First time owner, looking for breeding tips

[fishscale]

Hi, I will be getting a shipment of these guys next week, and would like to breed them in a display tank, since I don’t have a place for a separate fry tank. If/when I move to a bigger place, I will set one up, but for now, I just want to have some degree of success in the adult tank. I am aware that the adults are quite voracious fry/egg eaters, but just humor me and give me some advice anyway.

The setup:
Tank: 20g Long
Filter: Eheim 2215
Substrate: Eco-complete and sand
Lighting: 2x55W Coralife fixture run on a noon burst

Plants:
HC
Dwarf Hair Grass
Stargrass
Hygrophila ‘Porto Velho’
Hygrophila Polysperma
Java Fern ‘Phillipine’
Fissidens Fontanus
Taiwan Moss
Blyxa Japonica

Intended stocking:
20 CPD
10 Pygmy Cories
RCS

As you can see, the tank is fairly heavily planted. However, there is also a good amount of open space. I hope that the CPD will not be shy and swim in this space. I also hope that there is enough cover for for the fry.

My questions:
Do CPD school?
Are they more likely to breed in a large group?
Where do they spawn and drop eggs? (In plants, on bare substrate, is there a nest, etc)
Does keeping the adults well fed help at all?

[altaaffe]

@fishscale wrote:

Do CPD school?

They will tend to move in smaller groups & in a heavily planted tank will hide under cover most of the time but they do come out if patient and the groups will merge together.

@fishscale wrote:

Are they more likely to breed in a large group?

They will breed in small groups and in a larger tank with many spawning sites small groups can claim these as territories.

@fishscale wrote:

Where do they spawn and drop eggs? (In plants, on bare substrate, is there a nest, etc)

The male (or males) will drive the female through the plants when mating – your blyxa will be a good spot (as is mine)

@fishscale wrote:

Does keeping the adults well fed help at all?

definitely, & I got better spawnings when feeding live whiteworm twice a week, which was my live food of choice.

By keeping them in a tank like this you will get fry but not as many as putting them into a purpose breeding tank and then removing them. I also do it this way though and I vac the main spawning areas & get newly hatched fry & eggs which are then deposited into grow out tanks with the water from the planted tank. I also keep my eyes open for free swmmiers and rescue them ASAP as they will get eaten.

[fishscale]

What do you use to move them? Turkey baster?

[altaaffe]

@fishscale wrote:

What do you use to move them? Turkey baster?

No I just use a plastic jug but you could use that

[Jmerk]

altaaffe
what makes a tank a “purpose breeding tank”?

[altaaffe]

It’s a species only tank although mine has shrimp as a cleaning crew. The tank is a 180litre (about 47 USG) and houses around 30 CPDs.

I’ve currently been rescaping mine so the fish haven’t bred for a while but I can see they’re settling down now.

At their height I was getting 20-30 fry a week that were removed at water change time each week and put into a separate fry tank.

[Author]

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