The Journey of Breeding Freshwater Fish

Hey everyone, so I've posted all my stuff pretty much everywhere I could on this forum, just keeping everyone updated on things, but I figured it's time that I keep an actual topic I can update over the years (hopefully ).

As of right now, here are my current tank setups:

The Tank: 5gal
The Plan: Breed Bettas
Current Stage: The tank is currently divided with mesh. I have attempted placing the female with the male once already, with no such luck. He continues to chase her, and she is literally scared shitless, and is unable to breed. She has shown signs of being ready to breed before, but I will have to get the correct parameters all at the same time to successfully do this. I have a decent amount of frogbit, salvinia, water lettuce, and red root floater at the top, with the mesh being coated with java moss. The sponge filter is on the male side, though I am not entirely sure it is working. It has been about two weeks now, and there is no build-up on it.

The Tank: 10gal#1
The Plan: Breed Ancistrus Bristlenose Plecos and Celestial Pearl Danios
Current Stage: Unfortunately this tank's breeding progress has blown far off course. It currently holds 20+ Red Cherry Shrimp, 6 Celestial Pearls, 5 White Cloud Minnow juveniles, and my two adult bristlenose (brown male/ablino female). The male pleco seems reluctant to breed, even after surefire observations of the female wanting to breed by sitting in front of the cave, kind of the "Come get me" attitude that most males seem to go after... The shrimp need to get their own aquarium, and the white clouds need to be sold. Asking $1.50 each, only selling as a group to increase their chances of actually being happy.

The Tank: 10gal#2
The Plan: Breed Blue Gouramis
Current Stage: There is, at this exact moment, my blue gourami female, 6 white cloud minnow adults, and my new longfin albino bristlenose juvenile I paid $13 for! I am waiting one more week before adding in the male blue gourami and taking out the minnows. I won't have to worry about moving the bristlenose (hopefully) as the gourami eggs float, thus not producing any possible interaction between them and the pleco. I will do as I did last time when breeding gold gouramis; add something for the gourami to blow bubbles in, stop filter, and drop air supply until none over the course of 3-4 days.

The Tank:10gal#3
The Plan: Breed Bettas, leave father with fry
Current Stage: Currently, only the male (double halfmoon) and female (crowntail/halfmoon mix) are in the same aquarium, without dividers or breeder nets. The male has attempted blowing bubble nests, and succeeded for a short time until today when I changed their water. I have to constantly destroy the nests every week when I cycle the water, such a pity, but I encourage good health now over the failures of successful spawns. They are in still water, and he isn't being too dominant. Waiting to see if I will have to put her back in the breeder net.

The Tank:28gal Bowfront
The Plan: Growout tank
Current Stage: Currently this tank is holding my male gouramis (one blue and one gold), 10 white cloud juveniles, my porthole catfish, and about a dozen albino/brown bristlenose juveniles. I just recently sold 26 male guppies from this tank, increasing the health of the fish that are now leftover. This is the tank that will continue to get my overstock from the following tank:

The Tank:30gal#1
The Plan: Guppy Breeder
Current Stage: About 20+ adult guppies, 30+ guppy fry, a dozen bristlenose juveniles. This tank has a huge survivability of the fry. I usually pull about a dozen males every month, if not more. Just recently sold off most of my bigger females in favor of removing the cobra gene.

The Tank:30gal#2
The Plan: Growout tank
Current Stage: Currently I have placed a divider in this tank (1/3) to accomodate a bristlenose female I had to remove from 10gal#3, as I didn't want her getting attacked by the bettas. Her half also includes 5 platys (one mickey mouse highfin, one bumblebee, 3 orange/black), and one female betta. The other half includes a 1ft sailfin pleco, a handful of glofish, a pearl danio, zebra danio, and another female betta. The entire tank has about 6 adult blue and purple mystery snails. They continue hopping the dividier, thus they are not segragated to one side.

That's it for now.

I came home yesterday to find the 10gal#3 betta female had squeezed herself behind the Java moss wall to hide from the male. I'm assuming she wasn't able to escape, and drowned.

