# Breeding Celestial Pearl Danio (Danio margaritatus)



## Superman

As I've mentioned in other threads, I'm going to be attempting to breed the Celestial Pearl Danio (_Danio margaritatus_) and was also previously known as the Galaxy Rasbora.

There is a range of information out there on the internet with regards to how easy they are to breed, notably I received the following information after contacting the Bolton Aquatics Museum...



> We have found this fish to be relatively simple to breed, in fact the fish here produce young without any extra care. As long as there is a decent amount of cover, some fry will find enough food to survive through to the point at which they will accept the same food as the adults.
> Water conditions do not especially seem to matter as long as extremes are avoided, we add artemia nauplii to the holding tank in order to add extra food for any young fish, sometimes we might add infusoria, microworm or ZM fry foods if we see that there are more fry than usual. That's about it really, they are a beautiful species that will enhance any planted aquarium.



I thought I'd create a journal type thread here to document my results, pass on information to others and also increase the visibility of Ukaps (I'd rather post it here than on a generic site); as I've found that there are many people who ask for information but there is limited information (that I have found) in the public domain.

If anyone could offer any advice or comments on breeding these fish please feel free to post it on here.

*My Setup*

12x10x8 Optiwhite Nano Tank
Tropica Vesicularia dubyana
AquaEl Air Pump 100
Algarde Non Return Valve 
Ocean Free Bio-Foam Filter 100 
Hydor Mini Heater 15W
Arcpod 11W Light
Thermometer
All but the Thermometer was sourced from http://www.aquaessentials.co.uk

I have setup the tank today and have used the bottom of a plant basket from B&Q and a hairnet to create a moss mat for where I hope the spawning will take place. Here's a photo of it as of now...






I'm going to let the filter cycle and have seeded it from my external on my other tank.

I plan to put a lone female in the tank for a week to condition her up by feeding her more protein food than usual and then introduce a male or two until they spawn. Once the eggs are scattered (hopefully in the moss) I'll remove both and await the fry.

I have a brine shrimp hatcher ready and waiting and also liquid and powder fry food.

Hopefully this will be a successful project as I've never bred fish before. The hardest thing will be catching a female in the first place!


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## Joecoral

Good luck Clark, looks like a nice little breeding setup you have there.
Looking forward to seeing how this one progresses, keep us updated with pics!


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## Egmel

Superman said:
			
		

> I'm going to let the filter cycle and have seeded it from my external on my other tank.


You'll need to give it some ammonia to feed on then otherwise all the bacteria you've added from your old tank will just die off.

The easiest way to cycle a new filter is just to run it in your cycled tank for a couple of weeks, then you can transfer over  the filter, some water and the fish all at the same time to set up the new tank.  As far as the fish are concerned it's just like a water change that way 

Good luck, I shall be avidly watching your progress


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## Themuleous

Nice one Clark.  I hear its not too difficult a fish to breed, and given that its getting a spanking in the wild due to over collection the more its bred in captivity the better.

Sam


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## Superman

Egmel said:
			
		

> You'll need to give it some ammonia to feed on then otherwise all the bacteria you've added from your old tank will just die off.



Thanks Egmel, I'm using household ammonia from Boots to cycle the filter.


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## Thomas McMillan

This should be interesting!

You might want to add some more cover to the tank, as the museum advised. It looks pretty open at the moment. I have heard that when breeding fish like this Cabomba works well too, you might also want to use some floating plants.


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## Egmel

Thomas McMillan said:
			
		

> you might also want to use some floating plants.


I've got tones of water lettuce so if you want any just drop me a PM and I'll send some your way!


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## Ed Seeley

It may not be possible Clark, but I if you can I wouldn't have the moss mat in the tank while you're conditioning the female.  Maybe you could have some floating plants or some java fern or something tied onto rock that will leave the base of the tank free so you can remove any uneaten food.  

What I'm thinking is that the moss carpet will become full or uneaten food and fish waste.  If eggs are then laid in there you may find you have issues with the fry being exposed to that biological load.  That's why lots of breeders use breeding mops made from acrylic wool do they can be removed, cleaned and replaced without any worries of them dying.


