German Blue Ram (Ramirezi) Dwarf Cichlids are small enough to get three or four pairs breeding in the same tank!
Water chemistry: Blue Ramirezi breed in soft and slightly acidic water, PH of 6.8 or a little lower is fine. The tank temperature should be from 80 - 82 degrees F.
Selecting breeders: The best way to select pairs of breeders is to place about a dozen adult fish into a 30 gallon long aquarium to let them pair off naturally. Pairs will stake out a section of the tank for their own, then protect the territory from other pairs. In a 30 gallon tank you could probably have three to four pairs breeding at the same time without to much trouble. Once three or four pairs have been identified, remove the fish that haven't paired off or any non-paired fish.
Setting up the breeding tank: The substrate (gravel) should be about 2 - 3 inches in depth. Place plenty of artificial plants, large rocks, small clay flower pots or pvc pipes in there. Make sure you buried them deep in the gravel. These will be artificial caves where the fish will breed and hide their eggs.
Fill the tank with a 1-1 mixture of bottled distilled and tap water. The distilled water has no hardness and when mixed 1-1 should make the water soft and acid enough. If necessary, adjust the PH to 6.6 - 6.8. Water changes aren't really needed often so once you get the right water conditions, you're set.
A 150 watt heater set to 82 degrees F. and a few sponge filters will do. A power filter can be used until the fish start breeding.
For lighting you want a something dim or no light at all in a lighted room.
Feeding and conditioning: Feed them a variety of food 3-4 times a day. Live or frozen adult Brine Shrimp, high protein flake, frozen Daphnia etc...
The breeding ritual: Like many other cichlids, when they are ready to breed, you'll notice allot of fin wagging and body flapping. They will start getting very territorial and protective of their spawning area, chasing away any other fish that might happen by.
Now we will get these baby's to breed! Once they have successfully gone through the mating ritual, you're pretty much in the home stretch. Nature will take it's course and before you know it, you have fry. It is not uncommon for one pair to spawn and stimulate the other pairs to lay their eggs on or around the same time! (Note: Temperature should be a steady 82 degrees F. Disconnect the power filter and just run the sponge filters.)
You have eggs, now what? You could take out the eggs to be artificially hatched if you can get them to lay their eggs on or in one of your artificial caves. Or, you can let the parents take care of them. Chances are they will hide their eggs so well, that you won't know that they have spawned until you see a swarm of fry swimming around the parents. I would just leave them in the breeding tank with their parents for about 3 weeks. By then, the fry will be big enough to net out to be raised in a rearing tank with possibly other fry from other pairs in the tank. The parents will round up the fry like cattle and keep them in their staked out territory so don't worry about the other pairs in the tank. They will be doing the same thing.
Feeding and raising the fry: Ram fry are ready to eat live or frozen baby Brine Shrimp as soon as they become free swimming and have absorbed their egg sacks. About 10 days time. If at all possible, feed live baby brine shrimp for the first week. Use a turkey baster to direct the food right into the school of fry. Easy does it. After 2 weeks start supplementing their diet with fine flake food, frozen Daphnia etc...
Corydoras Catfish are relatively easy to breed. Lowering water temperature does the trick!
Water chemistry: Corydoras catfish are very tolerant of water conditions and temperature. A PH of 6.6 -7.0 is fine. For breeding purposes, we will be lowering the temperature of the water slowly down to 65 degrees F.
Sexing Cory Catfish: These fish are not easily sexed. If you have a keen eye, it is possible to tell mature males from females by comparing fish. The males are more streamlined then females. Females have a more compressed body, are thicker at the abdomen (eggs) and higher in structure.
Selecting and conditioning the breeders: Place about a dozen mature Cory's in a 30 gallon or larger aquarium. Keep the temperature at a steady 70-74 degrees F. Feed them a variety of frozen, pellet and live foods 4 times a day. It should take about a month to condition the fish for spawning. After a month, you should be able to sex the fish pretty accurately.
Setting up the breeding tank: For breeding purposes we will need a bare (no gravel, ornaments, rocks etc...) 20 gallon high tank, 100 watt heater, air stone and vibrator pump. Note: No air stone or heater will be required until eggs have been laid. Fill the tank to a 50% water level.
Now we will get these baby's to breed! Select two trios (two males to one female) of breeders and transfer them into your 20 gallon high breeding tank with water of the same temperature as your conditioning tank (70-74 degrees F.). Let them acclimate to their new environment for a few days. Keep feeding them 4 times a day. On the third day or so, start adding slightly cooler water at night to your half filled tank at 2-4 degree increments. One gallon per day should do it. The object is to get the water temperature down to about 65 degrees. If one gallon doesn't bring the temp down enough, try 2 gallons a day. If the fish haven't spawned by the time you get the tank at 100% water level, siphon out 50% and repeat the process. If conditioned properly, they should breed within a few days.
The mating process: Once the fish are in breeding mode, both trios will spawn together. They will lay their eggs all over the sides and bottom of the tank!
