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hi, i am about to tear down one of my small tanks and start again but would like to try a species only breeding tank. could anyone suggest a suitable fish to try and breed, i would prefer not having livebearers.

the tank is 60 liters with quite a strong current and sand substrate. and currently quite bright lighting. other decor can be changed and built as appropriate. it is also quite low down so surface dwelling fish would be hard to see.

my water here is pH 7-7.2 and quite soft.

thanks for any sugestions

You could try shellies. The only potential problem is your water, since shellies require hard, alkaline water. The addition of some crushed coral and the shells can buffer the water. There are also commerical products available for that and diy recipes.

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

i would rather work with something that is more suited to the water if possible, but its an idea to keep in mind.

by fairly soft water i mean gH=12 kH=3

Rams or maybe Kribs? Are you looking for a challenge?

Chris

garo, nothing too demanding as i have never tried breeding before. what would be suitable tank decor for breeding rams or kribs and how many would i need?

Hello,
I love breeding it is my life. For both of those you only need a pair and a 10g tank for each pair. That is a decent size for a pair of each. The tank should be planted with some overturned pots for the fish to lay eggs. DW would work also. These are both relatively easy and provide parental care until next spawning. Hope I helped!

Chris

Kribs are an excellent choice if you want to breed some cichlid in your 2ft tank. I have bred kribs all the time in my 15G. They are absolutely beautiful fish, but even prettier when they spawn. It is very easy to pick out a female and a male. Don't be fooled by their colour, they can sometimes change colour very quickly. Males are slender and have pointy anal and dorsal fins. Females are rounder and have round anal and dorsal fin. Unless you have another tank, do not get more than 1 male and 1 female. From my experience, if you get any male and female, given that they are similar sized it is almost guarenteed that you will end up with a breeding pair with time. Give them plenty of time, good feeding, and give them at least two spawning sites which can be coconut shell, driftwood, rock cave and plenty of plants for territory and hiding. When you feel that they are ready, raise the temperature a couple of degrees, this will help breeding and development of embryo and fry. They are excellent parents and will guide their offspring around the tank to find food. It's a good idea to remove the father as he may turn evil.

Good luck with them.

Regards,
Jim

my boyfriend has Kribs, and they are absolutely fascinating to watch. At breeding times there colours are amazing! He got the tank off somebody else and they were already a pair and 5 babies in there, they really are such cool things to watch. Most setups I have seen tend to put a small empty plant pot with a whole from them to enter in as a cave, and they use that to breed in. Im not too sure how easy they are, but they seem to be courting whenever I go round to see his tank.. The pair are always up to something..

If you want something REALLY easy go for guppies, but Im sure it might get boring after a whle, cos I've heard its pretty easy to breed them.

I really wanna try breed my gourami's. I'll let you know how easy that one is

thanks for the input, all i need to do now is work out where to rehome the loach thats in there, he could stay but i think he would upset the breeding.

do you think a 6 inch modesta would be ok with bristlenoses and cories if i put him in the 70g?