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## Superman

Quick update...

Just a minute ago, I managed to catch a female (able to tell by the black spot near the anal fin) from my main tank with a trap.
It was a 2ltr coke bottle, top chopped off, screw top but chopped off, top pushed inside. Put some food in it and the fish swam in and stayed there (some swam out!). Actually caught 2 pencilfish, 1 female CPD and a harlequin! One the bottle was in, it took a minute!

She's now in this breeding tank and will be for a week or so depending on her conditioning. She's swimming about a little spooked about her new surroundings but should find a nice home near the growing moss mat (please with this) and floating plants for cover.

Photos to follow tomorrow.


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## Thomas McMillan

woo so excitinggg 

post lots of pics and keep us posted


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## altaaffe

Hope it all goes well for you, have to admit I swapped my last batch of fry for 3 x 6" clown loaches - I can't stop mine breeding in the main tank.  So yes they are easy to breed.


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## Garuf

You had them breeding? I'd love to try my hand at them, I think they'd look spectacular in my 60cm.


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## altaaffe

I pull out about 20-30 fry each week, got 2 dozen adults in a 180l and do nothing special other than keep the tank going.  They do love plenty of cover though and when I trim an area of the tank that's where they go to spawn although they also love the PH and the blyxa in there.

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=4060


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## Superman

I have seen them spawn in my main tank, although my pencilfish and harlequins must gobble up the eggs and/or fry (seen them gobble up Otto fry in the past). I've got 24 of these and think I have about 50% female but no signs of fry yet.

Plus, I don't have anything for them to spawn over in my tank. I hope they do have fry in the main tank as that would be cool, but thought I'd try to give the fry a chance in another tank.

I'm unsure if I should leave the parents in this tank after they spawn or remove them. Although, given how easy they were to catch with my coke bottle trap, it wouldn't be too much of a hassle to do it in the future.


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## Dan Crawford

Superman said:
			
		

> I'm unsure if I should leave the parents in this tank after they spawn or remove them. Although, given how easy they were to catch with my coke bottle trap, it wouldn't be too much of a hassle to do it in the future.


Whip um out mate, they don't do anything for the fry so there is only a chance of them eating the eggs and nothing to gain. Like you said, they're easy to catch anyway


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## Thomas McMillan

yeah, take them out just to be on the safe side


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## Superman

Here's mummy...


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## Thomas McMillan

she looks like a nice healthy fish with good colouring - nice selection! hope all goes well, as you can see i'm pretty interested in this topic


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## Superman

She's had a helping of live brine shrimp - went down a treat. Although spotted a female in the main tank spawning with the blokes. Hope they're not too tired!


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## Thomas McMillan

That's great news, get rid of the pensilfish and harlequins!


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## Superman

Thomas McMillan said:
			
		

> That's great news, get rid of the pensilfish and harlequins!


The harlequins could go, but my pencilfish are beautiful and so have to stay. Wish that wasn't the case tho as I'm sure I'd have fry.


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## Superman

So mummy has been here for about a week on her own. Will be catching a two lucky lads in there tomorrow night (Wed) to leave them to nocturnal business and then remove all fish on my return from work on Thursday evening. Then wait for fry. Fingers crossed!


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## jb92

goodluck with the breeding im hoping to have a go soon
jb


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## Superman

Two males have now joined Lady. In a few mins they were already interacting. 
Lights off now and I'm sat watching! A few photos and a video has been taken and will be added tomorrow. 

Fingers crossed, i'm not sure if I should remove all in the morning or wait till tomorrow evening, any ideas?


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## Thomas McMillan

Superman said:
			
		

> Two males have now joined Lady. In a few mins they were already interacting.
> Lights off now and I'm sat watching! A few photos and a video has been taken and will be added tomorrow.
> 
> Fingers crossed, i'm not sure if I should remove all in the morning or wait till tomorrow evening, any ideas?



I'm not sure... How will you know when/if they've done the deed?


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## Superman

I was hoping that I'd find them having a cig in the morning but no luck. The female still looked as big as before so don't think she's laid the eggs, so left them to it.