You have eggs, now what? Net the adult fish out and place them back into the conditioning tank as fast as you can to keep them from eating their eggs. Place an air stone in the tank and turn up the air full blast. Place about 40 drops of methlene blue or acraflavin fungicide in there to prevent the eggs from attracting infection. Hook up your 100 watt heater and slowly increase the temperature 2 degrees every 6 hours until the temp is about 72 degrees. Keep it there! In about 10 days you will have a few hundred fry swimming all over the place ready to eat.
Feeding and raising the fry: Feed live or frozen baby Brine Shrimp for about a week then a variety of everything. Fine flake food, Daphnia, micro worms etc... You can start changing a little water every day (5%) at this point to freshen things up. Add a sponge filter too. When the fry are large enough in about 3-4 weeks you can add more filtration.
by Stephen Kwartler Championship Show Guppies Let us examine what brine shrimp are, where they are found and harvested.
Brine shrimp are naturally found in lakes that are of very high salt content like the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Most of the adult brine shrimp sold as frozen shrimp or packaged as eggs are harvested there. San Francisco also harvests a similar specie of shrimp but in my experience they are of a smaller type. This article will refer to the eggs obtained from the Great Salt Lake.
There are several methods to hatching brine shrimp, too many to cover them all. I will explain the method I have been using for many years. You can easily adapt the container size or amount of containers for your particular need. Many fish breeders use one gallon pickle jars or cones that are made from glass or Plexiglas. I have been using 2 liter plastic soda bottles for several years now and find them to be easiest. Soda bottles are correctly shaped for shrimp hatching when turned upside down. This creates a funnel or cone shape that helps keep the hatching eggs in constant motion. Cutting of the bottom of the soda bottle is necessary for ease of cleaning. As you can see from the photo I use the plastic carton from the 2 liter soda bottles as a holder for my hatching containers. If smaller or larger bottles are to be used you will need to either make a base or construct a holder to keep the bottles stationary. I also use airline pipe valves drilled into the bottle caps for my air supply. If you decide to use this method make sure to place air line check valves below the containers to avoid draining the container if the air supply is stopped. You can also use rigid tubing attached to your airline and weighted down or clipped to the soda bottle to keep it in place. DO NOT use an air stone to aerate the water as it will create a heavy foam.
So we now have our hatching containers and air supply .A good quality brine shrimp net is also needed. Most better pet shops carry them. What could be added is a light source that is kept near the containers at all times. This will help in the hatching time and will also assist in separating the live shrimp from the spent shells when hatching is completed. Hatching times will vary due to the temperature of the hatch and the quality or source of the eggs. I have learned never to purchase eggs from the local pet shops as these eggs have probably been on the shelf for some time. Mail order suppliers are a good source for purchasing eggs and some brands are better then others. Over the past few years due to world wide use of Utah eggs, El Nino, poor harvests or just plain poor harvesting has plagued the tropical fish industry. Prices have risen, fallen and today have risen again. All in all baby brine shrimp is still the best source for high quality fish food for livebearer fry and juveniles. Few show specimens are ever raised without being fed live baby brine as a first food.
There are several recipes for preparing the hatching solution. I will discuss some of the older formulas first. Kosher salt or non-iodized salt is used at the rate of 4 tablespoons per gallon of water. A ½ teaspoon of either Borax or baking soda is also added to help soften the egg shells. What is important is that a specific gravity between 1.020 -1.025. Although lower gravity works, better hatches are obtained in this range. I have been using sea salt by itself for several years and the hatches are very good. It may be a bit more of an expense for the sea salt but the hatches remain very consistent. Adding some PH Up or baking soda will also increase your hatch. For a two liter bottle filled a little more then ¾ with water I use between 1 ½ - 2 tablespoons of sea salt. I do not add the shrimp eggs until all the salt is completely dissolved. The amount of tanks and or fish will determine how much brine shrimp eggs you will use in each container. I suggest no more then ¼ teaspoon for a small setup and 1 -2 teaspoons for 50 tanks or more. If you cannot use all the shrimp when hatched I suggest placing the unused portion in the refrigerator to be used later that same day. Baby brine shrimp is best fed to your fish about ½ hour to one hour after feeding dried food. The reason is that the dried food will still be in the fishes digestive system and the shrimp when fed will not become digested too quickly. I have no actual proof of this happening but the bellies of my fry seem fuller when fed this way.
