Best breeding stratagey

[BallAquatics]

Hi sindari, welcome to the forum!

@sindari wrote:

Dennis for the black coarse gravel do you just use the typical aquarium gravel most beginners get in clown puke colors?

LOL Yes, it’s nothing special just run of the mill substrate. Petsmart has some inexpensive TopFin black gravel in 10 and 25 pound bags. Wal-Mart and Meijer also carry inexpensive black gravel.

@sindari wrote:

What’s your process and how are the rest of your tanks set up for the grow out on up?

My 20 longs are set-up with more cheap black substrate. I used to use bare-bottom tanks, but I now believe the gravel holds micro-fauna that the fry will feed on. Each tank has a HMF, (http://www.swisstropicals.com/Poret%20Hamburg%20Mattenfilter%20Kits.html), at one end. I feed lots of live foods, bbs, daphnia, mosquito larvae, etc. and do large daily water changes. Lots of clean water is every bit as important as super high quality food. I normally put between 40 and 65 fry in each tank.

Using this set-up, I have fish that are sexually mature and quite often spawning at 12 weeks old. That’s when I like to start shipping them out, at 12 weeks old. They are typically 5/8 to 3/4 inch long and very easy to sex for buyers wanting a certain M/F ratio.

Hope this helps.

Dennis

[sindari]

Thanks for the welcome Dennis. I lurked a while ago and disappeared.

But recently I’ve gotten the itch to try my hand at breeding some of my favorite fish which include celestial pearl danios, pygmy corydoras, red neon pseudomugil paskai blue eye rainbow fish and am back researching breeding. I am also trying to figure out how to best set up a rack with breeding and grow out tanks for them all.

You mentioned having 5 – 5.5 gal tanks for each of your breeders. Do you also have 5 – 20 gallon longs to keep the batches of fry together or do you have more 20 gallon longs than 5.5 gal tanks? As you mentioned a 5 week rotation on the 5.5 gal tanks but a 8 week stay in the 20 gal longs.

You also mentioned a 30 day stay in the 5.5 gal breeder tanks. Is this in reference to when the adults are removed or after the fry appear?

Sorry for the barrage of questions, but I just want to get things figured out right. CPD’s are typically $12 to $15 each at the stores in the City up in Canada in which I live. They also aren’t always available. So I want to be able to produce enough for myself in perpetuity and possibly sell a few at my local club auctions.

Thanks in advance.

[BallAquatics]

@sindari wrote:

You mentioned having 5 – 5.5 gal tanks for each of your breeders. Do you also have 5 – 20 gallon longs to keep the batches of fry together or do you have more 20 gallon longs than 5.5 gal tanks?

I have 8 20 longs that I use for my CPD fry. It normally takes spawns from more than one pair of breeders to get the 40-65 fry per 20 gallon tank. When I get 300-400 fry going I rest the breeders. I am just a “hobbyist/breeder” and don’t have any interest in producing massive quantities of fry. I also keep and breed about 20 other types of Danios so there is only so much room for the CPD’s.

@sindari wrote:

You also mentioned a 30 day stay in the 5.5 gal breeder tanks. Is this in reference to when the adults are removed or after the fry appear?

The 30 days is after the fry appear. I normally start the clock when they become free swimming. I like to keep them “confined” as it’s much easier to be sure they get enough to eat this way. That’s also the reason for 40-65 in the 20 longs. If you put 15 fry into a 20 long they are searching for food. With 65 fry you put larger quantities of food and it’s easier for the fry to find. This is not limited to just Danios. Most of the breeders I know follow this same approach no matter what type of fish the are spawning.

I’ve found there is always a market for high quality fish. CPD’s are simply not that easy to mass produce so the prices for them stay high. I would think that you should be able to sell all that you can produce. I know they are always popular at the local club functions around here. Best of luck with your breeding projects!

Dennis

[sindari]

Thanks Dennis for the prompt and thorough replies it truly is appreciated.

I’ll likely try a scaled down verion of your set up as 2 – 20 gallon lons would likely be more than enough fry for myself in the future. I just wanted a good understanding of your process. Thanks again for that.

[shift]

I havented tried to breed my CPD’s in a while (since i was getting way to many)… I have a “tub” that i use for spare extra plants and what not.. i added some shrimp and CPD.. and keep seeing little fry appearing.. so the new system seems to run it self

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