BallAquatics
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@plunket wrote:
One of the changes I’ve introduced on my method is that I’ve invested in an RO unit – I was a bit concerned to find that my tap water TDI is over 300 so I’m going to try using RO for all my system water. Do you have an opinion on this?
My water here is also very hard with a high TDS reading, but I use rain water rather than RO to soften it up a bit. For breeder set-ups, I often use a 19:1 ratio of rain water mixed with tap water. I always add just a bit of tap, even for my softwater plecos. The rain has NO buffering and will pH crash very easily. Just a splash of tap and all is good.
@plunket wrote:
At what point do you start this feed?
I normally feed the 5-50 micron size along with green water for the first 7 to 10 days. Once the fry are large enough to eat newly hatched brine shrimp I feed the bbs along with daphnia moina and sometimes micro worms. At around 30 days old, I move the fry into larger tanks and start feeding more prepared foods along with the live foods.
Dennis
@raven_wilde wrote:
Dennis – can you direct me to the thread describing the setup that you link to in your original post?
Whenever I click on the link to it I get Error:500
I got the same error… I wonder what’s up with that??? http://www.celestialpearldanio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=855
Here’s the post from Monica about how she sets up her breeders…..
@monica wrote:
@Tom2006 wrote:
Hi Monica….WELCOME!!
Your English is great!!!….do you have a run down on your set up (s)? Sounds like you are breeding quite a few? Any tips you can offer us?
Hi Tom, thank you for te welkom
!A run down on my set up, i don’t now…what is a run down?? (now you see how bad my englisch is :oops: )
I’m breeding a lot off these fish, somtimes i’ve got > 500(several spawns), somtimes les.
On my attick i have 12 tanks in different sises, not nice to look at, but functional.
I always take 5 well fed fish, 2 female’s and 3 males (the alfa’s), and i put them in a tank with java moos , and very much plants.
The waterlevel is only 25/30 cm, no filter, only a airstone (is that the right word?)
In the time they are in the breeding tank, i feed them with live food like brine shrimp, and red muscito larve (the black one’s stay to high by the waterlevel, and so do the white one’s to).
That on a dayly base.
These fish aet mostely from the bottom off the tank while spawning.
Feeding them while spawning prefent them from aeting most of the eggs and fry.
The fry that make it to the watersurvase wil therefore survive :wink:After 5 til 7 days i take my 5 fish out the tank and than i wait.
My newest experiment is breeding in a bucket…that also works fine, and is a nice low budget solution :lol:The biggest spawn i had was over 180 fry from 5 fish in 5 days….yes i’m addicted :roll: :lol:
Here a few pics, sorry for the bad quality, its a simple camera, and i’m not so good in making pictures :lol:
This is a 80 cm tank and in these tank are 240, 8 and 10 week old fry on the picture aeting brine shrimp.
An ugly photo, but these where the 180+ fry, from 1 single spawn.
Dennis
@plunket wrote:
Hi Dennis
Sorry – should have said hello….it’s been some time since I was on the forum :oops:No need to be sorry. It’s good to see you back on the forum. A very interesting topic for discussion too.
@plunket wrote:
I would certainly defer to your experience on the subject – I am a mere part-timer :lol:
I’m certainly not trying to be the “expert” on the matter… just passing on methods that have worked well for me over the years.
My daily water changes are mainly to remove any growth inhibitor hormone and other unknown nasties that build up in fry grow-out tanks. I learned years ago, if you want strong uniform sized fry, you just can’t change too much water. If you read up on aquaculture methods, many farmers use what’s know as flow-through systems for this very reason.
I also feed lots of the Golden Pearls from the 5-50 micron size right up to the 500-800 micron size. It’s a fantastic feed in my opinion. I’ve never had any problems with it. I also feed lots of sinking pellets and wafers to fry once they reach about 1/2 inch in length. The Repashy gel foods are also a favorite of mine.
Dennis
That is certainly an interesting theory Plunket. I feed fry mostly live foods and perform large daily water changes, so perhaps this is why I’ve seen swim bladder problems only on the rare occasion. I would think that a commercial breeder would also be doing massive daily water changes. Quality water is every bit as important as high quality foods, maybe more so.
Dennis
I have a small breeding group that I first spawned back in the spring of 2010, but I don’t have any available for sale at the moment.
http://forums.tfhmagazine.com/viewtopic.php?f=83&t=27202
Dennis
@raven_wilde wrote:
With your permission, may I re-post those photo of the plants over on plantedtank.net?
Hi Jennifer. I got permission from Mr. U Tinwin of the Hein Aquarium to post his photos here. Unfortunately, I don’t have the authority to grant you permission to post them on other sites. Maybe you could just link you post over on plantedtank.net back to this post? If they were my photos I’d be glad to let you use them.
Dennis
I always cull any undesirable fish from a spawn. With CPD’s about the only thing I see are fish with swim bladder issues. It happens very rarely though.
Dennis
Hi Simon, welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear about your fry. Just off the top of my head, I would suggest larger water changes on a daily basis. Have you checked the water for ammonia or nitrite? Your other parameters sound good.
Dennis
Hi helpfish, welcome to the forum. Congratulations on your spawning success!
Your fry can go back in with the adults once they are big enough that the adults can’t eat them. That’s probably around .25 inches long. CPD’s are pretty smart as to what they can fit into their mouths and don’t chase the young ones around once they are too big to be seen as food.
Dennis
@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
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
@Soup12 wrote:
Can day 1 old cpd fry eat live brine shrimp?
They are just a bit too small to take brine shrimp as a first food. I usually start mine on bbs at 7 to 10 days. I feed all my extras to the adult breeders – they love it!
Dennis
Your originals are probably wild caught fish and will always be rather shy. Here’s a link to a pod cast where Charles Clapsaddle from Goliad Farms talks about how keeping fish in aquariums changes their behavior.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/wm-aquaculture/2013/02/25/fish-farms-goliad-farms
Dennis
I’ve raised fry and spawned adults in water as cold as 62F. My adults stop spawning when the water gets into the high 70’s. The fry grow fastest when kept warmer as it speeds up their metabolism.
Dennis
