Breeding Fish Ideas and Other Concerns?

So..... most of you already know about my two 8 foot long divided tanks.

So here's how it's currently set up:
*Each "cubicle" is divided into about 6 gallons of water, which are then divided with slits on the top and bottom of each divider, big enough for water to go through (and some smaller fish to swim through).
*Each cubicle is about 12"L x 12"W x 10"H

Water drains out on the far right cubicles, and goes into a 40 gallon sump, which then gets pumped back up to the left-most cubicle.

My goal is to breed any kind of fish that might be suitable for breeding... so far, I have a pair of Golden Wonder Killifish, Nematolebias Inoa Killifish, and Gardneri Killifish... Each pair is in their own 6 gallon cubicle. The other cubicles currently just have random fish that I'm holding for no particular reason.

I know that fish such as the Golden Wonder Killifish, require a bigger tank, I think a 20 gallon tank was the minimum... so does that mean that I won't be able to keep them in the 6 gallon cubicle? I figure they require more swimming space, but they seem to be doing well, being as they're the only fish that are in that cubicle...

With that out, what kind of fish CAN I keep in a 6 gallon cubicle? Please keep in mind that I've already tried smaller fish, anything that's about the size of a Neon Tetra or White Cloud, will usually mean that they will just swim through the slits, and I've already tried blocking off some of the slits with some sort of mesh, with very little luck. So, any kind of "micro fish" is out of the question. Same goes for any kind of shrimp =P Each cubicle is practically "plagued" with cherry shrimp LOL...

Maybe I could try breeding Corydoras? I was told I could also try breeding Apistogrammas, but I thought that those needed bigger room to breed?
Ideas? Ideas??

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, here's the latest video of my 8 foot long divided tanks:
*note: the white plastic things you see on the dividers are the plastic canvas mesh things, I was talking about to help prevent smaller fish from going into different dividers. And while they do help, to an extent, they're not the best way to keep them from invading another cubicle. Also, some of the fish in the video no longer exist. So. Yeah.

I've been trying to wrap my brain around this since Yesterday when 1st reading the post.  Would be awesome to breed corydoris species. I've seen Apistogramma in smaller tanks but I don think they where breeding, it was just a temporary  housing for single fish in a LFS. For some reason my mind keeps thinking tank modification but that would be a new project to consider. But going in and removing every other divider although a pain in the but maybe the solution to double spaces. The only reason I suggest that is because I read of all sorts of breeding happening in 10 gallon tanks. So opening your sections up to 12 gallon sections maybe what's needed to successfully breed Apisto's, Corys, and killifish.

What about some sort of livebearer? I've always wanted to try my hand at refining the genetics and breeding my own line of some sort of guppy/molly/platy. The dividers would be nice to keep various genetic traits managed.

fishNAbowl: I considered taking out some of the dividers, unfortunately, because it's acrylic, the panels have been welded on with weldon. Not only that, but because the acrylic is rather thin, the front panel is already BOWING, when there's water, which I didn't think would happen because the cubicles are so small... I can only imagine that they would bow even more, if there were less dividing panels supporting the front panel. So, there's that issue too.

I've been told that I could put braces, but I don't know how I'd go about doing that, sounds a little iffy too because working with acrylic has been... not so good with me. LOL.

bronzefigher: I do have some guppies in one cubicle, and whiteclouds in a cubicle next to them, WITH the white mesh in the slits... and all the guppy fry STILL seem to go through the mesh and hang out with the white clouds.   
It's so weird, because you'd think that the fry would want to stay with the guppies, but they end up going into the container where the white clouds are. Another weird thing, is that the other cubicle next to the guppies, only contains a few bristlenose plecos, and there's NO guppy fry to be seen in that cubicle. I. Just. Don't. Get. it.

What about betta's? I'll do some further thinking, but first thing that came to mind.

Indeed - perfect for guppy, and platy strain breeding, provided you can keep the fry where they belong. Have you tried jamming aquaclear sponge cuttings into the slits?

pbmax wrote:Indeed - perfect for guppy, and platy strain breeding, provided you can keep the fry where they belong.  Have you tried jamming aquaclear sponge cuttings into the slits?

That would impede water flow, and cause the cubicles closest to where the water gets pumped, to overflow out of the front panel. :(I tried it with filter floss, I can only imagine how it would be like with sponge.

KaraWolf: That's kinda what I was thinking too... lol

ShortyKiloGyrl: Yeah, Bettas are definitely one of the type of fish I wouldn't mind breeding... it's a definite maybe, that's for sure!

