Good first breeders?

[chinnp]

I'm thinking of giving another go at breeding fish. My LFS has said they'll give store credit if they decide to buy anything from me. I'm wondering what kind of fish would make easy fish to breed that would still be in demand. I'll prob have a 55 gallon tank to use for this project.

[Chickieepooh2u]

Guppies are hard to keep FROM breeding and they have babies every 28 days or so. I recomend 1 male for every 3 females.

[tricksterpup]

I'm thinking of giving another go at breeding fish. My LFS has said they'll give store credit if they decide to buy anything from me. I'm wondering what kind of fish would make easy fish to breed that would still be in demand. I'll prob have a 55 gallon tank to use for this project.
Try the American Flag Fish, a fish that is always in demand and will also breed for you, if things are correct.

[chinnp]

Try the American Flag Fish, a fish that is always in demand and will also breed for you, if things are correct.


How hard are they to breed though? My water is fairly hard and has a ph of around 7.8 straight out of the tap. I'd prefer to not have to mess with the chemistry of it much if I don't have to.

[tricksterpup]

How hard are they to breed though? My water is fairly hard and has a ph of around 7.8 straight out of the tap. I'd prefer to not have to mess with the chemistry of it much if I don't have to.
7.8 isnt to bad..
Check out this link for more info but here is something brief:
http://www.nativefish.org/articles/Jordanella-floridae.php


Spawning -- High vs. Low
The initial spawning in the 55G tank was at odds with the sunfish-like descriptions in many books. The tendency was to just say those authors were busy quoting each other and had not bothered to observe that the Jordanella floridae was a typical killifish that should spawn in mops near the surface. After all, everyone "knows" killies don't guard their young.

In the shallower tank, the difference in behavior was almost unbelievable. The mating dance changed completely, and the egg-laying looked almost as if it really was in the gravel. The male fanned the eggs, and in all ways fit the cichlid-sunfish-like pattern, described so often, before.

In the tall tank, earlier, eggs were rescued from the floating roots of duckweed and placed in a small fish bowl to gestate and hatch. One egg even floated in the meniscus at the top of the water. They weren't very sticky, and the one egg led to the belief that the eggs were buoyant. Later, the author observed that bottom-laid eggs were not buoyant. They pulled on attached fine strands of algae to hang down when undisturbed. The difference in spawning was so great it leads to speculation that the salinity or fat content of the eggs might be different for deep-water spawning and for shallow-water bottom spawning, to minimize egg loss.

The original mating behavior, in the deep tank, started with a male dance to attract the female. When she was receptive, she would swim up to him, and then lead him to some, often distant, part of the tank she had chosen to deposit her eggs. Snuggling together, head-to-head, she was always on top, with the male cupping her from below as they semi-inverted to push her vent up against the plants chosen. His unpaired fins all curled to clasp her in a cup as they lay on their sides, nearly parallel to the surface, and vibrated along the plants. Repeated several times each evening, there were long rest periods while they recovered. When resting, they tended to stay close and keep within easy eye-contact range.

In the smaller tank, the male so severely chased and bit the female that physical separation became necessary. He, not the Apisto, had been the fin shredder. Despite the fighting, both tried to find a way through the installed barrier. By the next morning, they were getting so frantic that it was removed. Spawning was resumed, right away.

This time, the female clearly led the dance. It takes quite a bit of room, and smaller tanks could be a problem here. She grabbed the exact center of the clearing, and pointed herself directly away from the male. Flicking little puffs of water at him with her tail, as he circled the clearing (always in a clockwise direction), he displayed his fins to her. She rotated with him to keep him visible in both eyes, and her tail pointed directly at him. Gradually, his circles tightened and/or she backed up until her tail was actually stroking his side with each flick. When he became sufficiently aroused, they moved to a side-by-side position and started a vibrating spawning pass over the gravel. Cupping his anal fin near her vent, she deposited the eggs on plant strands in rows as they slowly wriggled along.

Watching with a magnifying glass, it was possible to observe in detail. The spawning "in the gravel" was no such thing. Every single egg was getting deposited on a strand of hair algae, a root, or strand of Java moss. No eggs were seen attached to, or free, in the gravel.

Driving the female away, the male groomed and fanned the egg site. He thrust forward with his caudal fin and backward with his pectorals to create a strong current over the eggs, while tilted, head down, at about 30? the horizontal over the "nest." Several spawnings were completed, over the next few days, before he drove the battered female away for the last time. He diligently fanned and watched the eggs, driving the female into hiding whenever he could see her, and threatening the author whenever he approached the glass for a closer look.

Some eggs were lost to ramshorn snails (which the father ignored), but most hatched successfully, after about a week. No infertile or fungused eggs were observed. A portion of the spawned-on plants was removed, early in the process, to a small floating container, but most were left with the parents to see what happened. When all the eggs were hatched, the male still fanned and watched over them. The parents were finally returned to the big tank as the babies started to scatter on the second day after hatching started. The separated fry were returned from the floating container to the tank and the babies were started on infusoria, to supplement the already-active fauna of the aged water in the tank.

Yield of viable, free-swimming fry was very poor in the 10G tank. The earlier eggs, collected in the deep tank, hatched in a much shallower container, with much better results. Many killies do not develop proper swim-bladder function if trapped in too-deep water, and it is easy to speculate that this is true here, too. The fry struggle very hard to reach the surface as soon as they can swim. The few who do, seem to grow better and swim better than the ones left belly-sliding on the bottom. The ability to stay at the surface seems related to the first attempts to get there. Filling the swim bladder with air, early, may be critical.

[Toirtis]

Mollies, guppies, convicts, Ameca splendens...all are difficult to keep from breeding and produce truckloads of fry...especially large sailfin mollies, which can drop 100+ at a time.

[chinnp]

Mollies, guppies, convicts, Ameca splendens...all are difficult to keep from breeding and produce truckloads of fry...especially large sailfin mollies, which can drop 100+ at a time.


I've got a male convict, but there's not much market around here for off spring. I'm leaning toward the livebearers since they tend to be in demand around here. Especially guppies.

[tricksterpup]

I've got a male convict, but there's not much market around here for off spring. I'm leaning toward the livebearers since they tend to be in demand around here. Especially guppies.
Another fish you could try is Endlers. I would google some breeders and give them a try. You could raise a nice breeding colony in a 15 gallon in less than six months.
If you go with Live bearers try the more unusual ones, such as Limias, Merry Widows, endlers, Goodieds, and Wild Green Sailfin Mollies. These fish will command a higher price than just normal guppies, mollies, platies and swordtails.

[monkey_toes]

I would suggest cutting your teeth on something truly easy — platies come to mind — before making an investment in any rarer species. After you rear a few broods successfully, trade in the babies and their parents to get something less common.

[tricksterpup]

I would suggest cutting your teeth on something truly easy — platies come to mind — before making an investment in any rarer species. After you rear a few broods successfully, trade in the babies and their parents to get something less common.
Rarer species are not harder to breed, they are just harder to find. Mainly due to the fact they lost their popularity about 30-40 years ago in the trade, such as the Merry Widow.

[Web Gazelle]

If your up to it, Angelfish are next to impossible for stores to hold on to. Start with a group of juveniles and let them pair up as they grow together in your tank. Once you have a pair you can take the others to the store and see if you can breed your pair of Angels. Good luck.