Mad At Plastic Breeder Tank!!!!

P

petcrazy213

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Nov 26, 2003
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My plastic breeder/live bearer tank just claimed the life of my new male sailfin molly! :eek: I'm so mad!!!! :rant: A few of the small guppies have gotten stuck back there before but never died. I figured the male molly would be too big to get between the tank and the glass but ... I just came home to find him stuck there and when I moved the tank out a bit he fell to the bottom. This really makes me mad!!! I've already lost all my male guppies (probably mostly due to poor breeding) and now I've lost my male molly. I'm hoping at least that he mated witht the 2 females he's been in there with. At least then maybe I'll be able to get a male or 2 from the fry, if I'm lucky. Gosh, this sucks! What ELSE can happen!!! I'm just waiting now for a total tank collapse. I think that's about all that could be worse right now.

I'm not having much luck with my fish.

:(
 
One toss that trash out.. Breeders like this = dead fish. IF you want to breed your fish, keep them in species only tanks. 10-15 gal for guppies and 20+ for Mollies. They need their room to move around.
Also, problem with Breeders is that they stress out the females to the point where they will abort the fry. So in the long run, you will have still born fry in the bottom of the tank or net.
the best way in breeding these fish, is to actually give the fish room to move around and plenty of places to hide. I suggest placing your live bearers in a heavy planted tank. In about a few months you will have fry.
My favorite way of raising live bearers is placing them outside during the summer with some floating plants, such as water hycianth and hornwort, in Rubbermaid tubs. You will get so many babies you will not believe your luck. :)


Also, these tanks should never ever be used as a main fish tank. They are to small for any bioload. Does it even have a filter on the tank?
The reason I believe why your guppies died may not just be poor quality fish but more along the lines of poor water quality and being stressed out in a tank this size.
I am guessing that this was the main factor for your guppies' death. Again these guys need plenty of room to move around. I prefer to keep my guppies and Endlers in a 15 gallon planted tank. These gives the fry plenty of space to move around and hide from the adults. Small tanks are pretty pointless and cause more unwanted deaths in the fish world. Heck, I wouldnt even place my hets (dwarf live bearers) in a tank like this.
 
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Thanks, I have taken out that stupid contraption and will just be letting things go on as they will in the main tank from now on. If the females have fry in there and they survive then I will assume they are good healthy fry. And if they make it to adulthood in there then good for them. The only reason I even had the breeder/live bearer mini thing inthe tank was to give the babies a fighting chance. However, since then I have seen that the danios could actually care less about the fry ... one of the danios got itself (don't ask me how) into the net breeder where my first batch of babies are growing up but didn't harm any of them. I'm actually thinking of taking them out of the net breeder soon and putting them into their own tank. The tank itself is 2/5ths gravel and 3/5th sand ... I used the gravel in the back corners to hold the plants. I figure with the plants and the gravel any babies that get born in there should be able to make some kind of getaway if they need it. I do weekly to bi-weekly water changes and I take out 1/3rd of the water when I do these.

I'm just wondering, if I were to do a species tank, is there any fish that takes care of their young without eating them? I'd really like something that I could get a pair or and watch them have a little family.
 
petcrazy213 said:
I'm just wondering, if I were to do a species tank, is there any fish that takes care of their young without eating them? I'd really like something that I could get a pair or and watch them have a little family.
Click to expand...
Well, fish do not care for the fry like mammals do, so your not gonna get to much care there. The fish that I think that are really easy to raise and will take care and guard their fry are Convicts.
 
Actually, Kribensis (kribs) make pretty good parents, like lots of cichlids do. Here is a pic:

http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/img/krib4.jpg

They are very cute. Kribs need at least 20 gallons for a pair, with plants, and dei=finetly a few caves for the fry. The mother krib will keep the male away from the fry, but she will also lead the fry around the tank. Its very cute!
 
The pike cichlids that I had were excellent parents. The male would guard the cave while the female stayed inside keeping the water moving over the eggs. After they hatched and were free-swimming, both parents would herd the fry around and chase me away. They need a larger tank, though, along the lines of 75g is good.
A friend of a friend has a pair of angels in a 29g tank that spawn about every two weeks. They take great care of the fry/eggs until the next batch comes around.
 
Raskolnikov said:
The pike cichlids that I had were excellent parents. The male would guard the cave while the female stayed inside keeping the water moving over the eggs. After they hatched and were free-swimming, both parents would herd the fry around and chase me away. They need a larger tank, though, along the lines of 75g is good.
A friend of a friend has a pair of angels in a 29g tank that spawn about every two weeks. They take great care of the fry/eggs until the next batch comes around.
Click to expand...

Pike's are also difficult to pair, a male can go through several females before choosing one. If he doesn't like her, she's dead. They also require a lower ph and softer water to spawn. They are however, like any cichlid very good parents once they spawn.


I've found cockatoo dwarfs to be VERY easy to breed. Literally no effort required. They even raise the fry on their own in small tanks like a 10g.
Like most fish though, individuals may vary in temperment. Some females may or may not tolerate a male while brood caring. Males may also eat the fry if not removed. I've found wild males to be more caring than any tank bred males.
 
Try Electric Yellows. They are mouth brooders and they are fun.
 
If you are only looking to find some fish that WILL breed you need some Convicts. These suckers will breed in mud if you let 'em.
If you HAVE to put them in a 10g tank, take out everything except the gravel and a rock. Try to find a small one inch or so pair. Males have the orange and females do not....at least this method of sexing has yet to fail me in 2 plus years of sucessfull Convict breeding. In my experience, if they are old enough to exhibit definate coloring, they are old enough to breed.
Ive even bred a 3" male with a 1" female. As long as they are old enough to exhibit the colors, you can easily sex them.
My Convicts, when paired and left totally by themselves with only a rock and some gravel in the tank, will breed in about 3 days. Eggs in less than a week, hatchlings in about week from egg, and freeswimming in about a week from that. The fry alone are worth the setup of another tank. You can either trade or sell them to a LFS or feed them another tank.
 
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