The cyclone and the population

[uterusbruiser]

I’ve had a 90 gallon for 3 years now with populated with congo tetras (4) danios, fan tailed danios, neon tetras, lantern eye tetras, 2 dragon gobys, and 3 tire track eels. I drove to my local family owned pet store to purchase 10 ghost shrimp for my congo tetras dicovered a new food source and spotted these tiny, beautiful fish (1/8″) I was told the were galaxy rasboras, new to the industry. so i bought all 4. I bought a breader attatchment to keep them safe and started doing reaserch on my new pals. I was ashamed and startled by the fact that these guys are on the brink of extinction in the wild and a cyclone may have killed the rest of the wild population. I am at a total loss here for I am not a proffesional breeder and don’t want to risk losing these precious few i have. everything I’ve read claims they are very easy to breed but what do you do with the babies? I did not buy these to make any sort of profit, and if the cyclone did desimate the last populous where do we as fish enthusiast stand? I’ve never even heard of this fish before and now i feel guilty for owning them. anyone in the us can call me @ 979-481-1577 or e-mail me @ halochamp@sbcglobal.net.

thank you,
Joe Corona

[altaaffe]

I don’t think there is any reason to feel ashamed mate. The best you can do is give them a good life and if you have the facilities to breed them, then do so. I gave away a good number of my first spawnings but am now in the position that I can make some money off them. At the same time they have one of the best tanks in the house.

As an aside, I took on some Konia whose lake was decimated by a volcano, the sole purpose of this is to breed them and keep their species alive, not quite the same as the overfishing that went on with the CPDs but I consider that I’m now doing my bit for keeping these 2 species going. I wouldn’t have thought that they would be completely decimated in the wild but we now need to do our bit to keep the industry stocked with tank bred specimens.

[uterusbruiser]

The more I thought about it, ( and lost sleep) the more I considered donating them to a state run museum. Now after lenghty discussions with my wife we’ve decided to purchase a 50 gallon tank and set it up with the sole purpose of breeding. I live in the United States and will make them avaliable to any and all parties interested totaly free of charge. Of course certain criteria must be met to ensure they won’t go to a “fish bowl” for a 5 yeard old child. these guys are 1/4″ long not 1/8″ as previously reported. You can see the spots on them now, and from what i can tell (its very early to postively sex them) it looks like I have 1 male and 3 females. Again it is way to early to tell. I really enjoy this site there is an absolute plethora of information and perhaps i can get some pictures of these little guys up on the forums soon.

[tedr108]

I felt a little bad for buying CPDs also, when I first read up on them. However, I don’t think I lost any sleep.

I’ve read both sides where the CPDs are almost extinct and where the CPDs are doing just fine in the wild. The reality is probably somewhere in between.

If the cyclone did decimate the wild population (seems doubtful to me), all I can think of is how lucky we are that some of us have them in captivity and can continue on the species.

[chr15_8]

hi good luck with breeding them.

has anyone got any link about the cyclone please. first ive heard of it but havent been on for a while

thanks
chris

[tedr108]

No links, Chris, but if you search for “myanmar cyclone” on the web, you’ll get more than you can handle.

[chr15_8]

thanks ted.

im looking now. hope there are fine though-

[misterchengmoua]

dont feel bad. just give them the best conditions that they can possibly have. do try and breed them though. feed them lots of live food and quality flakes/pellets. toss them into a smaller tank that is loaded with java moss. pull em out the next day. in a week or so start feeding bbs to your new fry.
i keep lots of rainbowfish species and most of them are endangered in the wild. some are even on the brink of extinction. do what you can to keep them going and once you have enough, start passing on the young.
good luck

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