killifish wont breed, need plant id, and need help aquascaping.

allaboutfish

AC Members
Jul 12, 2011
5,654
0
0
memphis, tn
Real Name
johnathon dunn
6081062048_623923d907.jpg

whats this plant?
6081054924_61104139e2.jpg

help me aquascape?
oh and my gardneri biassa killifish wont breed for some reason. i keep them in a lightly planted tank with a big hunk of java moss. its a pair. the tank is cycled. i feed frozen bloodworms and the temp is usually at 72.
thanks
 
Hard to tell but it looks like either a clump of microsword or a baby crypt. Does it have a rhizome that the leaves grow from in a rozette, or does it have runners with little plantlets growing off it?
 
How do you know they're not breeding? I never saw my C. bitaeniatum breeding, but always found fry in the tank. The gardineri are pretty voracious feeders, so it's possible they're eating their fry. Try adding a lot of floating cover. Wild and tangled definitely better than a managed scape for killies imo.
 
Hard to tell but it looks like either a clump of microsword or a baby crypt. Does it have a rhizome that the leaves grow from in a rozette, or does it have runners with little plantlets growing off it?
i think it does have a rhizome

How do you know they're not breeding? I never saw my C. bitaeniatum breeding, but always found fry in the tank. The gardineri are pretty voracious feeders, so it's possible they're eating their fry. Try adding a lot of floating cover. Wild and tangled definitely better than a managed scape for killies imo.
i never saw eggs and the breeder said that they didnt touch eggs and i look everyday
 
actually it doesnt really look like a rhizome. the leaves are comeing out singly in like a line. i need to know if i should plant it or not
 
As already stated, your gardneris probably are breeding. But some questions to ask...are they old enough to breed yet? Are they old enough to produce fertile eggs? Are they in a species only tank (which would preclude other fish or inverts eating their eggs or fry)?

If they're old enough and there are no other critters in the tank, then make sure you're feeding them plenty (live foods and flake) and that there's plenty of plants for them to lay eggs. Keep an eye out for fry, you'll see them eventually. In my brief experience with this exact species and population, I've found that the adults actually do eat the fry if the fry don't have enough places to hide -- and trust me I've read and been told by very experienced folks that they don't eat their own eggs and fry, but my experience has been quite the opposite.

Ideally you'd put the parents in a small tank for a week or so, with lots of plants or spawning mops, then remove the adults and give the eggs around 28 days to hatch. Personally, I just keep my breeding pair in a 10 gallon tank that's almost filled to the brim with java moss and other plants and let nature take its course. I'm finding a small number of fry, even with the adults in the tank.

Also, 72F isn't bad, but gardneris would probably enjoy slightly warmer temps and it might help spur them into breeding if you upped that to 76F or so. In addition, you may want to look at your water params and make sure the pH is in the 6.5 - 7.5 range, which I'm finding to be ideal, and of course, you want ammonia/nitrates/nitrites to be low. Furthermore, the adults can handle a wide range of water hardness, but you want the hardness levels to be fairly low. What you may try doing is skipping water changes for a week or two (just keep a close eye on water params to make sure nothing spikes too high) and then do a sudden 25% - 50% water change. Sometimes that alone will induce breeding behavior, again, assuming your fish are old enough and healthy enough to breed.

As far as the plant goes, I can't really help. The photo quality is just a bit lacking and the plant itself is small, so it's hard to say for sure.
 
Also, I wanted to mention that I never noticed eggs either, probably due to the vast amount of java moss concealing them, but that obviously doesn't mean the eggs aren't there -- I mean, I have fry so there had to be eggs at some point.

So, again, just because you aren't seeing eggs doesn't mean they aren't there.
 
As already stated, your gardneris probably are breeding. But some questions to ask...are they old enough to breed yet? Are they old enough to produce fertile eggs? Are they in a species only tank (which would preclude other fish or inverts eating their eggs or fry)?
breeder said that they should start breeding in a week or so and its been over a month. species only tank yes but MTS is in there.

If they're old enough and there are no other critters in the tank, then make sure you're feeding them plenty (live foods and flake) and that there's plenty of plants for them to lay eggs. Keep an eye out for fry, you'll see them eventually. In my brief experience with this exact species and population, I've found that the adults actually do eat the fry if the fry don't have enough places to hide -- and trust me I've read and been told by very experienced folks that they don't eat their own eggs and fry, but my experience has been quite the opposite.
they get blood worms every evening. half a gumdrop. they have a big clump of java moss, some anachris, some rotal, some jungle vals, and a big aponogeton.
Ideally you'd put the parents in a small tank for a week or so, with lots of plants or spawning mops, then remove the adults and give the eggs around 28 days to hatch. Personally, I just keep my breeding pair in a 10 gallon tank that's almost filled to the brim with java moss and other plants and let nature take its course. I'm finding a small number of fry, even with the adults in the tank.


Also, 72F isn't bad, but gardneris would probably enjoy slightly warmer temps and it might help spur them into breeding if you upped that to 76F or so. In addition, you may want to look at your water params and make sure the pH is in the 6.5 - 7.5 range, which I'm finding to be ideal, and of course, you want ammonia/nitrates/nitrites to be low. Furthermore, the adults can handle a wide range of water hardness, but you want the hardness levels to be fairly low. What you may try doing is skipping water changes for a week or two (just keep a close eye on water params to make sure nothing spikes too high) and then do a sudden 25% - 50% water change. Sometimes that alone will induce breeding behavior, again, assuming your fish are old enough and healthy enough to breed.
cant up the temp without upping the room temp. ph is 7.5 or 7.6.ill try skipping a week of water changes.
As far as the plant goes, I can't really help. The photo quality is just a bit lacking and the plant itself is small, so it's hard to say for sure.
what exactly do you need to see in the pic specifically
im in red. im thinking the plant is a crypt so i think ill plant it.
 
MTS, I'm not familiar with that acronym, but if it's a shrimp or snail species, I suppose it is possible they are consuming the eggs...that's what they do. You may want to try moving the adults to a small temporary breeding enclosure to lay eggs if you have the means.

I'd also suggest bumping up the amount of java moss in the tank. If you send me a private message I might be able to help you with that...would only charge you shipping & packaging costs and it shouldn't be more than $10. I could throw in some hornwort as well. Plus, there'd be duckweed, which some people consider a pest species, but it's a great plant for breeding tanks as it gives fry lots of additional hiding spots as well as the micro-organisms that they feed on.

Also, I'm not sure how knowledgeable you are so please don't take offense, but are you certain you have a male and female pair? Females are uniformly grey with some speckling of red/chocolate spots where as males are very colorful with red, blue and yellow coloration.

Either way, I say give it some time. I've had two different gardneri varieties and generally they are all very productive species in terms of making babies. If you don't see fry within a month or two, there's definitely something that needs to be addressed, but I'm not sure what that would be.

Your pH sounds fine and the temp thing isn't all that important...just keep in mind that warmer temps will help increase breeding.

As far as the pic goes, it's a tad blurry, and since the plant is so small, that makes it all the more difficult to positively identify. Probably not a lot you can do about that unless you have a higher end camera with macro. But, for what it's worth, throw my vote in as your plant being a small crypt.
 
AquariaCentral.com