Hatching time varies as I have said due to egg quality but temperature will play an important role in hatching time and hatch size. I try to maintain my hatching containers at about 80 degrees which gives me a good hatch between 24 to 36 hours. This is something you will need to experiment with. When you feel the hatch is ready you can either remove or shut of the air supply. I pour my hatch (I use two 2 liter bottles) into a large glass pickle jar which I keep slightly tilted on one side. Allow the hatch to sit for about ten minutes. All the hatched shrimp will collect near the bottom of the jar. If the light source is situated near the jar or container the shrimp will become attracted to the light and will make their removal easier. I use a siphon hose slightly larger then normal air tubing to remove the shrimp. I fill the hose with water and place my finger at one end keeping it lower then the container as I insert the other end into the container. Once the end is at the bottom of the container I release my finger and drain the shrimp into a plastic container. Make sure you stop the siphon before the container is emptied to avoid draining the spent egg shells. I then pour the shrimp into my shrimp net. It is important to rinse the shrimp while in the net under cool fresh water. Next you will turn the net over and with the aid of some running water rinse the net again so the shrimp wash off and are collected into a small container. There are several methods to fed the shrimp but using a turkey baster makes the job quick and easy. Another way to fed the shrimp is by using a mustard type squeeze bottle. I have found semi-clear bottles to be easier than the old turkey baster. After feeding all your fish, babies first, rinse everything off and allow to dry until the next use.
Article Contributed by Stephen Kwartler Championship Show Guppies www.showguppies.com
Infusoria are microscopic live organisms that must be available for egg laying fish that are too small to feed on baby Brine shrimp.
How to obtain infusoria
To obtain infusoria, you take a handful of hay or dry leaves and place it into a jar, fill the jar with water from your tank or a pool of water. Leave in the sun for a few days. When the water just starts to get cloudy large unicellulars have sufficient bacteria to feed upon. Once the water begins to clear again, an appropriate culture is available. You can then extract these creatures, with a turkey baster, for example, for feeding to your fry.
To keep infusoria on a continual basis at home, use a mixture of at least two to three of these ingredients: hay, dry leaves, grass blades, vegetable leaves, stalks, or cucumber skin. Add water to let them ferment in an ice-cream tub, which is flatter and provides a larger surface for oxygen to enter the water than a jar. Expose to indirect sunlight. Depending on room temperature, bacteria will thrive during the first three to five days (faster in warmer temperature). The fermenting liquid will give out an unpleasant odor and cloud the water. This liquid should not be fed to fish fry because it contains a high concentration of amonia (or acid if your raw materials contains too much starch) and the bacteria it contains are too small for the fry.
After the initial three to five days, pour 1/3 of the water into a second, smaller, flat, container. Do this twice a day, because fish fry will benefit from frequent but small helpings. Top up the tub with non-chlorinated water (tap water left to stand overnight will do). Add fresh leaves or vegetable scraps every three days. Harvesting should be done regularly, such as on a daily basis, to prevent overcrowding of microorganism that can result in the collapse of the culture.
Dilute the fermented liquid in the second container with another 30% to 50% non-chlorinated water. The liquid at this stage will still smell earthened and unpleasant, but not pungent with amonia. Unicellulars should bloom and peak within 12 to 24 hours. Some of these single cell creatures may be visible as small, mobile, dots by the naked eyes against a dark background and if bright light is shone from the side, which makes an interesting science project. For example, you can place a clear plastic container on black paper upon window sill, then wait a few minutes for any debris to settle before viewing. The microorganism may congregate near the water surface for oxygen and you need to use only the top 2/3 of the water. A kitchen sieve should catch any debris while allowing the unicellulars to drain into your fry nursery tank. The tank should be weakly aerated to prevent algae scum feeding on the nutrient-rich water from accumulating at the water surface and blocking off oxygen.
If you want to breed Oscars, you better get a gigantic tank and a wheel barrel full of food!
Water chemistry: Oscars breed in slightly acidic water, PH of 6.8 or a little lower is fine. The tank temperature should be from 74 - 82 degrees F. 80-82 for breeding.
Selecting breeders: Since Oscar fish are so large in size, take at least two years to mature and can't be sexed easily, the only way to get a breeding pair is to raise about half a dozen in a gigantic tank (you're talking 200 gallons or more) to let them pair off naturally. The best way to acquire a pair is to purchase a proven pair of adult breeders. If you buy a proven pair of breeders, make sure you get a guarantee from the vendor that the fish are young and fertile breeders. Vendors will try and sell you fish that are all bred out that either produce few eggs, or none that are fertile if they sense that you are a Green Horn. Get it in the contract!
Setting up the breeding tank: The breeding tank should be at least 100 gallons. No gravel, rocks plants etc... Make sure you have a solid top to prevent the fish jumping out and place a few bricks on top to make sure. Oscars are strong fish and have been known to knock tops right off of tanks! Two outside power filters, one on each side of the tank to try and keep the water clean. This is almost an impossible task with Oscars because of the massive amounts of food that they eat (live goldfish, frozen krill, almost everything but the kitchen sink!) and their appalling table manners. You'll be changing 10 - 20% of the water every day so this will help. During this water change, use a siphon tube or garden hose to siphon out all the big lumps and dirt that you can get. When the eggs have been laid, you will turn off the power filters and set up an air stone or to at the opposite side off the tank of where the eggs are. You'll need a heater of 500 watts or two at 250 watts. Not the submersible types, the kind lets you adjust the temperature from outside the tank. The old fashioned kind.
