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Sophia's minifish breeding log - vid update p12


Sophia

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:lol: Decided to keep track of my efforts by starting a log.

After a few weeks of messing around in my fish room I've ended up with 2 breeding/grow out tanks for my fishy experiments. I did have rasbora maculatus in here but that didn't come to anything. Now there are danio margaritatus (celestial pearl danio/galaxy rasbora) and danio erythromicron (emerald dwarf rasbora).

In this breeding box are 2 male and 2 female CPDs.

Tank approx 25L, box filter.

Who says girls can’t make stuff?

:digH:

The box. Holes now plugged.

breedingexperimentstarted24Dec1.jpg

Mmmm nice gluing. Astute plastic box aficionados will notice the cut up Clipit grill as the base.

breedingexperimentstarted24Dec3.jpg

Closeup of my gluing skills :rotf:

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Box in situ

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Eggs ‘should’ fall through to the tank where I will scoop them up and put them in the netting box.

Netting box since attached to tank separately.

breedingexperimentstarted24Dec5.jpg

Separate breeding tank

Left to right – 7 danio erythromicron (emerald dwarf rasbora) (I originally bought 5, then 1 disappeared, presumed dead. Bought 2 more. Found the 7th one this morning after approx 1 week of being missing :lol: .

Middle - moss where there may be eggs lurking. Marbles & gravel on bottom.

Far right - previous abode of CPDs, possibly eggs lurking also.

Divider suckers from HFF. Dividers made of Perspex. Tank approx 25 litres. Sponge filter.

breedingtank.jpg

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You may have better success if you leave the eggs in the tank, Add a small amount (a few drops) of acriflavine or meth blue--might stain, Then move the fry when they are a bit bigger and more robust. Remove the adults, seperate males/females and spawn again in 10-14 days. Many fish have a problem with the eggs becoming calcified (particularly tetras and fish that like soft water) so breeding them frequently may help with that.

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Do you mean leave them in the bottom of the tank after they fall through? I was going to keep them in the same tank but move them in the net breeding box next door in same tank. So to clarify, in one tank are CPDs, in the other there are erythromicron. Each has a compartment for spawning and a compartment for eggs/fry. I understood that eggs don't like change of water too much and young fry also so I was aiming to keep them all in their original tanks till they are big enough to put elsewhere.

Have added a second airstone to the CPD tank.

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That is exactly what I was trying to say only you worded it better. I am not familiar with breeding those fish but fish that spawn best in soft acid water will often come out of spawning with velvet so the acriflavine is good for that. Methylene blue is often used to stop the spread of fungus from infertile eggs to fertile ones, but it stains. I try to avoid using either unless I have to.

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EXCITING NEWS FROM THE WORLD'S NEWBIEST BREEDER!!!

9.gif8.gif3.gif9.gif2.gif

Just found 13 golden eggs laying on the bottom of the tank, scooped them up and put them in the moss in the net box. Have put some meth blue in the tank too - it says 1 drop per 20 litres, I put 2 drops as it's over 20 - could I have made a bluey by over-blueing it?

My husband says they weren't there this morning so they must be freshly popped. Which could explain the cheeky and sneaky look the fish gave me when I went down there. At this stage I don't even care if they hatch, I'm just pleased the breeding box has worked to get the eggs done and then able to be saved.

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Now that you know the size of the eggs you might like to consider making a trap with s/s mesh which might be safer. Even cheaper is the metal mesh used for making whitebait nets if it is the right size. No chance of parents getting trapped then. Since it is obvious you have untold skills with a hot glue gun.

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My skills with a glue gun ARE untold, till now. It's up to you Alan, to tell everyone about it.

Do you know where to get said mesh? Also won't stainless steel mesh still rust, at least eventually if not immediately?

