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Finally, at long last, the 20G has finally cycled, PH-GH-KH all stabilized for over a week now. Going to make a honest attempt to get a successful spawn from my Rainbows (Melanotaenia splendida).Either tonight or tomorrow will probably relocate a good female to the 20, get her conditioned and settled in for a few days, then drop in a male and see what happens ya ?
Between the 9 of them, from what I've observed on a average, there's a spawn 4-5 times a week in the community tank, just no surviving eggs,as they all get eaten FAST. I know the 20 is a wee bit small for this species, but its the largest, other than the 46, I have available at this time (other tanks are 10's and 15T), and wife is getting flustered with the multi-tank array lol.
20G details>>
Substrate is red flourite,
plants; 12 bunches of frill (milfiol)
8 javaferns (2 have 3 plantlets each)
2 small wisteria
2 small stalks of moneywort
1 small stalk of pennywort
Lighting; 1 18in 5000K 15W flor. ( .75 WPG )
Filtration; Tetratech PF-300 HOB /w int.heater
intake modified with medium bio-foam to prevent egg p/u.

Not much else to mention at the moment, anyone have thoughts, advice, inputs on their experiences with breeding Rainbows ???

well, Feb 9th, a solitary female with a rather full belly was transfered to the 20 after the 20 received a 75%WC supplied from community tank, she seemed a bit stressed but settled in rather quickly, following 2 days, both 20 and community were fed high protein and high fiber foods (live and frozen). Careful watch on the males to observe which one did either none or the least of spawning in community tank.
Feb 11 solitary male added to the 20 , colorful displays to the female almost instantly !! lol.... female seemed largely uninterested for the longest time, I went on about my day and removed both of them from the 20, and play the waiting game unsure if anything had happened at all....
Feb 18, last night I came home from work, checked the 20 for little tiny rainbows... NADA....the 7 day mark... give it 5 more, then try something different...
just before bedtime I had the urge to check again, YES !!!.. looks about 25-30 fry swimming around at the surface... largest one observed is maybe 3MM in length, a few of them look no bigger than a air bubble with fins!!

WOOOOOHOOOOOOO
J.

Wow congrats!

Keep us posted on how it goes!

Any pics are welcome too!

^_^

Good job Iron! congrats! i hope they grow good and big! keep us posted lol

The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we dont know what to do.

proud papa Iron! Awesome man, can't wait to see some pics, and hear about the progress of your youngin's.

Um, so now that you have these new fish, just what will you be doing with them? Can you sell/give them away?

Congrats Iron.

I know how much you were wanting to get the rainbows breeding.

Have you got microfoods started culturing - greenwater, vinegar eels, BBS?

I too want to see pics

G_T

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

Congrats. I really want to try and get my Bosemanis breeding as well. Any advice? and what about your parameters in the breeding tank? Filtration? LOL I know its a lot of questions but I really want to get mine to breed as well. so Please pretty please.

mts.gif" border="0"> I vote do you?
My Tanks at Photobucket

ok, first off , sorry for the delayed response, been having issues between resizer software and photobucket, but finally got pics uploaded tonight>>
http://s231.photobucket.com/albums/ee52/ironhand74/20%20g%20breeder/
still haven't got the macro settings figured out on the camera yet....lol....anywho, as of today, it seems the total count is 22 fry, the largest is almost 1/2 in. ( 12mm), smallest maybe 4-5 mm, all are very alert and active and seem to be developing ok, to be honest I wasen't expecting to see anything happen as far as a hatch, being that I never truely observed any eggs released...got lucky I guess lol, so no living micros cultured, but did have a packet of Hikari First Bites handy... well so far so good much to my suprise, but have observed them nibbling on the fine pinnate leaves of the milfoil ( which has now been removed to expose the algae on the back glass, they nibble on that as well).
Jim, I kept the PH around 6.8 in the 20 ( main is kept @7.0) water temp is stable @ around 78-79 F , GH/ KH between 8 and 9 DH, tho have read that many species of rainbows come form fairly acidic/blackwater native habitats, but strangely enough, some seem to fare better in harder water found in aquaria...weird hehehe
I think a good start for sucess, is a totally seperate breeding/rearing tank to condition the female in for a few days, high protein/fiber diet to deepen that belly full-o-eggs, introducing the male a few days later ( no longer than a week due to the schooling nature of rainbows, the solitary fish will probably become stressed from lonleyness to the point of loosing appetite and refusing any encouragement to spawn)in the mean time condition the male either in the community or another tank, much the same high protein/ fiber diet add a few veggies for good measure, at any rate, be prepared to remove BOTH fish from breeder tank as soon as you see eggs scatter ( 2 nets a MUST ! )lol...the longer you wait or hesitate the more eggs will be eaten by the parents...
anyone else to add or advise, please hop on in !!! hehehe

J.

wow !! near 1 month old now, the size differences between the fry is staggering, of the confirmed 24 total, 9 of then are already over 1 in long and starting to color-up,next 9 are between (approx) 3/4 to 1 in., the final 6 are less than 1/2 in long, but well defined, if they sit still long enough I can tell the difference between male and female in most of them. Yesterday they got their first taste of frozen daphina , that vanished real fast, tonight I tried pulverizing the Hikari algae wafers (spirulina) and cyclopeze granules, equal portions placed in a plastic baggie, pounded with a 8 battery mag-lite for 15 min, instant powder....lol....the kids LOVED IT!!!, will try to get more pics posted soon !!

J.

Well of course the kids love it, how about the fish though !

Great to know everyones still doing well

Pics now please

^_^