# Breeding basics....any and all posts will help!!!



## t3intercooled (Jan 16, 2010)

I have a pair of Red Bellys in a 125 gallon tank with an undergravel filter. Ive never checked the nitrites etc, just do a 10% water change once a week to get the stuff out, until I can afford the pre filter where i can filter the water and put pure in. But my Ps had eggs twice already within a 2 week period. Both times lost most if not all of them. First time was my fault, I got feeder goldfish to keep the parents busy on there side and the gold fish got over the panel and ate most of the eggs. The second time I waited and as i started to see them hatch and wiggle on the rocks, i took a small hose and siphoned them into a small tank with water from the parents tank. Over the nest 3-4 days the fry turned white and died. there is now 1 maybe 2 swiming around strong and eating the frozen baby brine shrimp. My question is what are the bare essentials needed to at least get them out of the fry stage.

I was told that some people prefer a bare bottom tank for the fry to be in but if u do than what kind of filter do you use. I have a tank withe the temo of the water round 80-83 as the parents tank is and no filter. If I dont have a filter how often should I do water changes. I never really planned on them breeding just happened and REAL tight on cash now, so Im looking for any opinions or advice for the bare essentials to try and get as many fry to live out of the following batchs I can. Like I said short on cash, so looking to go as cheap as possible.

Right now I have 2 tanks available. One is a retangular tank very small, probably just big enough till the fry start to grow then I have a 30 gallon with an under gravel filter. So any and all help, comments, and advice is GREATLY appreciated. Thanks again, and I look forward to posting pics and info about my future batches. Thanks again.

Brandon


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

t3intercooled said:


> I have a pair of Red Bellys in a 125 gallon tank with an undergravel filter. *Id buy a cannister filter and ditch the under gravel filter- they can work, but they can screw up the tank bigtime if you don't maintain them*Ive never checked the nitrites etc, just do a 10% water change once a week to get the stuff out, until I can afford the pre filter where i can filter the water and put pure in*are you talking about r/o water?*. But my Ps had eggs twice already within a 2 week period. Both times lost most if not all of them. First time was my fault, I got feeder goldfish to keep the parents busy on there side and the gold fish got over the panel and ate most of the eggs. The second time I waited and as i started to see them hatch and wiggle on the rocks, i took a small hose and siphoned them into a small tank with water from the parents tank. Over the nest 3-4 days the fry turned white and died. there is now 1 maybe 2 swiming around strong and eating the frozen baby brine shrimp. My question is what are the bare essentials needed to at least get them out of the fry stage.
> 
> I was told that some people prefer a bare bottom tank for the fry to be in but if u do than what kind of filter do you use.*you want bare bottom tanks with any fry as they are much easier to clean. You can throw some large rocks in or a ball of javamoss if you want for hiding spots and to disrupt the current, but its not necessary.* I have a tank withe the temo of the water round 80-83 as the parents tank is and no filter*you should have an airstone going at the minimum. Sponge filter would be ideal. You'll need a about amonth to cycle the sponge filter before its working efficiently though*. If I dont have a filter how often should I do water changes.*this is where having a water test kit comes in handy. There are a ton of variables like number of fry, tank size and amount your feeding making answering this hard. I would say do mayby 2 5-10% ones a week. As they grow you will need to do larger water changes though* I never really planned on them breeding just happened and REAL tight on cash now, so Im looking for any opinions or advice for the bare essentials to try and get as many fry to live out of the following batchs I can. Like I said short on cash, so looking to go as cheap as possible.*rubbermaid tank from walmart, sponge filter and a heater is all you really need. Im loosing fry too now like i said in my other posts b/c i dont have a sponge filter and only have frozen brinp shimp, but im just going to prepare for another batch which i will be ready for and expecting this time.*
> 
> ...


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## leviathon13 (Sep 11, 2006)

suck the eggs out into a 10 gallon tank with water from the parent tank along with a air powered sponge filter and a heater, keep the temp around 80 and the babies will grow and develop faster. start feeding after they are free swimming. move them to the 30 gal after they begin to look more like P's and not tadpoles.water changes daily with water from the parent tank and make sure you siphon out ALL uneaten food. with that many babies in 10 gals of water the the water fouls quickly. hope this helps, good luck


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## Us And Them (Dec 4, 2008)

Hey InterCooled....

