bully breeding experiences

[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

[blueether]

Very good write up.

This is something that I have done accidentally and had one fry survive in my community tank of natives - how it managed to survive all the mouths I'll never know.

I have tried twice from eggs but I think the containers I used were too small and had large numbers die off very quickly and had none survive the second week.

I'll have to give this another try at some time with my Cran's, and if that works with common and redfin.

This year I caught 4 bully fry, redfin by the looks, at a stream mouth as it flowed across the beach. The fry were only about 4 to 6mm. These were placed in a shallow setup that I was playing with that was full of fry sized food - greenwater, daphnia etc. They have all survived and are now about 25mm. So it is possible to raise redfin fry in an aquarium, the first week or two might be interesting...

[chopper]

I found container size doesn't really matter so long as you don't over stock and are meticulous with cleaning. I have raised 8 in a 20cm cube( ice cream container size) but with something this small its really dodgy as water quality deteriorates very quick. I use 75 cm tank to place in eggs then separate fry after a few weeks. I separate into 45 cm tanks they are good as you can put in decent size filters if you need to. After they get about 2cm I put them in shallow tubs these have those Penn plax small world filters in them placed on their side( I don't buy new cartridges for these, I just pulled the back off the original one and insert new stuff which is cheaper). Another good idea to raise slightly larger fry is to put them in live bearer breeding traps in deep water. In there they get good water quality and most of the un wanted food and waste drops out the slots to the bottom of the bigger tank which can be siphoned off once every few days or gets sucked out by a powerful filter ( which has its intube directed away from the fry tanks but circulating enough current to keep water fresh and push waste towards outlet). As they get larger I place in ever increasing tank/ tub sizes. Some of the adults are kept in show tanks with substrate, water plants etc. Others are kept in tubs/ fish bins with no substrate and cut pipes and bottles to hide in. They breed in both tank set ups. The tubs are easier to clean but don't look no where near as good as tanks. But tanks cost lots, tubs don't. Both get frequent water changes which includes using pond water and their tank water is dumped into 1 pond I have stocked with water plants. Their waste along with those from my goldfish tanks makes the pond plants grow. And when the aquarium plants look worse for wear I swap em with fresh pond plants. This pond also contains swarms of critters to feed the bullies. The bullies are fed mostly fresh food, white worms, mosquito larvae, black worms, earth worms, water boatmen, snails. They are particularly fond of goldfish fry and axolotl larvae and small tadpoles which they get for a few weeks of the year when these are breeding. When fresh food runs short I revert to feeding em ox heart, prawns, fish( but they are not to keen on these last two). Apart from the show tanks the others have no over head electrical lighting units. I have these but don't use them as their is enough ambient light entering the room. If I want a close look at the occupants I use a work light. I let algae grow all over the walls so long as its not to thick or blocks veiwing of occupants. If fry are injured or sick I cull them by feeding to other fish and if other fish fry are the same I feed them to my bullies. I have never had an adult bully die or be sick for that matter. I have had them injured from fights but they don't succumb to sickness. If I go on holiday during the times fry are being raised I dump them in the pond contain water plants and inverts and they do just fine. I fish em out later and they are big and fat.

At this current point in time one of my breeding units is getting an upgrade so has nothing in it, this is my bully one, all my bullies are in my ponds I will attempt a recapture later( I catch at night or drain them), I do have 8 juvenile bullies housed in another set up though. Another is full of common goldfish juveniles( goldfish are my main interest), and another is half full with a mixture of things ( bullies , axolotls, goldfish, mud crabs). I used to have tropicals but it got too expensive to run on my limited income so swapped back fully to bullies, goldfish which I have always kept. I used to breed axolotls up until rather recently but got rid of these ( most of them) along with my frogs etc in favour of natives and goldies.

[Mikey]

Sounds like you are having good success in breeding bullies, it is good to hear... getting them naturally breeding in captivity is a long term way of safeguarding the species if we lose the wild populations... which I hope we don't come to!

Just look at what's happened with White Cloud Mountain Minnows, they are basically extinct in the wild. It is mainly the aquarium trade and breeding in captivity that has kept the species alive.

Thanks for sharing you experience and how you do it.

PS: If you ever have an overstock of bullies I would be more than happy to take some off your hands. I'd rather obtain captive bred ones than take them from the wild population, as I'm not sure how thriving my local bullies community is doing. Which reminds me... I need to go spotlighting and check up on things!

[chopper]

I was actually thinking at one time to swapping my entire setup to keeping and breeding bullies. Figuring out whether it was possible to raise those whose young migrate to the sea in the aquariums would be rather fun I reckon. I reckon Tarndale would be worth acquiring and raising due to its restricted range which may come into more threat in the future, despite the current status of it being safe regardless of it being predated by the numerous trout in its habit. But I'm not sure of the legalities about obtaining this species? If its possible I could get one quite easy as I live close to where it is found. Like I previously said I have a keen interest in goldfish but have thought in the past that they are so common throughout the world it might be worth switching over my setup. The only problem that worries me is what to do with all the offspring as I can only get so many tanks/tubs., otherwise I will have to cull them, which isn't a prob with goldfish of course, but not something I like doing to bullies! I live in the south island so I cannot ship to north island and I can't get Crans as its only found in the North Island.

[M@.]

Would be awesome if you could manage to raise a diadromous species in captivity. I am planning on having a go with my redfins if they spawn again this year.

Am I right in thinking you can get a permit to sell natives? (just wondering how Koura farms would work otherwise. That, and the pet centres around Wellington have been selling shrimp for over a year, so must have a permit/supplier)

A species like redfins could potentially have a place in the market if you managed to breed them...

[chopper]

You have to apply for a fish farm permit I think and that alone costs $2000. So probably not worth it in the long run.

[blueether]

Would be awesome if you could manage to raise a diadromous species in captivity. I am planning on having a go with my redfins if they spawn again this year.

Am I right in thinking you can get a permit to sell natives? (just wondering how Koura farms would work otherwise. That, and the pet centres around Wellington have been selling shrimp for over a year, so must have a permit/supplier)

A species like redfins could potentially have a place in the market if you managed to breed them...

the 4 redfin I have are doing well, not eating dry food yet though. I'm not positive that they had gone to sea either, although they may have

[chopper]

What dry food brand/type do you feed them blueether? I haven't tried using dry food before, but may have a go seeing as you seem to have success. McDowall says he only managed to keep redfin for nine days post hatching before they expired so maybe your onto something.

[blueether]

The redfin don't seem to be eating dried food yet, although I seen them pick and spit it out, so there is some hope.

at a guess from reading papers I would say the redfin that I caught would have been 2 or maybe 3 week old about 5 mm for the smallest and maybe 7 mm for the biggest - so they would have been past the hardest stage.

They were caught in water that was between 10mm and 50mm on a blacksand beach about 1 to 1.5m above the high water mark where a small stream flowed along the back of the beach before wandering to the sea. The areas would have been very rich in small food.

I have found young, sub-adult, redfin to be very picky eaters anyway.