Babies at Last!
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I know that my fish have been breeding since I saw a little one a while ago that I was unable to capture. I have tried various methods that did not work for me.
A friend of mine uses a tank divider in a 20g long tank, he keeps the adults on one side for a few days and then puts them on the other side to let the eggs hatch. This has worked for him and the fry survive since they are separated from the adults.
I purchased a divider and let the adults have access to only half of the tank. I had moss in the bottom on the side that the adults were in. I waited a week and then put the adults on the other side of the tank with some new moss.
The night after I moved the adults I saw one tiny fry free swimming, the following night I spotted another one. That was a week ago, they are the only two that I saw. They are doing good and growing, needless to say I am excited!
In a day or so I will move the new fry to their own tank and move the parents to the other side again. Hopefully, I will have fry in the side they are on now once I move the adults.
My friend has been using this method since he first purchased his adults. In the past few weeks he has reported that he has over 100 fry.
I’m creating a divider that will go horizontally across the tank raised up about 6″ to allow eggs to fall through the holes but keep out the adults. There should be enough room for the babies to mature before mixing them with the adults
Thanks for all of your help Dennis! You are, in part, responsible for my success and without your help I would just own some very pretty fish!.
I am very excited and I watch the fry every chance that I get. My goal is to get some F1 for genetic diversity and then share the fry with others in the hobby. I realize that I am far from that dream but that’s why we call them dreams!
isaisbreetai
I remember reading your post about the horizontally divider, thank you for sharing your idea. Please keep us updated about your progress. I am open to trying anything that helps saving the eggs and fry.
The day after I posted that I had two fry, two more hatched out.
They are so much smaller than the first two that I spotted. I now have a total of four.
The parents are trying to get under the moss in the worst way so I think that there might be some eggs/fry in the moss on their side of the tank. I am thinking of trying the egg trap again that Dennis posted on one side of the tank.
Thank you so much! I found a new hatch in with the parents and was able to rescue it so my total is now 5.
I am going to get another tank and separate the breeding pairs and try Dennis trap again.
It proves to me that it is always the keeper not the fish that is doing something wrong.
I moved the parents to the other side of the divider last Sunday. Fry started to hatch out within hours of moving the parents.
Tonight I removed 15 more fry for a total now of 83. It seems as though they have taken off since I’ve been feeding the adults white worms.
I am using a turkey baster to transport the fry to their own tank. Most of the newly hatched fry stick on the glass and I suck them up with the turkey baster.
I am also using the baster on the fry that I have to net. I net them and then suck them into the baster. I moved two using just the net and they immediately dropped to the floor of the tank. By using the baster they do not come out of the water and they all seem to be doing well.
I have over 200 fry now. I am still using a turkey baster to remove them from the breeding tank to their own tank and it is working out very well. I move the parents to the other side of the divided tank every 10 days. There always seems to be fry appear once I move the adults to the opposite side.
I had to remove the 10 fry from the first hatch because I feared that they were getting large enough now to eat the newly hatched. :roll:
They are starting to show color now and I am surprised at how fast they grow.
@MoeBetta wrote:
Excellent AG!
It sounds like this has worked very well for you!
Thank you so much! It is working out well but at times it is tedious trying to suck up those tiny babies but well worth the effort.
Dennis method is most likely an easier solution. I set up another 20g long tank and will be placing some of the breeders in there with egg traps to see if it works better for me this time.
To be honest, mine hate the egg traps.
I get almost no eggs in the traps, I’ve counted nine so far.
If I just put a clump of java moss in the corner I can usually vac out a bunch of eggs every three days.
I pick up moss slowly and keep it over the place it was, transfer it to the fry tank, vac the area where it was, an replace with a fresh clump. This has been my personally successful method, which is a bummer, because I was excited about that egg trap. Maybe it works better in a bare bottom.
Hey AquaGirl, I’m really glad that you’ve had much success on your celestial pearls.
I’ve recently begun to breed my own and I thought this project was unsuccessful (I was able to sex them about 2 months ago) until I found 3 fry swimming nearby the top of the tank today. I readjusted the 20 gallon long with a divider so that one side can house the fry and the other contains the adults. I’ve no clue how they successfully managed to breed (I had recently separated males from females for the past 2 weeks to condition them).
Thus, I was wondering if you can leave a more detailed layout of how your tank is setup, etc. The egg trap has been very unsuccessful for me since they don’t even bother to hang out at that level (they stay very low and get very timid around the egg trap glass).
Also, what have you done to keep the fry alive? I don’t know what to feed the three surprises that I have right now.
Thanks for your time.
@MoeBetta wrote:
To be honest, mine hate the egg traps.
I get almost no eggs in the traps, I’ve counted nine so far.
If I just put a clump of java moss in the corner I can usually vac out a bunch of eggs every three days.
I pick up moss slowly and keep it over the place it was, transfer it to the fry tank, vac the area where it was, an replace with a fresh clump. This has been my personally successful method, which is a bummer, because I was excited about that egg trap. Maybe it works better in a bare bottom.
Mine don’t seem to like the trap either, so I think I’m going back to just having moss and other floating plants (elodia, etc.) and swapping the plants out to a fry tank every week or so.
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