Note to self, and anyone else: Provide adequate hiding for future females to escape male tormenting.

Update: I figure I would post some pics of the fish.

Female Betta, currently in the 28gal in a breeder net. Good coloring, for the most part. Will be breeding her with a blue male sometime in the future...
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Guppy Galore!
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The 1st 2 pics are of the same male, which is what I REALLY want to continue breeding. It's an awesome looking mix of blue Moscow, cobra, and lyretail. The orange male currently has fin rot, which I am honestly not expecting to clear up. I've bought multiple fish from the fish store I got him at, and all the males have died thus far. But I am hoping he can knock one of the females up before he goes, as I would love to have a line of orange. The purple female is hopefully my next main girl I keep. I would LOVE to get purple babies from her. Purple/orange mix would be awesome. lol

Purple Mystery Snail babies in the 28gal, these guys are almost a month old. They take forever, but are hardy and good at eating the food I give them!
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Juvenile Plecos, same spawn. It seems that the smaller ones are in the 30gal, and the bigger are in the 28gal, which is odd, as fish are supposed to grow faster in bigger tanks.
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I put the male blue gourami in the 10gal with the female. He darkened up and she acted like she wanted to be squeezed! I shut off the filter already, and the top is heavily coated with plants and a small piece of Styrofoam which I used with the gold gouramis.
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There were some comments about this female betta before, so I decided to post more pics.
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This one is really beautiful! I'd totally buy some from you if you had more that looked like this!
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I bought him from a LFS for his perfectly round tail lol. Give it another month or two and I'll have some of his babies ready to sell.

Awesome! Definitely excited to see its babies!

A day together, and the blue gouramis have already bred. I removed the female and will allow the male to tend to the nest until the fry are free swimming. I have a variety of different fry food I bought at kensfish.com which imcludes 5-50microns golden pearls, dried daphnia, growth meal #00 and spirulina powder. I'll be changing the water daily once the fry are free swimming, or as much as possible, using airline tubing and a syringe to start the siphon. I am hoping to get at least a couple dozen survivors as that's about the same amount of surviving gold gourami fry I have.

Just some pics of the gouramis and their nest:
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The fry are now free swimming and both parents removed. I added most of my red cherry shrimp to the tank in hopes that they keep the tank clean and won't eat the fry. I researched if they would, and most people said no, so here's hoping. I had to destroy the nest last night as they were hatching, because the bladder snails were starting to swarm. I've resorted to using a syringe with an airline tubing about 4" and a straw covering that, which forms a snug fit. It seems to work amazingly well as sucking up the snails, so long as I can dislodge them from the plants, yet it is easy to get them off walls and gravel.

Most of the gold gourami fry I will be selling shortly, and replacing most of them with the younger blue ones.

Unfortunately while cleaning 10gal#3 yesterday, I squished a white cloud adult with the gravel vac and killed it. Surprisingly though, it was the one that had been looking sickly. The tank had a fungus outbreak on most of the plants though, so I had to remove them and take off about 75% of leaves after doing an strong alum soak for 3hours. One of the amazon sword leaves had literally begun to rot and form a hard fungus on it. I also noticed some starting of black hair algae, a problem that I had in another of my 10gal tanks. I will be posting a separate topic for this problem though, with pictures, when I'm able to.

30gal #2 is now a designated cichlid tank. I bought a group of five pundamilia nyerei Lake Victorian cichlids for $50. I'm not sure if it was a good deal, but the dominant male is gorgeous! There are 3 females and a male about 1-2" and the dominant male is about 4". I bought some small clay pots from the dollar store which should provide adequate hiding. The people I got them from explained how they had to "strip" the fry from the females, which sounded like a hassle, but intrigued me even more. Their colors aren't looking good so soon after the move, but I will fix that soon enough and have him ready for the potm

Got pictures of the new fish?

The fish are camera shy. I will have to bait the male out with food and get him used to the bright light. lol

Took a few more pics. Hope you enjoy!