Now the process starts: It will take about a month for the pair to get used to their breeding tank. Just keep feeding them three times a day with everything but the kitchen sink. Besides feeding them live goldfish, frozen krill and Cichlid pellets, you can also feed then skinless chicken breast, turkey breast and sirloin steak. I'm not kidding. Never feed them hamburger. They love it, it isn't bad for them but it clouds the water like mad!
The breeding ritual: When they are ready to breed, you'll notice allot of fin wagging and they might even lock jaws! The courtship of locking jaws is a ritual designed by nature as a test to their commitment to each other. (Oscars mate for life) This might last for a few hours so keep an eye on them. If you see one or the other in a corner that is starting to get too beat up, separate them with a piece of glass until all healed. You'll have to try again. Even if everything goes smooth, you're going to see some scrapes and tattered fins. They might go through this routine every time they are in breeding mode, they may not. Keep your eyes open!
Now we will get these baby's to breed! Once they have successfully gone through the mating ritual, you're pretty much in the home stretch. Keep changing 10-20% of the water every day and feeding them 4 times a day. You will notice them cleaning of a section on the bottom of the tank. This is where they will lay their eggs, hundreds of them! They will get very protective of this area so don't be surprised if they attack the siphon tube when you are in there siphoning out water. Nature will take it's course and they will spawn.
You have eggs, now what? You could take out the eggs to be artificially hatched if you can get them to lay their eggs on a piece of PVC pipe, or you can let the parents take care of them. I would recommend that you let the parents take care of them. Hatching them artificially works fine for the fry but you could run into allot of problems with the parents fighting with each other. One might blame the other for the loss of fry and wreck their relationship. Best to let them try on their own. If it works out, you have a great pair. In about 10 days the fry will become free swimming and absorb their egg sacks. They are ready to take live or frozen baby brine shrimp immediately. After another week you can supplement their diet with flake food. In three weeks they will be big enough to feed them all kinds of different food. In about 6 weeks you can net them out to be placed in another large rearing tank. You never know, about this time you might have another spawn to deal with!
Water quality is the most important element when it comes to the raising and breeding of Discus.
Water chemistry: Water quality is the most important element when it comes to the raising and breeding of Discus. Soft and acid is a must. PH should be 5.8 - 6.4. The softness can be measured with a hardness test kit. Unfortunately, there won't be much in the way of chemicals that you can use in order to make the water softer if it is reading too hard. (I've tried water softening pillows and chemicals with no success.) No problem, I figured out a way to create perfect Discus water without spending hundreds of dollars on a conditioning system that you have to hook up to the plumbing of your house! What is this secret water formula? Bottled distilled water that you buy by the gallon and mix with tap water! Distilled water PH is acid enough and since the water by being distilled is void of any minerals which would add hardness, it's soft as Charmin! Bottled spring water is usually of right quality also but you better test it first, just to be sure. As an added bonus, distilled and spring water doesn't have any chlorine in it! This water mixture is perfect for Discus right out of the bottle!
Mixing perfect Discus water: Mix one part spring water and one part distilled water. Use this mixture for all water changes!
Selecting breeders: Selecting Discus breeders is very similar to selecting Angelfish pairs.
What's the best way to pair Discus? The best way to pair Discus off is to place a dozen or so young adults with a body size of a silver dollar into a 75 gallon tank or larger, feed them three times a day with high quality fish food such as frozen blood worms, Tetramin flakes and live brine shrimp etc... for about 18 months.(Discus take a long time to reach maturity. They won't breed until they are at least two years old.) They will select their own mate buy this time and you will see them pair off. Just keep conditioning them with fine food until you see a pair acting territorial by protecting an area of the tank from the other fish.
Setting up the breeding tank: For the breeding tank you will only need a few basic things. A 30 gallon high tank, 150 watt aquarium heater, sponge filter (the kind that has suction cups that hold it to the side of the tank), small vibrator pump, lid(you don't want the fish jumping out) and a flat piece of slate which is placed at a 45 degree angle from the bottom of the tank to the one top side of the tank. If you can't find a flat piece of slate you could buy a big piece of PVC plumbing pipe (a pipe joint works great) and just stand it on the bottom of the tank. That's all you need for the pair. You don't need or want any gravel on the bottom so that you can make water changes, keep the tank clean etc...
Now that you have your breeding tank set up, pop your pair in there. A good idea would be to place the pair in a small tank (10 gallons) with the water from your pair off tank and then acclimate them to the breeding tank water by taking a quart out at a time over a period of an hour, replacing it with breeding tank water.
Now the process starts: It will take a month or so for the pair to get used to their breeding tank. Just keep feeding them three times a day with high quality fish food such as frozen blood worms, Tetramin flakes and live brine shrimp etc..
