Pristella tetra and Penguin tetras. The penguins look awesome in a big group and apparently have large numbers of eggs. I've been reading a well conditioned female can lay 1000 - 3000 eggs but I highly doubt they would have that many. The Golden pristellas look cool because the have a red tail and three stipes on their top and bottom fin. Heres a pic of one except the tail is more red and the stripes are brighter on the ones I've seen. I haven't seen the burmese Odessa barbs or asian rummynose at any of my lfs. I don't really like the asain rummys as much as the normals as the normals have an awesome striped tail and school really well. Other tetras at my lfs are silver tip, black widows, serpae, black phantom, diamond, normal pristella, head and tail light, columbia, albino columbia, glowlight, ember, emporor, black neon, rummynose, cardinal and theres probably a few others. I just don't know which to choose :roll: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer Posted May 8, 2010 Report Share Posted May 8, 2010 Green fire tetras are nice. Everyone who sees them in my tank always wonders what they are and comments on how gorgeous they are. The photos don't do them justice, especially the white tipped males. Stunning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted May 8, 2010 Report Share Posted May 8, 2010 breed celestial pearl danios. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 8, 2010 Report Share Posted May 8, 2010 jenniferh - My lfs has some green fire tetras in at the moment but they're really sickly looking. Maybe when/if they get some nice condition ones in I'll have a look at breeding some. phoenix44 - To be honest I'm not a very big fan of celestrial pearl danios. I don't know why but they just don't look any good to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted May 8, 2010 Report Share Posted May 8, 2010 *sulks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 8, 2010 Report Share Posted May 8, 2010 lol. They just never look healthy as all the CPD I've seen have sunken kind of bellies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zev Posted May 8, 2010 Report Share Posted May 8, 2010 Green fire tetras are nice. Everyone who sees them in my tank always wonders what they are and comments on how gorgeous they are. The photos don't do them justice, especially the white tipped males. Stunning. They look greener in real life, and I managed to breed them, or should I say they managed to breed in my 2ft com tank by themselves... Here is a young-un. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer Posted May 8, 2010 Report Share Posted May 8, 2010 Nice pic! I must say that the green fire tetras have really won me over. When I got them I wasn't thrilled but they have really developed into beautiful fish and everyone always notices them in my tank. The males are especially impressive with their iridescent sides and fancy white fins - I love the little sparring dance they do! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 9, 2010 Report Share Posted May 9, 2010 I was just wondering if you could use the product PH down to get the PH down to get the water right for breeding tetras? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zev Posted May 9, 2010 Report Share Posted May 9, 2010 You would probably be better off conditioning the water in a large bucket or container by using peat and rainwater, rather than chemicals. I had neons spawning in a 20l tank that was half full of water with just some javamoss in the bottom, ph was about 7. You have to take the parents out pretty quick as they eat the eggs nearly as fast as they lay them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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