My porthole cat; likes to latch onto my gouramis. Almost got a perfect picture
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Blue Gourami Fry Day 1 or 2 (hatched on 5th)
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Their Food. 1tbsp golden pearls, 1tbsp decapsulated brine shrimp, 1tbsp spirulina, 2tbsp ken's growth meal #00
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Best pic I could get of my Nyerei male
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The other smaller nyerei
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I had a hydra infestation in the Blue Gourami Fry tank, so I removed them with the use of airline tubing, a straw, a 50cc syringe, and gravity
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And a net to get the remaining occupants
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After
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And another close-up of fry. Day 5
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Nice pictures! The dwarf blue Gouramis are beautiful fish.

I've been doing some reading on pundamilia nyerei . I think I'll try housing some of these fish sometime. I really like them.

theChad wrote:Nice pictures! The dwarf blue Gouramis are beautiful fish.

I've been doing some reading on pundamilia nyerei . I think I'll try housing some of these fish sometime. I really like them.

Awesome! Well I plan on trying my best to breed them, so I will keep you updated on that!

As I was making my rounds feeding the tanks I came upon a big surprise, my gouramis did the dirty deed in the 28gal bowfront!
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The only bad part of all this; I'm not sure if they are full bred blue gouramis or a blue/gold mix. Also, another inconvenience that is hard on me is the fact that there is such a high survival rate of the first batch! I still have about 300, probably closer to 500. I have to remove about 50 fry from the bucket everytime I change their water, its getting pretty tedious. And now I'll be having to deal with more! Curse you aquascum!

My pundamilia are now housed with two jeweled cichlids which I believe are a mated pair. They all get along just fine though, which is perfect.

"aquascum".... WT_?! Lol!

You got to keep them separated. Ha!

Keeping them separated isn't a possibility. All of my tanks are already overstocked. Even my little 1gal tanks have fry in them. It looks like the blue gourami fry might be cannabalistic towards the eggs. Their mouths aren't big enough to swallow them, but they are all swimming at the top. I should be able to tell the difference once they get bigger (hopefully). Of course, I don't think the gold male has ever spawned with another female, so chances are that they're pure blue.

Edit: It is definitely not a hybrid of gold/blue as the blue male was dark and aggressively protecting the few eggs that were left. I decided to throw him in a breeder net so he would stop stressing the entire tank out. He was making it hard for other fish to eat, very bad.

So now I have a total of about 500 week old fry, and 100 unhatched eggs. I will be selling a bunch when they hit half an inch, but keeping a good amount to grow out bigger. Amount and price will be determined then (though I expect at least 100 fry @ 25-50 cents each).

I wish bettas were this easy to breed...

Yesterday, my bettas spawned. Today, the male looks bored and there appear to be no eggs. He ate them once again. This is the 2nd time in a row. I love his colors, but he is turning out to be a very troublesome fish for me. The female was injured, so instead of putting her on the other side of the divider, I swapped her with the baby betta from Petco and added some salt. Her wound is no longer a problem, but she will stay there until she is a happy fish again.

The mal just idles in his tank, looking up, I think he may be sad that h can't see her.

The 2nd batch of gouramis hatched as well. They looked like fairy shrimp when I first seen them in the bucket during a water change, but then I realized my mistake. I now just do a quick sweep of the bottom with my airline, to suck up debris/leftover food. I average about 100 fry in the whole minute it takes me to do this. I fear my successfulness at keeping these fish alive will begin to wear me out before the 3week mark, which is when I must be very consistent with water changes, as this is the week the labyrinth organ develops. Poor maintenance would mean disaster, either in deaths or derpy fish.

I have resorted to using an airstone to suck the rest of the water out for cycling,though it takes about an hour, and I have to flush it out every so often as it starts to get plugged up with gunk.

On another note, my guppy juvenile males that I've pulled from my breeder tank are already starting to look gorgeous. I think I am just a sucker for this blue moscow/cobra mix.

