Imo there is nothing that beats finding a surprise fry/juvie in ones tank. And so here comes another of my too brief posts, not.
I have had things spawning in my tanks starting about a few months after setting up my first tank. At the time I believed I did not consider having fish reproduce in my tanks was anything about which I cared. But for some reason I also believed that is was a good idea to have species of both sexes present. This, of course, was because I was unaware of those fish that do not want others involved in their reproductive process- bettas, cichlids, etc. I was fortunate that my early stocking took some time to reach the point where I learned better.
That said, I had a lovely 45 gal. filled with fake plants swordtails, zebra danios and a few cories. And yes it was not cycled. Somehow I manage to make it work and it got cycled. Soon after I added a group of panda cory. This tank had been set up with both an UGF and an Emperor 400. I had read about RUGFs and converted mine. I had a reverse powerhead with a big pre-filter atop an uplift tube. The easiest way to clean the pre-filter was to lift the entire powerhead out of the tank, remove the sponge, clean and return it all. This left the top of the uplift tube uncovered and submerged by about 5 or 6 inches.
Some time later, having rad about gunk accumulating under the plate and also have a frame only stand, I was able to grab a flashlight and inspect things though the bottom glass. There was not much gunk there. What there was were several swordtail and panda cory fry under the plate. This ended the undergravel filter and at that time the fake plants were exchanged for live.
Over the next months I added a few LF rosy barbs and some LF BN plecos. And then one day I discovered young rosy barbs and then a few BN fry in the tank. I did nothing to encourage this.
Over time as I added tanks and fish I got fry from the zebra danio, other cory, more BN, angels etc. In my 6th year in the hobby I purchased a proven breeding group of zebra plecos. The babies they produced launched everything I did in the hobby from then on. Today 2/3 of my tanks are devoted to Hypancistrus pleco breeding and growout.
What did I learn from all of this? Firstly, I am a hobbyist first and foremost. I did not set out to want to have fish spawning in my tanks, it just happened for the most part. It turned our well water is suited for softer water species. Any pleco I kept spawned, most corys spawned even more danios spawned.
And this is what I learned from all of this. Fish want to spawn. What then is the role of the fishkeeper in this? As far as I am concerned our job is to make sure were do nothing which would discourage or prevent the fish from doing so. If we match fish to the needed water parameters, provide them with a friendly appropriate environment and then feed a food diet, most fish will spawn in our tanks. If we then do anything additionally to promote the survival of the young, we are off to the races.
I did not induce my fish to spawn and I rarely do today either. What I can do is to learn what the fish need in order for them to do what comes naturally and then I try to supply this. Once one has a good environment, it only takes two things to increase the odds of seeing kids. The first is proper tank maintenance, whatever that means for given species. The second, imo, is the most important thing we do, feeding. The food we choose matters greatly. Poor diet retards spawning and when it does occur the fish may not be real healthy.
Imo, most commercial type dried foods are not the best choice. These are fine for occasional use, or for use if one isn't looking for offspring, but the form of foods that are best for spawning are the ones that contain the most ingredients which mimic their natural diet. Live foods are usually the best, frozen and Rapashy are next. After that, on the commercial side would be the more expensive foods with the best ingredients.
After this long winded opinion, I can say that to this day I still react with the same joy whenever I spot a new fry or new eggs in any of my tanks. I still do the happy-fish-dance. I hope fishorama is out there dancing. I hope all of you get to do the dance.........
In keeping with the old saying, "Always leave em laughing."
I'll try for pics later but that's not my hobby...