Here are some Cheap alternatives for You ,

Remove any plants , Rocks , Substrate and add them to Your Fry Holding tank , thats gonna help with the bacteria. at this point Your kinda screwed unless you already have some matured bacteria colonizing in extra filters You have.

IMO , Go to the Store and Grab a SPONGE , Yes a SPonge. Like a $1 Sponge, the Fat Absorbant ones.
Take an Airpump and Feed the line into the sponge. Now you have a cheap mans Hydrosponge Filter.

All I can recommend is Keeping the Parent tank the same Temp as your fry tank .

EVERYDAY remove 15 % of the Fry Water and replace with parent tank water... Your gonna have to do this for a couple weeks.
This will make it harder for Your Bacteria to establish its self , but at the same time Keep Your Paramaters at a safe level.


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## weerhom (Jan 12, 2007)

this is my opinion.

86f water, lots of different foods. bare tank, just white gravel, easy to see eggs. do a big water change cooling the water a bit, leave the lights on that night. leave the fish alone. 6" are the best for breeding. I let mine grow up together. At six inch a pair was breeding like wildfire. I used a 120 gallon long. 12-6" fish. Feeding everything they offer in frozen food section of lfs.

That is what I did. It worked for me. Don't know if is exactly how it should be done, but that's what worked for me.

bare bottom in fry tank with sponge filter. feed newly hatched live baby brine till you can get them on flake and blood worms.


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## BRUNER247 (Jun 2, 2010)

A sponge filter is wasting your time!! Wait until their wigglers the siphon them out into a bucket with your gravel cleaner.they'll clump up in bottom of bucket, now drain off most of the waste n extra water. Thansfer them into whatever the smallest tank you have is.with a airstone! Change your water atleast twice a day 75-90% with parents water. I use 2 1/2gal tanks for this stage but 10 will work. About a day or so after the egg sacks dry up they'll eat baby brine shrimp when you actually see them eat transfer them to a 10-15gal with a small hob filter. I use 5-10gal tank n AC30 filters for this stage.use a pre-filter sponge of the intake. This filter will collect all dead fry as well as brine eggs that didn't hatch n brine that they might of missed. Just turn your filter off for 10minutes at feeding time to prevent losing all your brine before their ate! Clean your pre-filter daily!! Your barebottom tank will stay clean as a whistle n your baby piranha count will go through the roof!!


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## duster1971 (Jan 23, 2010)

Wtf bruner toss that info out to anyone but not me lol.


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## BRUNER247 (Jun 2, 2010)

I thought you already knew how its done. Well there's some of it for ya!

Like anyone listening to me anyhow! Where's my beerding award. Lol I can't chat in the chat room. Wtf?


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

BRUNER247 said:


> Like anyone listening to me anyhow! Where's my beerding award. Lol I can't chat in the chat room. Wtf?


If you cantually want the breeding award you have to document raising them for a month in pictures. We underwnt an upgrade shortly before you joined and as of now there are still some things that arnt working as the owener (Xeon) just made all the basic functions work to limit downtime then is now doing a bit at a time. Theres also "a quick heads up" in the hall of fame thats practicallya chat room.

Back to breeding. IMO a sponge filter is a good filter for fry tanks. You can get alot more benifical bacteria on a sponge then in a hob filer. Physical waste can be removed by water changes. 70-90% per day seems pretty high, buti guess its fine if its the parents water with the same water chemistry


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## BRUNER247 (Jun 2, 2010)

Well I have tons of pics n videos too of everything from the actual spawnings to eggs to wigglers to handfeeding hundreds of babies! A hob filter will collect all the waste n dead babies.what's the sponge gonna catch? Nothing!I clean the lil sponge filter once a day n that it! N for the 75%-90% waterchanges that's only during the wiggler stage. As soon as their free swimming n eating bbs their moved to a lil bigger tank with the hob filter.(5-10gal). If your wanting to raise 10-20 babies I'd go with the sponge filter to!!If your wanting to raise hundreds he needs the hob filter! Besides 90% of spawnings, the owners/keepers aren't read for them.my way it doesn't matter!don't have to have a cycled sponge.ultimately its up to whoever is raising the fry on how they'll go about doing it. I have proof my way works n works GREAT!!I have results!! Whatever way he chooses GL to ya!


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