MChambers
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@BallAquatics wrote:
Hi robeclay, welcome to the forum! Sounds like a nice tank you’ve got there.
Hey MChambers, how did the Dwarf rosy loaches work out?
Dennis
It’s a very pretty combination. I also have red cherry shrimp in that tank, so it is a profusion of reddish creatures swimming around.
Yes, I’ve done it without problem. I suppose it’s possible that shrimp are eating fry, but I certainly did not notice that.
I think they are fine in a community tank, as long as they are not with fish who will eat them. They’d be okay with corydoras, or guppies, or small cichlids, like Bolivian rams. Also, they probably won’t breed successfully in a community tank, but if that doesn’t matter to you, don’t worry about it.
I have rotifer and paramecium cultures and I sometimes use those. Hikari first bites and the smallest size of Golden Pearls are also good.
Separating fish by gender is a well known way of encouraging reproduction, but I’ve never done it with CPDs. I tend to get 15-30 babies simply by putting 5-6 into a small tank, such as your 10 gallon, with lots of moss and then removing them 4-5 days later and waiting.
Separating them with a divider might increase the output, I suppose, but CPDs don’t seem to need much encouragement to reproduce.
I have some, but I’m in Washington DC. There is a vendor in York, PA, who often has them. I don’t think she has any now, but you could contact her.
http://www.capitalcichlids.org/forums/showthread.php?t=11799
Did this breeding again, with 5-6 adults in a 5 gallon, and had results more like those of Dennis. Must have gotten 40 or so fry, which are now in a 15 gallon.
@BallAquatics wrote:
There are probably as many ways to spawn these fish as there are hobbyists spawning them. Over the past several years this is the method I’ve been using…
I put 2 males and 3 or 4 females into a 5.5 US gallon tank. The tank is unheated and has a small sponge filter with just a bit of water movement. I use a generous portion of Java or Christmas moss as a spawning site, the moss takes up around 1/4 of the tank volume and I push it down so it is in contact with the bottom of the tank. I have used bare bottom tanks and tanks with gravel substrate with equal success.
I leave these adults in the breeding set-up for 7 days feeding live foods the entire week. At the end of the week, I remove the adults into another breeder set-up and wait for fry to appear. Depending on the age and condition of your brood stock you can expect anywhere from 15 to well over 100 fry in the next couple of weeks.
I feed my fry green water and 5-50 micron sized Golden Pearls prepared food for the first week to 10 days. After that they move on to micro worms for another week to 10 days and finally on to baby brine shrimp. I normally leave the fry in the breeder set-up for the first 30 days doing daily water changes. At the end of 30 days I move groups of 65 fry into 20 US gallon long tanks for the grow-out process.
With quality water and food your fry will be sexually mature at around 12 weeks of age. I like to keep my water parameters around neutral pH 6.8 – 7.2 and hardness around 8 dH, but I don’t fuss with it too much. These fish are very hardy and will spawn under a variety of conditions.
I use essentially this method. I’ll transfer 5 or 6 fish into a tank with lots of moss and other plants (and often red cherry shrimp, BTW) and transfer them out up to a week later. I don’t necessarily feed them live food, however, which may explain why I don’t end up with as many babies as Dennis.
After the adults are removed, babies appear a few days later. Be patient.
Like Dennis, I feed them infusoria, microworms, and the smallest size of Golden Pearls. After a couple of months, the babies are big enough to avoid being eaten by adults, and I transfer them to another tank and start the process over.
@GaMeR wrote:
I’m trying some green water here for my first fry. But I don’t know if they are eating it, they are so tiny!
I hope I can find some fry food here, we don’t have any golden pearls sold around here. I’ll try some fine powdered flake & pellets.I don’t know where you are, but in the U.S. you can get Golden Pearls from http://www.kensfish.com.