Now we will get these baby's to breed! To stimulate the pair to breed, start changing 10% of the water in the tank once a day. Keep the temperature at 82 degrees for two days. After two days increase the temperature to 84 degrees. The third day 86 degrees and the fourth day to 88.(Discus can take temperatures in the mid 90's so don't be worried that the water at 88 degrees F is too high) After the fourth day, lower the temperature 2 degrees per day down to 82 degrees, repeat the two day temperature changes from 82-88 degrees up and down. Keep changing 10% of the water until they lay eggs. If it is a pair, they are mature enough and are a male and female, they will breed! Once they have laid their eggs, keep the temperature stable at the point where the eggs were laid and keep it there!
You have eggs, now what? Eggs will not be taken away from the Discus parents to be artificially hatched. The fry need the parents to take care of them for one critical reason. When the fry start free swimming in about 10 days and have absorbed their egg sacks, the first food that they must eat in order survive is a sort of mothers milk that both the male and female parent secretes that is produced in their body slime. The fry feed on this slime on both parents for about three weeks before you can start feeding them live or frozen baby brine shrimp. You should make a special effort to supply them with live baby brine for the first week after they have absorbed their egg sacks. If you can't provide them with live shrimp, turn up an air stone to a medium slow bubble when feeding frozen baby brine in order to simulate them being live. Once the baby Discus accept the frozen brine, you are in good shape. After 4 weeks you can start feeding them high grade fine flake food. You are on your way!
For about 4 weeks, the fry will be constantly feeding of the slime of both parents and won't go anywhere on there own. Keep the fry with the parents for about 6 weeks or when the fry start wandering around the tank, far away from the parents. Then, you can transfer the parents into another tank for a rest or another set-up breeding tank. If the parents start bickering for any reason, separate them with a piece of glass. In three months you will have Discus fry the body size of a dime.
Other tips: Keep Discus with Discus. Do not place a light on the top of the tank. No power filters or anything that makes the water move fast. (Discus like calm water) Don't try to hatch eggs away from the parents, you'll fail. No gravel or live plants, just the slate or PVC pipes. Siphon as much dirt as you can from the bottom of the tank while making water changes.
You will loose your marbles when I tell you the secret tricks to breeding Zebra Fish.
Water chemistry: Zebera danios are very tolerant of water conditions and temperature. For breeding purposes, we will go with a PH of 6.6 - 6.8, temperature of 78-82 degrees F.
Sexing Zebrafish: Zebra fish are easy to sex if you know what to look for. The males are more streamlined in appearance that the females and the females have a more compressed looking body, not to mention the extra girth that they have at their abdomen when loaded with eggs after conditioning. Take a look at the picture at the top left of this article. The Zebra in the picture on top is a male. The one below is a female. Study the shape of these two fish for a while and you'll get it. Piece of cake!
Selecting and conditioning the breeders: Place about a dozen mature (about the size of 1 1/2 inches) Zebrafish in a 10 gallon or larger aquarium. Make the PH 7.0 or neutral at this point and temperature at 72-74 degrees F.(We will lower the PH and raise the temperature when we are ready to breed them.)
For conditioning, feed them a variety of frozen and flake food 3-5 times a day until you see that the females load up with eggs and can surely tell males from females. This should take 2-3 weeks.
Setting up the breeding tank: For breeding purposes we will need a 5 1/2 gallon tank, 25 watt submersible heater, air stone supplied with air from a vibrator pump (we won't set up the air stone until the fish have laid eggs) and enough marbles to place on the bottom of the tank to a depth of 2 1/2 inches deep across the whole tank bed.
Fill the 5 1/2 gallon tank with a water line about 2 - 2 1/2 inches higher than the marble substrate. Set the PH at 6.6 with a water temperature of 78 degrees F. Keep it there!
Now we will get these baby's to breed! Since Zebra fish breed in schools, select two or three trios of breeders, 2 males to one egg rich female. Having this ratio of males to females will ensure the fertilization of the eggs and stimulate the breeding process by males and females ready to spawn turning on the other breeders to spawn.
Once in the breeding tank if properly conditioned, the fish should breed within a few days. If they don't, raise the temperature a few degrees to 80 degrees F and change 5% of the water. Wait another day, change another 5% of the water and raise the temperature to 82 degrees. The third day and there after just do the 5% water change.
Keep feeding them 4-5 times a day until they spawn.
The mating process: Once the fish are in breeding mode, the whole school spawns! The eggs are dropped by the females and the males fertilize them as they drop. Where do they drop? Into the marbles baby! Since Zebrafish will consume there on eggs while breeding, the marbles and the low water line are there to prevent them from doing so. The eggs will drop down through the marbles, bouncing their way down to the bottom of the tank off the marbles where the adult breeders can't get them.
You have eggs, now what? Once they start breeding it only takes an hour or so for the females to noticeably look thin and streamlined due to dropping their eggs. No rush to pull the breeders out for a few hours, the eggs are protected by the layer of marbles.
