Alright.. more "newbie" questions...

[1fish2fish]

Its getting down to the wire and I'm still feeling unprepared for my spawn. I'm shooting for late June, that way the fry will be about a month and a half old before I have to start heading back to school (after that my Mom will be primary caregiver... its half her spawn too!).

I wanted to do it sooner but it looks like I might have to go to Miami for two weeks. I don't want to have to leave baby fry for two weeks since my mom is a major newbie to fish.. I'd rather they be older and more stable.

So here's what I have so far:
Sid and Nancy.. the proud parents to be
10 gallon tank (with a crack that I'll be fixing) to use for the spawn
IAL to make IAL extract to tint the water.
Styrofoam cup for the bubble nest.
1 gallon jar to put the female in before releasing her.

I just ordered some Java Moss for the spawning tank and for the jars (if I have enough). I'll also be getting a 50w heater. I'm still deciding what to use for jars.

So here are some questions:
At what time should I remove the male from the tank? (Once the fry start free swimming?)

Is a brine shrimp hatchery an easy thing to manage?

Filter for the spawning tank? Y/N? (I would DIY a sponge filter)

At what age should I move the fry to a larger grow out tank? (If there are enough fry that a 10 gal is too small that is)

Would shining a regular lamp over the tank work fine instead of getting a tank light? (with a daylight cfl for the plants)


I have more but I can't think of them now and my cat is feeling neglected and is laying on my keyboard. I'll think of more later.

[Oldfishlady]

I use a 10g full to the top for spawn and keep the temp at 80F and crammed pack with aquatic plants, I use floating plant water lettuce for the nest, no filtration, lots of snails- pond, ramshorn, trumpet to help with infusoria development a great first fry food along with all the other microcritters from the plants in an aged aquarium.
I condition both breeders with lots of live food and my homemade food, I put both in the spawning tank at the same time and will get spawn within 1-6 hours, once completed I remove the female, within 24-28 hours most of the eggs have hatched at 80F, I found too high of temp the egg develop too fast and I get lots of fallers, I keep the lights on 24h until I remove the male, once free swimming I remove the male and will cover the tank with a plastic veggie wrap to keep the air above the water warm and humid for when the labyrinth organ develops and turn the light off at night,
I watch the fry and as long as their belly looks round I do not add any food for at least the first 3 days after free swimming stage, once I do start adding live foods I will make daily 50% water changes.
I feed NHBBS, white worms for the first week or so then I add daphnia to the mix and supplemented BBS, I feed 3 times per day.
BBS are pretty easy to hatch but I suggest that you give it a try before you spawn and to get your other cultures growing too...depending on what you plan to feed/culture it can be fed to the breeders as part of conditioning, the healthier and strong the breeder the healthier and stronger the eggs/wigglers/fry with less fallers with good growth and development.

[1fish2fish]

So do you leave the fry in the 10 gallon or do you move them to a larger grow out tank?

[Oldfishlady]

I move them to other grow-out tanks as they grow and when I see the size difference in them. I have found that you will get all different sizes and growth rates in the fry.....so I try to keep the bigger ones all together and smaller ones together in different grow-out tanks.
I use different size tanks from 10g-75g
I try to keep them together as long as I can and so far I have been able to keep up to 6 male together in a very heavy planted 75g tank along with 20 or so females for a year before I have any fighting/aggression, however, if I remove a male for breeding I can't put him back in with the group.