Have you ever browsed around aquabid.com? May give you some ideas. I was going to look there tonight for ideas for you.

Ooh... that actually sounds like fun. It's kinda like window shopping, for fish! LOL
Thanks for the great idea ShortyKiloGyrl!

Wow I just found some bright US native fish that I kinda want now. Gee thanks PokeSephiroth! Lol

I'll live vicariously through you. So buy these!!

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PokeSephiroth wrote:
That would impede water flow, and cause the cubicles closest to where the water gets pumped, to overflow out of the front panel. :(I tried it with filter floss, I can only imagine how it would be like with sponge.

Not if you clean them regularly and not if you don't extend the mesh all the way up to the edge of the front/back.  Unless I'm missing something in the video...

Anyways, just an idea.  You could try a finer mesh and attach it with epoxy-coated rare earth magnets. That should hold it tightly in place.

Can you imagine how many of those sponges I'd have to clean? LOL...

Blah, slacker.    The magnet idea could work though  Granted, they'd be obscenely expensive in the quantity you'd need, but they'd work.

Slacker? I'm all for doing the least amount of work. :p

Yeah, me too, but it seems to me we all picked the wrong hobby for that.   

PokeSephiroth wrote:fishNAbowl: I considered taking out some of the dividers, unfortunately, because it's acrylic, the panels have been welded on with weldon. Not only that, but because the acrylic is rather thin, the front panel is already BOWING, when there's water, which I didn't think would happen because the cubicles are so small... I can only imagine that they would bow even more, if there were less dividing panels supporting the front panel. So, there's that issue too.

I didnt think you would even like the idea so I didnt go into details. This project wouldn't be removing the whole divder but more just making an opening in the center of the Acylic divider. Probably could just use a drill bit designed to make door knob holes. This would be a hole roughly 3" in diamiter. Just enough to allow fish through easily. This shouldn't compermise the integrity of the tank. In the future if you wanted to close off the hole you could. Like in the circumstance of a successful spawn on one side . All you would do is close off the 3" hole, net the parent and the parent and spawn is separated... Just an idea...

Ooooh, come to think of it, someone DID mention doing that, in my other topic about the 8 foot tanks, a while back (back when I first started working on getting it all together)...

It may actually have been you, or MrTom, that mentioned about drilling a large hole in the dividers, to allow fish to swim freely between each cubicle.

Yep, and I'm still waiting for you to drill those holes. Then you could do an AWESOME apisto setup... On the other hand... I've been looking into other setups... and now I think you could do an absolutely killer setup for native american fish in there (look up swamp-rat's post). I got a couple of everglades pygmy sunfish and they are amazing little guys. Added benefit? Lots of these guys would not mind lower temps in the tank!

MrTom: You know, that might actually be a fun thing to try out (pygmy sunfish, NOT drilling. LOL)... where did you get your sunfish from?
I remember them being mentioned elsewhere, as well.. I think it was in the Coldwater Fish list topic. They look amazingly cool, almost like annual killifish (as far as body shape and finnage are concerned).

I got them from the GSAS auction. I'm looking at getting more from swamp-rat's group order.
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Researching these guys is a bit different, but the info you need is still out there. You could probably do either sunfish or the topminnows in that tank.

I sent a link earlier in the thread about some topminnows that were on aquabid. They are cool looking.

Mmmm... those topminnows sure do look nice.

They are coming from the same place swamp-rat is doing the order from! Get in on that! Lol I would if I didn't live so far away.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure how I'd be able to get the fish from Swamp Rat, let alone get him the money............ (if I HAD any money. LOL)...

Man, those pygmy sunfish look so beautiful! :\

MrTom, hurry and get them breeding, put some Barry White music or something! Chop chop!   

Haha I'm with you there. The sunfish are awesome colors!

If money wasn't an issue right now, I'd totally do an order with Swamp-rat... unless I wait for payday, but that's like two weeks from now, and I wouldn't want to delay their group order just for me. lol.

Yeah I'm with you there but that order for me to pick up would be 2+ hours to drive. :/ where I live I could just as easy shoot down to portland I'm only 50 mins away from oregon already.

Yeah, I've driven down to Grays Harbor before (Aberdeen), with my boyfriend when he used to attend Democrats Meetings there once a month. It's quite the drive, from Bremerton. lol. I can only imagine what it's like, having to drive up to Seattle.

I need to change that, I'm 40 mins south of Aberdeen even now! Lol