I also saw this on TM yesterday, looks like a good idea but am waiting for him to post the measurements of the gap the eggs fall through and the dimensions of the box. http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=434990670&permanent=0

what about this sort of thing? http://www.discountfishingsupplies.co.nz/shop/whitebait-nets-whitebait-mesh-c-47_235.html or

http://www.nettingsupplies.co.nz/materials-xidc55373.html

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S/S mesh is very expensiv, like $50 half sq M. Whitebait netting is far more affordable and can be bought from fishing tackle shops for a few bucks. I used to use small tanks with a smaller tank inside and the bottom of mesh which is the same idea as you have. It works for fish with eggs that are not too adhesive and will drop through.

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No new eggs yet but I found a fry in the actual tank so put him in the net box. Over a couple of days I have seen and removed a few cloudy eggs so the rest have somehow disappeared or hatched.

There are 2 of these on the bottom of the tank - will they eat eggs or are they only interested in detritus?

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTfUBZQaOVvb3qI5pobIiYsFGTrXQC_RqnWwui_iLpsiRwbYMFT2A

In other news, I moved all the gravel from the far right section of the erythromicron tank to the middle sothe far right has bare bottom, then rinsed the marbles from the middle and put them in the far right section with moss and erythros.

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Tank 1 (CPD)

Found a plastic mesh tray in plastic shop that has gaps wide enough for eggs for smaller than the current gaps in the other box so will transplant a piece of that to the original breeding box.

Tank 2 (erythromicron)

Decided I didn't like big marbles in the tank as the fish swim under them and through the crevices. Got some smaller ones, put them in and there weren't enough so there were gaps and they did the same thing. :facepalm: Have taken them all out again until I get some more/make their room smaller/make another breeding box.

Fry - still alive

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The Incorrigible Fiddler went to work again today... instead of marbles in Tank 2/Erythromicrons I've put a thick layer of the $2 sized river pebbles in. Random enough sizes for eggs to fall through, thick enough layer that it should discourage the fish from burrowing. Since TheObstacle used these and had lots of corydora fry I thought it might work for the danios too.

Also gave them a couple of bits of broken terracotta pot where they like to hide.

I moved their original moss clump out and gave them another in case there were any eggs hiding in there.

Still no more eggy action in Tank 1/CPD. 2 fry are still alive though.

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I was thinking of swapping out the females in Tank 1/CPD as I still had found no more eggs, but as a last resort instead I decided to move the moss they were living in from the breeding box to the fry box. As I understood that the danio eggs are not adhesive, I didn't think anything would come of it but today I found at least 5 fry in the fry box :bounce: . Moss swapping is the technique used by some of the people on the CPD forum but I thought it would be prone to failure with the eggs dropping out when you move them, but now we will see.

So with the 5 fry in the display tank, I just have to get these ones to a month old and then I have 10 to register.

The experiment continues ... :smln:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Today's update

If anyone didn't see my thread in Diseases about accidentally poisoning my fish, this week I killed the 5 CPD (had moved another female in to get more eggs) and the 2 remaining fry by using rubber as a divider seal. When I have made sure the toxins are gone I will start Tank 1 again.

Tank 2 - erythromicrons - they have settled into their stoney bottom area well but I haven't seen any fry yet. I thought that the stones wouldn't give them any hiding places but my plan backfired (again) and they have become cave dwellers living among the stones. However if I shine the torch in to the terracotta pot cave on top of the stones there is usually someone in there. Can see they have coloured up very nicely with very prominent stripes.

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Tank 1 - ex CPD

So, some days on from the poisoning debacle I've had a test fish in there for a few days and it's behaving normally. The snails seem to be finally normal again too, they are moving about and eating. Test fish is a large female fighter so she is pooping enough to help the filter get back on it's feet if it wasn't functioning. There is a little carbon in the filter as well that I will take out in a week or so before putting fish in.

Tank 2 - erythromicron

Still no fry appearing from here, I would have thought they would have emerged by now if any were there hiding in the rocks. At the moment I am assuming the stones method was also unsuccesful and over my 3 week holiday I will have a poke around in there and see if any turn up.

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