What should i breed first??

[squirt_12]

ok so i am thinking of breeding either or of these but i am not sure which one i really want to right now. I know that i havemade a thread about cherry barbs breeding but i am not too sure if i want to breed them yet as i only have 1 male and 1 female.

would it be possible to breed my glowlights??? or would it be too difficult?? the thing i am wondering is....how do you tell if they have laid the eggs or not?? cause don't glowlights eggs need to be in a darker area in order to hatch???
thanks.

[squirt_12]

BUMP------anyone??

i can also add a bunch of plants to the tank and will have some meshy stuff on the bottom for the eggs to fall through onto the bare glass bottom.

[Fishalicious]

I have had these breed in the main community tanks - discovered little ones all of a sudden one day...

They really need soft water to breed - ideally KH below 1 and the PH at 6 - raise the temp as they spawn easier in warm water - feed lot's of live food. They usually spawn in the mornings they will swim around frantically and also up and down the glass then scatter upto 300 eggs per female. Remove the parents right after the spawning. Feed infusoria after 3 days and 2 days later start on baby brine shrimp.

The eggs will not stick and fall to the ground.. so a mesh is ideal or marbles

[squirt_12]

Thanks Fishalicious....was that for th glowlights or the cherry barbs??? or both in general??

in your opinion....which is easier??? and should i have a bunch of plants like on the sides and such??

[Fishalicious]

They are both equally easy... think we already discussed the barb breeding in a previous thread...the above is for glowlights

Most breeders breed in bare tanks so no substrate either so they can keep the bottom really clean once you start feeding the young... I tend to always go the route of having plants to make them feel more at ease and find they breed quicker when happier...

I use cabomba a lot with breeding or big huge knots of hornwort or Elodea Densa along the floor where the eggs also fall through and makes it harder for the parents to eat the eggs...

Breeders all do it differently and all do it the way that works for them ;) It is a case of trial and error and trying things yourself... see what works for you the best

[squirt_12]

ok...so i have a bunch of hornwort that i could use in the tank. so that would be ok. My tank is all cleaned out with a bare bottom right now so i have that covered...i have a batch of infursia (sp?) right now and i have some Brine shrimp eggs and can easily make some BBS.

how do i tell if they have laid the eggs??? that is something i have always wanted to know?? do you just look for eggs??? o is it ok if i have a powerhead running or should i turn it off???

[Fishalicious]

You can leave all the other equipment as is... do put a panty over the filter intake though so no babies can get sucked up... it is actually better for fry to grow with some movement in the water as it makes them stonger from swimming with the flow all the time (as long as they are not being shoved too one side by the current LOL)

I always watch my fish spawning but you can also usually tell by the female who goes from bulgy to skinny Watch out for the frantic swimming in the morning .... they will then spawn... if you miss the spawning itself you can tell because they will be swimming normal again or showing a great interest in the floor trying to eat the eggs....

With a bare bottom you will most likely be able to see the eggs - get the magnifying glass out hehehe

Only thing is you are going to have to soften the water for them to spawn... mine didn't spawn until they were in one of the amazon tanks with a KH of 0 and PH of 5.5 ...

[squirt_12]

how would i soften the water??? i think that i will have to take the powerhead out then because it gives alot of flow and it sucks up water pretty good.

[NickFish]

Whoa that's a pretty low pH.
The tank should also be pretty shaded with a bunch of floating plants.

[Fishalicious]

Soften water by filtering over peat for example...you need to get the KH down to buffer the PH

I was keeping Apistogramma iniridae & Apistogramma elizabethae which need a low PH in the tank