Did not plan on breeding but....

Well I had no plans to breed my Australian Rainbows but I just watched them drop eggs and all the others come and eat them.  

So Im off to research what is required to keep them.  

Any one else every have rainbows breed and successfully keep them?

The bichirs are them or the other rainbows did?

The rainbows are breeding.

Oops. Sorry, I meant which fish are eating the eggs? It was supposed to say ate not are above

Rainbows are eating the eggs including the ones who had done the deed. I guess they are known to do that. Looking at the info online they seem easy enough to breed and keep but just not worth it for fish I got on sale at Petsmart for $1.30 each. If they were the rainbows that go for $12 a pop I might want to raise them out.

           

madness wrote:           

Why does it always have to include the violence?

You have to interpret the emoticons.  =Yea they laid eggs.  = damn right we laid eggs. = cause we love each other.  = kill kill kill the eggs.  = the fish keeper excited that he doesnt have to find a home for the fry.

        

Ok, I get it now. It was pretty amazing to watch the deed happen and then male and female just started devouring the eggs before they touched bottom. Then all the others joined in the feast. Poor bichirs didnt get any eggs.

Rainbows are fairly easy to raise. Of course there are many species and it varies. It is a lot of work to do it properly,as with any fry, and not worth it for fish of questionable background IMO. Most of the larger sp. lay eggs daily. I can get 50-80 in a mop in a day.

Yeah, like I said these were Petsmart $1.30 fish. Not a high resale value on these fry. It would be worth it if they were the expensive rainbows for sure.

You should ask Seattle_Aquarist aka Roy. I think he bred rainbows before. He knows what to use as egg substrate. Ask him.

man, if they drop eggs on a daily like mentioned above, you may not have to buy anymore fish food for that tank.....that would be sweet!!! 

That would be cool, except its gross how quick mom and dad ate the eggs.

that's not gross! My brother once had hamsters that when they gave birth, the mother ate the face off of one of her babies...... that was gross!!!! and also the end of us being allowed to own hamsters at my moms house growing up. lol

lloyd378 wrote:man, if they drop eggs on a daily like mentioned above, you may not have to buy anymore fish food for that tank.....that would be sweet!!! 

Yeah but the female that is laying eggs is losing weight cause she feeding everyone with eggs that she makes.  

My rainbows bred a few times and I have raised some. Are they laying on décor or something or just freely in the water? If you can catch them laying I moved the object the eggs are on two another tank or breeder box and the babies are tiny and grow fairly slow. I had was raising a few guys at the same time I was breeding my Buenos aires tetras. Not hard to raise but congrats!

I don't know about rainbows, but my discus mom ate her first few batches of eggs- the first time as quickly as she laid them, she immediately plucked them up. now shes graduated to eating wrigglers...parenting seems to take practice, maybe its that way with your rainbows?

They are breeding toward the top of the tank and letting eggs drop. If I had the breeding mop in there the eggs would likely stick to it. Then I could pull them out to another tank to raise.

DMD123 wrote:They are breeding toward the top of the tank and letting eggs drop. If I had the breeding mop in there the eggs would likely stick to it. Then I could pull them out to another tank to raise.

what other tank????? did you get a new toy? saaaaweeet!

Not yet but am considering a Petco $1 per gallon tank.... most likely a 20L or a tall 20, or a 10g, or a 40B or a 55g or