How many paragraphs can I get into a single post...? Anyone know how long it takes for a berried RCS to drop shrimplets? I've had a few females at about the same size for a couple weeks now...

Two months later...

-5gal
Currently housing 4 betta fry (dominant females already large as juveniles. Splitting them up would speed up the growth of these fish, but I just can't stand the thought of all those little jars.

-10gal #1
The only occupants of this tank are Celestial Pearl Danios and a juvenile betta female. I sold my male adult bristlenose I got from my LFS that refused to breed. He wasn't active and showed no interest in the females I provided him with.

-10gal #2
I currently have the two female albinos (Clementine and Dotty; the latter being the one laying) and a male I purchased from World of Wet Pets in Portland for $12. He bred within a week of putting him in with the girls. I now already have a second clutch of eggs that he is fanning now.
The shrimp in this same tank are doing surprisingly well. I see a couple deaths a week, but they are reproducing twice as fast.
My last update I said I would lose most of the gourami fry... Indeed they did. My vacation came and all but about 18 fry had died when I got back.

-10gal #3
Guppies, a few males and female fry/juveniles that I decided to keep from downsizing the 30gal. I also picked up some free fish (I know, I'm supposed to be downsizing on fish, but ibsaw catfish and just had to do it. I got 2 juvenile blue gouramis (2 females I believe), 3 Cory cats, and a small common pleco. Everything besides the pleco went into this tank.

-10gal#4
I received some 'Metriaclima aurora' African cichlids from lake Malawi from a fellow fishbox member, they are now about an inch long and dominant traits are showing on a few fish. I already had to remove a runt to a different tank due to its weak and sickly appearance.

-10gal #5
About a dozen .75" jack Dempsey fry and a small common bristlenose pleco .5". I'm hoping he survives the jacks...

-28gal bowfront
I still have the mated blue gourami pair (that I'm trying to trade off as I will keep some of their fry to replace them). The gold gouramis are still in this tank as well, I haven't had the space to breed them yet, nor do I feel comfortable about breeding her at that size.
My porthole catfish now has a couple buddies! I picked up two flagtail porthole cats from wetspot coming back from my vacation. They were significantly smaller than him/her, but are a welcomed addition to the tank.

-30gal #1
My old guppy tank, now converted and running as a tank for my female pundamilia nyererei cichlids of Lake Victoria- complete with aragonite sand to raise ph, a d a huge fake stone decoration from PETsMART that cost way too much. I added the free pleco I got to be the algae eater in this tank. The females are looking dark and happy from being rid of the 10gal they were in.

-30gal #2
Still a mixed cichlid tank, still trying to get rid of jewel, convicts and red top hongi. Both the male pundamilia are in this tank as well, the dominant one showing less coloring without females in view.
This is my planned growout tank for the metriaclima aurora fry, and hopefully their breeder tank.

Five months later and just about everything has changed.

I have three ten gallons now (one temp):
#1 is still my Bristlenose Pleco and RCS breeder tank. The plecos are named Davy Jones, Clementine, and Dotty, and a bunch of fry in there with them.
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#2 is now a quarantine tank for sick or new fish
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#3 houses seven of my albino Pundamilia nyererei. I tried adding them in with the other fry and mothers, but the moms decided because they are different colored, they are great food.
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Only one 30gal left, which houses my Apistogramma cacatuoides "Orange Flash", my three porthole catfish , six common colored Bristlenose females, and one male bristlenose named "Stubs" due to him missing most of his tail (which happened in a different tank from other pleco males)
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Three new tanks, all 55 gallons - one acrylic.
#1 Acrylic, houses my Pundamilia male and any future males from my current batch of fry. There is also a single convict (anyone want it for free?), and two Blood Parrot cichlids that came with the tank.
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#2 Community tank, planted. A bunch of guppies, some bristlenose plecos, four female bettas, and a couple bronze corydoras.
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#3 Pundamilia nyererei female and growout tank. Currently housing my remaining two adult females (one died after a couple months of not being 100% healthy) and about 75x .5"-1.5" fry (three different batches).
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