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## Thomas McMillan

Superman said:
			
		

> I was hoping that I'd find them having a cig in the morning but no luck. The female still looked as big as before so don't think she's laid the eggs, so left them to it.



Hmm... I'e never actually bred fish like this in practise, but have read a lot about it. I'm not sure how large or visible the eggs will be if/when they are laid, but I think the most obvious way to tell if it's all gone to plan is when the female is smaller in size.


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## Superman

No evident sign of anything yet although one of the males was found dead on the carpet last night. Poor thing.
I'm going to put another male in the tank tonight, although not sure what else I can do.


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## Thomas McMillan

Superman said:
			
		

> No evident sign of anything yet although one of the males was found dead on the carpet last night. Poor thing.
> I'm going to put another male in the tank tonight, although not sure what else I can do.



what a shame... are you sure you need to use two males? still feeding live food?


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## Superman

Not had live food for a week but still been feeding frozen.


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## Superman

I've been PM'ing someone at Fish Forums.net who's got experience in this field. He's suggested that...

- up temp to 24-25C
- Must have more females to males
- Live food not an issue

So I now have a different male (much larger in size but same colouration) and 4 females in the tank.

Will leave them to settle for an hour and treat them to brine shrimp.


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## altaaffe

I'm at a loss mate, must admit I have equal numbers, but I just leave them all alone in my main tank and although it is a laborious task I watch out for fry and eggs at water change time.

I vac the main spawning areas and am rewarded with fry every week, I can't bear to let a fish die so like today I try to avoid areas and do a water change high up in the column.  I still ended up putting 11 fry into a fry tank.

I have noticed that the males can be a little cichlid like and set up territories in the tank, so space will be needed to keep more males in.


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## Superman

I've picked a large male now and have now four females in the breeding tank, the females are in similar condition to the one I already had in. Hopefully, I'll see something soon in the way of eggs, as I've never seen eggs before I'm not sure what to look for.


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## Thomas McMillan

i think the best thing to do is experiment for yourself and see what works for you. it's good to follow advice though, but at the end of the day each fish is different. 

i know what you mean about looking out for eggs, though. just little small round white things i guess


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## altaaffe

LOL, they are hard to spot - about 1mm across and clear.  They are also not sticky either.

Best thing is to watch for them pairing up and starting to shimmy with each other, good chance you'll have some after that.  First time I realised I had had some action was when I saw around 20 fry free swimming at the top of the tank, I had to segregate them before they were all eaten by the parents though.


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## Superman

I think I might of seen two eggs laid out on the bare bottom of the tank. But then it could be anything as I will turn anything with a 1% chance of looking like an egg into it being a deffo egg.

The fish are not interacting anymore and think some look less fat but not 100% sure. If they have laid, the eggs must be sat amongst the moss mat and I wouldn't be able to see them at all!


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## altaaffe

Just come across your post at the CPD forum Clark.  Have to say, you are intending on these little guys occupying your 180, yes?
If it doesn't work out with the separate spawning tank, then let them into the main tank and watch the areas that they spawn at, then just vac that area and put the water plus anything else that comes out into the fry tank.


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## Superman

Thanks, I'm trying to keep an eye out in the main tank.
I've just got a 60ltr which I hope to setup as a larger breeding setup if things go well.


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## Thomas McMillan

i think setting up a larger setup would be better. that way, you can cram it full ow moss, dump all the cpd's in there and let them spawn naturally so that none of the other fish can eat the eggs, and there'll be extra cover because its a spawning tank. it'll also probably be easier because you're letting them spawn naturally and you can learn from it easier.


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## gratts

Any more progress?


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## Superman

Well all the adults were removed from the small tank on Monday and there has been no signs of fry.
Oh well plan B with the other tank. Although, I've just noticed that the internal filter is covered with thick algae, so I might have to remove it and buy and external.


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## beeky

Just a few thoughts (apologies if you're already doing this, I haven't read through the whole thing)....

If you reduce the water level with the females in it and stop water changes for a few weeks, then replace half the water with rain/RO water at a lower temperature and introduce the males you might see some activity.


