Setting up a breeder tank
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First post, and (no surprises) I’m after a bit of advice regarding setting up a breeder tank.
I’ve just bought a 30x12x15 tank which I’m setting up in my loft and have struggled to find advice about how to set it up. It won’t be fully filled (as I’m trying not to overload the rafters and have the tank come through the ceiling) but should be filled to about 60-65L level.
What I’m looking at doing it using a tank divider create a main space for most of the fish, and a fry section. I’m planning to put spawning mops in the main part of the tank, and when they do spawn move the mops into the fry section and remove the eggs.
This will be the first time I’ve tried to breed any fish, so I was hoping someone could tell me if I’m going down the right lines.
One other question – as the tank will be in my loft, I was hoping to keep the tank without live plants and use fake plants and rock caves instead. Is that an option or are live plants pretty much a necessity? If so I’ll work around it but I’m trying to save on electricity at the moment.
How does that sound? If its a go-er, how big should the partitions be?
Thanks
ChrisI don’t know about the partitions, but I’d like to say a bit about the plants!
It really is almost a necesity to add plants if you want to create a healthy environment. Plants filter water from nasty things, they reduce algae by ‘eating’ the things algae need and they provide oxigen. If you don’t have enough light for plants, it probably isn’t enough for your fish either.
I would agree that plants are a very good idea, especially with fry. I have plants in all of my tanks. They really do keep a tank healthier. I’m sure there are people good at raising fry without plants, but they probably do a lot of water changes — that sounds a little inconvenient in a loft.
For that 20G tank of yours, you could get a cheap 18 – 20w flourescent light (around 30w would be better), which would use very little electricity for 10 hours per day. Put some anacharis and anubias and moss (for the fish eggs) in there — the plants and fish will do fine. These plants will do fine with no added CO2. You won’t need to fertilize the water much on such a low light tank either, as the plants will grow very slow.
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