Should I separate the males and females prior to breeding?
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Hello everyone, this is my first post here although I’ve been lurking for a while. I’m going to try my hand at breeding these little fellows within the next month and I think that I’ve got a pretty good understanding of what I need to do but there are a few questions that occur to me every now and then.
Today’s question is:
I’ve read – and was told by the LFS employee that I bought my CPDs from (and I trust that she knows here stuff, I got them from Pruess in Lansing and they breed their own CPDs onsite) that I should separate the males and the females for a while during the conditioning period. Apparently absence makes the heart grow fonder
Do anyone else do this? And if you do, do you condition them in the same tank (say with a divider) or do you move one sex into your breeding tank first and then introduce the other?
Also, I’ve read on this forum that the males need to develop territories… so should I move the males to the breeder tank first and then introduce the females? Or would it be wiser to have one male in the breeder and then give him all the females? Some of the females?
I’m interested to know your thoughts on this
And if it helps, this is what I have going on:
30 gal long planted community nano-fish tank- this is where my 5 adult (2 males, 3 females) CPDs currently reside along with some Boraras maculatas, pygmy cory cats and cherry shrimp.
10 gal breeder tank that I’ve cycled and am currently setting up a moss carpet for spawning – it has a sponge filter, heater, etc.If you were me, how would you separate off the sexes?
Separating fish by gender is a well known way of encouraging reproduction, but I’ve never done it with CPDs. I tend to get 15-30 babies simply by putting 5-6 into a small tank, such as your 10 gallon, with lots of moss and then removing them 4-5 days later and waiting.
Separating them with a divider might increase the output, I suppose, but CPDs don’t seem to need much encouragement to reproduce.
I have in the past separated CPD’s prior to spawning. It mainly keeps them from spawning before you want and allows the females to build up a good supply of eggs. That said, it’s not something that I usually make a habit of. Like MChambers said, “Separating them with a divider might increase the output, I suppose, but CPDs don’t seem to need much encouragement to reproduce.”
If you decide to separate your fish, I’d put the females into the breeding tank and add the male later. I have no experience with males developing territories or even being aggressive towards each other. I currently have a 10 gallon tank with about a dozen mature males and every one is getting along fine. If I were to add a female to the tank, she would receive quite a lot of attention, but the males wouldn’t fight over her.
Dennis
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