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## mlgt

Any luck with these? Ive got 10 CPD in my CRS tank currently and the temp is at 24 and water changes every 2 weeks via 2 litre bottles with holes drilled in the top to recreate rain.

Ive only had these guys for 2 weeks but showing signs of courtship.


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## magpie

An ignorant question... but is anybody making any notes of genetic lines to avoid massive inbreeding? I'm envisaging brother/sister matings taking place for generations, which is how the dog/horse/cat/cow/everything pedigree world has managed to ruin their bloodstock... 

are there enough separate lines to go around? 

m


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## Ed Seeley

magpie said:
			
		

> An ignorant question... but is anybody making any notes of genetic lines to avoid massive inbreeding? I'm envisaging brother/sister matings taking place for generations, which is how the dog/horse/cat/cow/everything pedigree world has managed to ruin their bloodstock...
> 
> are there enough separate lines to go around?
> 
> m



Genetics is a bit more complex than that for organisms such as fish.  Bear in mind these fish live in small waterways with high mortality which can lead to a reduced gene-pool even in the wild.  Species such as this tend to have a very high resistance to inbreeding depression as can be seen in some strains of killifish that have been maintained in closed gene-pools after collection from the wild for over 40 years.  Killifish breeders are very careful not to cross different collections in captivity.

Mammals tend to really suffer from inbreeding depression to a much greater degree so don't make good comparisons to fish generally.  Careful selection of offspring and ruthlessly removing any deformaties can go a long way to removing any signs of potential effects of inbreeding in a species that produces a lot of offspring.


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## magpie

Interesting...like the Icelandic horses? Thank you - makes me feel a great deal better.  Presumably all the horror stories about inbred Gouramis are because nobody bothered with the ruthless removal of offspring, which isn't altogether surprising if you're breeding thousands for a ready market

thanks

m


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## mlgt

Does anyone else bred these in the past? Ive recently been given 10 of these and planning to keep them in my tank, but I would love to have the oppurtunity to breed some fish as I havent had luck with raising any fry before in my 180l tank.

So now I have 10 of these little guys in a 60l tank with 8 CRS and lots of moss.


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## dw1305

Hi all,
I haven't kept these, but I've given away a lot of moss to people trying to breed them. The feedback I've had is that they are quite easy in an established tank with *lots of moss*, not just little patches of it but huge cushions and tangles of moss. I don't think it matters if it is bare bottom or has a substrate, because the moss should cover everything. You could use a layer of glass marbles on the bottom, but if you have enough moss you don't need to. I wouldn't use a spawning mop, purely because the eggs aren't sticky.

I would plant up some wood/mesh/aquarium sponge with lots of moss, put it in the spawning tank (probably go for at least a 30cm cube) and leave it to get on with it until it has grown. A larger tank will allow you to grew up the fry to a reasonable size without having to worry too much about water quality. If you could get some _Najas or Ceratophyllum_ for the tank even better, I'd probably add some _Limnobium_ as well. I'd want at least 4 weeks growth.

I would grow some mosquito larvae for conditioning the adults. I culture my own mosquito larvae in the summer. I use a black 5 Gallon "builders bucket" filled with rainwater with a handful of dry leaves and a handful of glass clippings added. I put it somewhere shady and float a cork in it (the mosquito female needs somewhere to perch why she lays her eggs). If you want to contain the grass clippings, you can tie them up in a stocking. If the water begins to clear and mosquito larvae production drops off, add some more grass clippings. This works really well.

I'd then add your pair/harem of CPD to the tank, condition them with *lots* of mosquito larvae until they are really fat and well coloured, as soon as you see them showing signs of spawning take the adults out the next morning or the morning after (they will spawn evening or early morning). The other requirement is high quality water, so at least 20% water change every day (ideally with re-mineralized R.O. or rain water) and a matured sponge filter (air powered is fine). You won't see the eggs or fry for a while, but after a couple of weeks you should be able to see them darting around the moss.

I've bred Rams, Killis, Tetras, Pencils etc using this approach and it works pretty well for nearly all "difficult" fish, the moss provides both shelter and food, once the fry are amongst it it doesn't matter how small they are they are surrounded by potential food sources in the biofilm.

cheers Darrel


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## mlgt

I have a ice cream tub full of mosses. I will condition the CPD with cyclops and daphnia from a friend.