Once you are satisfied that the fish are done breeding and the females have no more eggs, net the breeders out and place them back into the conditioning tank, place an airstone in the tank set to slow bubble and 2 drops per gallon of methlene blue or acraflavin fungicide.
It will take about 10 days for the eggs to hatch and fry to become free swimming. They will find there way through the marbles on their own so just watch and wait. When you see them swimming around, add 1/2 quart of water a day of same quality and temperature to the tank to a normal 5 1/2 gallon water level. This will take a few days. When you reach the right water level, add a sponge filter. Change no more than 5% water a day to keep things fresh.
Feeding the fry: For a few days after the fry become free swimming, they won't need to be fed. They are supplied by nature with an egg sack of which they derive nourishment for a few days to get a head start in life. When the egg sack in the belly region disappears, it's dinner time!
Zebra Danio fry are too small to eat any kind of commercial fish food, there mouths are too small. Then what do they eat? Microscopic live organisms or Infusoria. You can buy Infusoria tablets at your aquarium shop. You just drop a tablet in the tank and in a few hours, your tank will be infested with live microscopic live fish food for the fry. I would pop a few of these tabs in the tank while the fry still have their egg sacks. Buy the time they are ready to eat, they got food! Another thing you could do is place a 2x2 inch piece of lettuce in the tank at the egg sack stage. This will also produce live food for the fry. In about two weeks time they will be ready to eat live or frozen baby brine shrimp and fine flake food.
Raising the fry: Wait about a month after the free swimming stage, then transfer them into a 20 gallon rearing tank. Feed them everything!
Bettas (Siamese fighting fish) are a little tricky when it comes to breeding and raising their fry.
Water chemistry: Siamese fighting fish (Bettas) are not as sensitive to lack of oxygen in the water as other fish due to a special anatomical breathing apparatus on the top of their head that allows them to convert oxygen to their bloodstream directly from the atmosphere, as well as through water that passes over their gills. This doesn't mean that they are indestructible however and prefer a stable water PH of 6.5 - 7.0. For breeding purposes, we will go slightly acidic with a PH of 6.5 - 6.8. What ever PH you select, keep it as constant as possible.
Betta temperament: Betta males don't get along so well and will kill each other if placed in the same tank. Females get along with each other and can be kept and raised together. Males and females in the same tank are not a good idea because the male will always be after the female to breed. If she isn't ready, he will beat here up or worse, kill her.
Sexing Bettas: Males have long flowing colorful fins and females have short fins and are not as colorful.
Selecting breeders: Siamese fighting fish males are not particular. Any female will do as long as she is loaded with eggs and ready to breed.
Setting up the breeding tank: For breeding purposes we will need a 5 gallon tank, 25 watt submersible heater, air stone supplied with air from a vibrator pump and a piece of glass.
The piece of glass will be used to separate the male and female for a few weeks. During this time we condition the female for breeding, let them court each other and give the male time to build his bubble nest. Yes, as time goes by and the male gets in the mood, he builds a bubble nest by coating air with his saliva to create bubbles that float on the surface of the tank. Betta males use these bubbles constructed together in large numbers to create a nest at the surface of the tank. The nest could be the size of about four inches in circumference (round) x two inches high above the water line.
Fill the 5 gallon tank 2/3 water with a PH of 6.6 and a temperature of 78 degrees F. Keep it there! Place the piece of glass diagonally across the tank. If you do it this way, the glass will stay there and be easy to lift out when you are ready to put the male and female together for breeding. Now put a mature male in the tank on one side of the glass partition and a mature female on the other side.
Conditioning for the spawn: Conditioning the pair serves two functions. One is to give the female time to produce and load up with eggs. The other is to give the male time to build a solid bubble nest. This process takes about two - three weeks.
Feed them 4 - 5 times a day with a variety of high quality food. Frozen or live adult Brine Shrimp, frozen blood worms, flake food etc.....
Water changes are not needed often unless the water gets cloudy from feeding. If you want, syphon about 10% of the water from the females side of the tank (you don't want to disturb the males bubble nest if one is there) every other day. Replace it with water of the same chemical quality and temperature. After they have spawned, you won't be changing any water for weeks. The male won't be feeding while he is tending to the eggs and the fry will be too delicate for any water chemistry or temperature changes.
Now we will get these baby's to breed! After about two weeks or sooner, the male will be busy building his bubble nest and you will notice the females abdominal area increase in size. She's loading up with eggs!
Once the bubble nest is about 3-4 inches round, 1-2 inches high and the female looks like she is about to explode with eggs, it's time to try and put them together.
Lift the glass gently out of the tank as to not disturb the bubble nest. If the bubble nest is attached to the piece of glass, you have a little problem but it's not the end of the world. Most of the nest might stay intact if you are lucky and just float around. After they mate, the male will repair it. At this point, he is more interested in mating with the female than toying with a bubble nest.
