altaaffe
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@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.
I have a belief that these little fish can behave a little like dwarf cichlids at times & like to set up their own territories for spawning, trying to lure the female to the best spots in the tank.
When I put some Blyxa into the tank a few weeks back the males started vying for it instantly.
I keep a whiteworm culture on the go, they get live worms twice a week and crushed tetrapro colour all other times.
They are about 1 to 1.5 mm at a rough guess & clear. I’ve sucked them out using a gravel vac as they are also not very sticky
Hello there, I’m also in Scotland (Moray) and have CPDs.
I’ve got a 180l tank dedicated to breeding them and they share this with Amano shrimp.
As for planted tank, it’ll save money in the long term getting a CO2 fire extinguisher and a regulator & solenoid, you don’t then have fluctuating CO2 levels. I bought my last lot off ebay for around £60 and that should see me with enough CO2 for a couple of years. There are plenty of plants out there that will be able to cope but you’d be better visiting a dedicated aquascaping site for advice such as http://www.ukaps.org/
As for the water, it sounds the same as mine & the pH level according to a test kit could be a false indication due to the very low kH (my water is at kH 1) when dosing with fertilisers & CO2 it will raise the hardness & provide stability for the pH.
All the best though
Al
I have a dozen or so juves that are ready to move on. I “may” be down south in August for holiday (live outside Inverness) so if you’re interested I may be able to drop in your way and sell them on. But let me know by PM.
Al T
The substrate has 2 levels, the bottom layer is a specialist plant substrate (I’ve used Tetraplant complete) with fine gravel on top. CO2 is injected at at around 1 bubble per second & I feed the plants Tropica liquid food 10ml 3 times a week.
Lights & CO2 are on for 10 hours a day
The plants were allowed to grow unchecked at the beginning & once things were stable in the tank added shrimp (Caridinia Japonica) to keep on top of any algae issues once the fish were added. Then afetr a few days with the shrimp, the fish were added. PH fluctuates through the day as the CO2 level rises (turned off at night via a soleniod)from 7 down to 6.5, Ammonia stays at 0, NO2 & NO3 are at 0.
I carry out a 25% water change every week and have to trim the plants every couple of days now.
Other than that I can’t really think of anything else, except, that there were a lot of plants to plant in the beginning to keep algae under control.
It’s a 180litre tank with 156W of lighting, with water displacement, etc it probably works out around the 1W per litre mark.
4 x 39W T5 tubes at 10000K
@celestialdude wrote:
What’s the name of the plant that you have mostly on the bottom? The one with spiky leaves fanning in a circle?
It’s Heteranthera Zosterifolia, I’m letting it grow a little wild just now but have started cutting it back to the shape I want. Eventually, I want it to grow in a bank up the left side of the tank and it cut it back a bit closer to the rocks once it has fully regained itself after the CO2 debacle.
Well it’s been a few weeks & with things stabilised all fish are back in their rightful homes & the plants have started to recover. The Glossos is slowly coming back after looking dead and I’ve even got signs that the hairgrass is coming back after it looked like it had disappeared.
and I even like looking at the tank when it’s gone dark
I overstock my community tank (180l) slighlty but counter this by planting, nitrate reduction in the filter & 50% water change every week. Nitrate stays at or below 5 ppm even when after a recent disaster my wife put all my CPDs from their tank into the already crowded community. They got on perfectly well with Copper Harlequins, Leopard Danios, Cardinal & Neon Tertas and Glowlight Danios, not to mention various Corys & 4 clown loaches that are being grown out.
If your plants are taking up most of the nitrate burden then there should be no problems with their fellow tank mates but as said above fish can be fickle things !!
