Omega Owners Forum

Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: Darth Loo-knee on 21 December 2010, 10:21:30

Title: does anyone know anything about fish breeding?
Post by: Darth Loo-knee on 21 December 2010, 10:21:30
Mrs Loo knee has tropical fish and one of them keeps having babies, but out of the 10 or so she gave birth too only one survived as the other fish thought they tasted nice   :o this fish is now a teenager fish lmao  ;D
So yet again she is in the family way, so yesterday Mrs. Loo knee went and bought a Hatchery from Pets at Home that floats in the tank, but again she has given birth to over a dozen and yet 3 are only alive  :( so wondering is it something that we are doing wrong or do fish die easily when born? The ones that have gone to fish heaven (Atlantis) actually dont look fully formed being honest. .
Any help will be most greatful x x x

P.s  Merry Christmas   :-* :-* :-*
Title: Re: does anyone know anything about fish breeding?
Post by: Jimbob on 21 December 2010, 10:26:09
Key to survival...

1 get them out harmsway, either the plastic floating hatchery, or net efforts you hang on the side, or even left in the tank with lots of hiding places / plant cover.  Sounds like youve done this.

2, keep em fed, often too small to eat even flake powder, so you can get liquid food - liquifry (no1 or no2, one is for livebearers as you have, the other is for hatching eggs, think its number 2 you want.)

3, decent water quality, the existing fish may have adapted to poor water quality, badly filtered, wrong PH (acid / alcali) but new babies are less tolerant to these conditions.


Guess your guppies or whatever you have will do it again every month or 2, so you should get plenty of practise
Title: Re: does anyone know anything about fish breeding?
Post by: Gaffers on 21 December 2010, 10:27:35
fish breeding is a bit of a dark art.  You have to keep a viligant eye on the hatchery as once she lays those eggs the others and even herself will start to eat them.  You need to whip them out and put them in a separate smaller tank until they are big enough to fend for themselves and then reintroduce them to the larger tank :y
Title: Re: does anyone know anything about fish breeding?
Post by: Richie London on 21 December 2010, 10:34:55
i watched one of mine give birth to hundreds here a few years ago, the sharks had them all within half hr  ;D ;D. my tank wasnt big enough to contain younf baby fish
Title: Re: does anyone know anything about fish breeding?
Post by: Richie London on 21 December 2010, 10:38:57
try some sites for some tips, very useful information

http://www.tropicalfishandaquariums.com/FishCare/Breeding.asp
Title: Re: does anyone know anything about fish breeding?
Post by: Plomien on 21 December 2010, 11:07:59
I can personally recommend this book, my Uncle wrote it  ;D
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Guide-Fish-Breeding-Interpet/dp/1842860704
Title: Re: does anyone know anything about fish breeding?
Post by: Kevin Wood on 21 December 2010, 17:47:53
When I used to have fish I used to put a hatchery in a separate small tank, put the mother in that, and the babies fell through slats in the floor to safety. When they'd got big enough to look after themselves they went back into the main tank. Attrition rate was still pretty high though.

Kevin
Title: Re: does anyone know anything about fish breeding?
Post by: Auto Addict on 21 December 2010, 18:20:27
No, but I've got 2 kids and 6 grandchildren.
Title: Re: does anyone know anything about fish breeding?
Post by: hercules on 21 December 2010, 18:22:30
i actually have to go out to buy fish to feed my oscar and hes coming on lovely :)
Title: Re: does anyone know anything about fish breeding?
Post by: V6 CDX-er on 21 December 2010, 23:28:23
We've got a Jewel rio 180, so not a small tank. Even with plenty of wood, plants, and rock piles in there, with still have quite a low success rate with our livebearers, (mollys and guppys).

It's our guppys who get pregnant the most often. I suspect that the mother herself eats quite a few of them, hence rendering a hatchery pretty much obsolete.

As someone else has already mentioned, I suspect that newborns are more sensitive to the water quality than mature fish.
Title: Re: does anyone know anything about fish breeding?
Post by: Vamps on 21 December 2010, 23:29:55
One or two? or our plecs need some advice because we have a couple of teenagers and a couple of babies hiding in the lava rock, bloomin ugly mother, how she scored I do not know.... ::) ::)

We have previously had baby guppies but all died or were eaten...... :(
Title: Re: does anyone know anything about fish breeding?
Post by: Nickbat on 21 December 2010, 23:46:03
Mine just multiply alarmingly, especially the Mollys. I have one of those green plastic "grass" balls, which are favoured by the young of both the Mollys and the Platys. They also use some upturned plastic grass which floats on the surface. I don't bother with fry food, but ensure I crumble some of the flake to a fine dust when feeding so the young can eat it. :y

As for the egg layers (as opposed to the live bearers) such as Tetras, I haven't found a way of breeding as I'm sure the eggs get eaten within minutes of being laid in the gravel. One day, I'll investigate methods of breeding them. 
Title: Re: does anyone know anything about fish breeding?
Post by: albitz on 21 December 2010, 23:52:37
Dont know about breeding them, but ive heard them fart, and seen the bubbles. ;D............had a nice fish tank in the loft for 5 years, finally took it to the dump last week. Shame really, but it was probably never going to get used again.