The mating process: The male will chase the female around the tank notifying her that it is breeding time. If the female is properly conditioned and succumbs to the males overtures, the male will wrap his body around hers, eggs will be dropped and then fertilized by the male. This process repeats several times. After each batch of dropped eggs, the male will go to the bottom of the tank, pick up the eggs and blow them into his bubble nest. If all goes well, after a few hours or less, they will be finished breeding. As soon as you know that they are finished, remove the female from the tank as soon as you can so that the male doesn't kill her. As soon as the breeding is over, the male chases the female away. He takes sole responsibility for taking care of the young.
If after placing them together for let's say an hour and they haven't mated or the female is getting beat up, separate them again for 3-4 more days. You'll have to try again.
You have eggs, now what? Now that the eggs are laid and the female is not around, the male gets to work. Until the fry are free swimming in about 10-12 days, the male attends to his fry by making sure the bubble nest is always being updated with fresh bubbles, fetching eggs that fall out of the nest, then blowing them back into the nest. During this period of time there is no need to feed the male, he probably wouldn't eat anyway. When the fry start free swimming in about 10- 12 days, the male will be ready to eat. As soon as the fry are free swimming, remove the male. He's going to be hungry!
Feeding the fry: For a few days after the fry become free swimming, they won't need to be fed. They are supplied by nature with an egg sack of which they derive nourishment for a few days to get a head start in life. When the egg sack in the belly region disappears, it's dinner time!
Betta fry are too small to eat any kind of commercial fish food, there mouths are too small. Then what do they eat? Microscopic live organisms or infusoria. You can buy infusoria tablets at your aquarium shop. You just drop a tablet in the tank and in a few hours, your tank will be infested with live microscopic live fish food for the fry. I would pop a few of these tabs in the tank while the fry still have their egg sacks. Buy the time they are ready to eat, they got food! Another thing you could do is place a 2x2 inch piece of lettuce in the tank at the egg sack stage. This will also produce live food for the fry. In about two weeks time they will be ready to eat live or frozen baby brine shrimp and fine flake food.
At this point you can hook up your air stone and set it on slow bubble. Change no more than 2% of the water every other day for about 2 weeks, then you can change 5% a day if you want to keep the water clean as long as you have conditioned water on hand that matches the chemistry and temperature of the fry tank. You could also add a sponge filter after 2 weeks. Fry can't get hurt with a sponge filter.
Raising the fry: Wait about a month after the free swimming stage, then transfer them into a 10 or 15 gallon rearing tank. In approximately 8 weeks you should be able to tell the sexes. The males will start developing longer fins and have allot more color. This is about the right time to separate all fish into separate Betta bowls. Mason jars are perfect. Six to eight months later, you'll have some nice Bettas to either sell or give away to your friends.
Breeding Angelfish can be accomplished very easily. I will give you all the information that you need in order to breed and raise their fry.
Water chemistry: Angelfish breed in slightly acidic water, PH of 6.8 or a little lower is fine. The tank temperature should be from 74 - 78 degrees F. Get a Ph test kit with chemicals to adjust the PH. Sodium Bicarbonate (baking soda) makes the water more alkaline, Sodium Biphosphate makes the water more acid. Selecting breeders: You will need a pair of breeders consisting of a male and female Angelfish. LOL! Actually, there are instances where two females will pair up and lay eggs! Of course the eggs will be infertile, turn white and fungus up. Eggs that are fertile are clear colored for more that a few hours. If eggs turn white, they are dead. (We will talk more about eggs later on in this article) Now how do we tell that a pair(male +female) is a pair? Can you sex (tell the difference between male and female) a pair? Yes! One sure fire way to sex Angelfish is to identify their breeding tubes. Breeding tubes are found just in back of the anal area. The females tube is blunt and round, the Males is long and pointed. These tubes protrude from the fish about a week or so before they are ready to lay eggs. Another way to sex angelfish is to look at the abdominal area of the fish. Even when Angelfish aren't in breeding mode, the females always have a certain amount of eggs ready for breeding. If you look at their stomach area, they will have a little extra girth than the males. The males will have a very flat abdominal area. Of course we are talking about mature fish at least one year old. Can't sex them as juveniles.
What's the best way to pair Angelfish? The best way to pair Angelfish off is to place a dozen or so young adults with a body size of a silver dollar into a 55 gallon tank or larger, feed them three times a day with high quality fish food such as frozen blood worms, Tetramin flakes and live brine shrimp etc... for about 6 months. They will select their own mate buy this time or even sooner and you will see them pair off. Just keep conditioning them with fine food until you see a pair acting territorial by protecting an area of the tank from the other fish. You might notice them hanging around a rock or plant and cleaning it off or pecking at the area. This pair is getting ready to breed! Now is the time to separate them from the other fish by placing them in a 20 gallon high tank. This is the breeding tank baby!
Setting up the breeding tank: For the breeding tank you will only need a few basic things. The 20 gallon high tank, 100 watt aquarium heater, sponge filter(the kind that has suction cups that hold it to the side of the tank), small vibrator pump, lid(you don't want the fish jumping out) and a flat piece of slate which is placed at a 45 degree angle from the bottom of the tank to the one top side of the tank. If you can't find a flat piece of slate you could buy a big piece of PVC plumbing pipe(a pipe joint works great) and just stand it on the bottom of the tank. That's all you need for the pair. You don't need or want any gravel on the bottom so that you can make water changes, keep the tank clean etc...
Now that you have your breeding tank set up, pop your pair in there. A good idea would be to place the pair in a small tank (2 1/2 gallons) with the water from your pair off tank and then acclimate them to the breeding tank water by taking a cup out at a time over a period of a half hour, replacing it with breeding tank water.
Now the process starts: It will take a week or so for the pair to get used to their breeding tank. Just keep feeding them three times a day with high quality fish food such as frozen blood worms, Tetramin flakes and live brine shrimp etc..
Now we will get these baby's to breed! To stimulate the pair to breed, start changing 10% of the water in the tank once a day. Keep the temperature at 74 degrees for two days. After two days increase the temperature to 76 degrees. The third day 78 degrees and the fourth day to 80. After the fourth day, lower the temperature 2 degrees per day down to 74 degrees, repeat the temperature changes from 74-80 degrees up and down. Keep changing 10% of the water until they lay eggs. If it is a pair, they are mature enough and are a male and female, they will breed! Once they have laid their eggs, keep the temperature stable at the point where the eggs were laid and keep it there.
You have eggs, now what? The fish will lay their eggs on the piece of slate or pipe that you placed in there. If you see them in the process of laying the eggs, wait until they are finished and you are sure that they are finished, Wait a few hours. Set up a 2 1/2 gallon tank with just a 25 watt heater, vibrator air pump and an air stone. Gently siphon water into your egg tank from your breeding tank, then take the slate or pipe out of the breeding tank and place it into your egg hatching tank. Adjust your heater to the same temperature as the breeding tank, set the air stone up next to the eggs at a slow speed. You want the bubbles to gently flow over the eggs or real close to them. This will keep dirt away from them and artificially stimulate them, taking the place of what the parent fish would do. One other important thing. You must get a fungicide such as acraflavin or methylene blue. 2-3 drops a gallon should do it. If the water starts getting cloudy you can change not more than 5% a day with water of the same PH and temperature. Cloudy doesn't mean blue or green, that's the color of the fungicide.
Video of Angelfish spawning on slate:
Note about the parents: Keep an eye on the parents, they might blame each other for loosing the eggs. If they start fighting, separate them with a piece of glass for a few days until they calm down. This doesn't always happen but it can. Once they get used to you taking away the eggs a few times, they should be alright. If they won't stop fighting or you can't put them back together for some reason, try putting them into the pair off tank. Having other fish around will distract them from fighting and possibly strengthen their relationship enough to try breeding them again. Another reason why they might start fighting after they lay eggs is that either the eggs weren't fertile, or one of them ate the eggs. One would blame the other. Doesn't happen often but it happens. Just keep an eye on them.
Now that you have your 100-600 eggs in the hatching tank there is nothing to do but wait and watch. The eggs should be an clear to amber color if fertile. Ones that aren't fertile will turn white. You should take an eye dropper and separate them from the fertile ones to keep the healthy eggs from attracting fungus. If all the eggs turn white or a good number of them turn white don't panic. The first time or two you breed a pair of Angel fish they are inexperienced and might not get it right. No problem. If the pair aren't fighting and you don't have to separate them, they will breed every 10 or so days for a few months! That's what they call breeding cycle. Once they finish this cycle, they will take a month or so off and start breeding again! You better buy some more tanks because you're going to have Angelfish everywhere! If after numerous breedings a pair only produces white eggs, you'll have to go back to the drawing board and try another pair. Bummer!
Eggs will hatch in about 3 days: You'll just see a tail growing out of the egg that jiggles. At about 5 days, they will fall of the slate or pipe, develop and jiggle. In 10 days they should be free swimming. You'll notice a little egg sack that gets smaller every day. When the egg sack is gone, you are ready to feed them. Live hatched baby Brine Shrimp is best for a few weeks. If you can't hatch your own, they will take frozen baby brine if you turn up the air stone so that the frozen brine is moving. After two weeks you can supplement the brine shrimp with high protein flake food.
Raising the fry: Wait a week after they are free swimming then move them into a 5 gallon tank with the same water conditions as the hatching tank. Add a sponge filter. In two weeks, move them into a 10 gallon tank. Move them into a 55 gallon tank in another two weeks. In about 14 weeks total, you will have Angelfish with the body size of about a dime. You are in business!
Note about water changes and conditions: Change 5% of the water in rearing tanks every other day as long as you change it with water that has the same PH and temperature. Once the fry are large enough after a month or so, you can also add a conventional outside filter to the tank.