The mosses I will place in later over the weekend. Thanks for the advice.

The other inhabitants are a mixed bunch of CRS and sakura shrimp. Should be ok as I havent seen the CPD try and snack on them yet


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## Mortis

I would suggest going about it the same way as zebra danios. Start off with a single male and single female first before trying with a harem. Keep both Male and female separated and isolated for a week. Condition both with high protein food. At the end of the week add the male to the female's tank AT NIGHT and switch off all the lights and cover the tank with bin bags or whatever until it is completely dark. In the morning when you turn on the lights, the female should start dropping eggs and the male will follow and fertilize them. Once thats done take out both the male and female. Repeat using another pair if you want. Later on you can see what happens using more than one female.

Best of luck


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## mlgt

What type of food would you be feeding them? I feed mine frozen cyclops, flake food and they sometimes grab the shrimp granules that I leave for the CRS.


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## altaaffe

I used to breed them in a hi-tech planted set-up with lots of Blyxa.  I didn't do anything particularly different for them in there I had about 30 in a 180 litre with Amano shrimp.  They would constantly be driving each other through the mounds of blyxa and I would just syphon off water after they finished and put it into one of several fry tanks.

As the fry grew they were then transferred to a grow out tank.

Once I stopped - ready for moving house, I just converted the tank to lo-tech and still found a few fry which escaped being eaten.


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## mlgt

Ive managed to put a few CPD fry into my nano shrimp tank.
However worried they are not feeding as I tend to put a few crushed pieces of fish flake.

How has your cpd fry been fed?


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## mlgt

Ive managed to find about 20 CPD fry all around a few mm big.
Ive transferred them into my nano where I keep my cherry shrimp. However havent had much luck. I feed them every other day with cyclops and I have only counted 5 at the most.
Have the rest died?


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## altaaffe

I mainly fed them on Hikari first bites and a crushed golden pearl food but I stopped breeding them almost a year ago so I can't remember where I picked that up from, seemed to do them good though.  I also used to put in crushed peas now and again.


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## mlgt

Righto. I just hope they have a chance to feed as most of the food for the shrimps sink to the bottom.


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## a1Matt

With all the moss you have in the tank, I am sure they can survive off of the biofilm until they get to a size where they are big enough to eat along with the adults


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## dw1305

Hi all,


> With all the moss you have in the tank, I am sure they can survive off of the biofilm until they get to a size where they are big enough to eat along with the adults


 Very true, it is a great fry raiser. Another advantage of using moss is that it is very effective at snagging passing micro-worms, these are a good fry supplement and much easier to keep than continually raising BBS.

I've got a micro-worm culture available, PM if you want to start your own. There are also Banana and Walter worms which are similarly easy to culture and even smaller.

cheers Darrel


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## mlgt

Thats great. I will dump a whole load more of java moss into the tank tonight. 

Ive been keeping different mosses in ikea vases recently


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## a1Matt

I have my culture still from when you gave it to me earlier this year Darrel.

I mention this because I am seeing Rik this Sat at the Living Waters meet, so can bring some along for him if he wants it (or if anyone else does for that matter).


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## mlgt

Yes please bring some for me to try out


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## a1Matt

Will do


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## logi-cat

i managed to breed mine successfully but most of them got eaten. I had two slates that had riccia on it, it grew to a certain height that the fish started to breed in it. Each week when i did a water change i would shake the slates in a bucket and would always find 10+ frys in there. I didn't do anything special, i fed them twice a day with TetraMin and i let them get on with it.


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## omen

About a month ago, I decided I wanted to start breeding from the 20 adult CPD I have in my 100l high tech tank, I selected 2 of the biggest females, and 1 male with good fin markings. I had a load of moss from a shrimp tank and some fast growing stems floating on top to soak up any nutrients, so put tank water into a bare bottom 30l tank, only filling halfway, perhaps 7 inch deep. Fed parents on frozen bloodworms for 2 weeks, though I no don't think it is necessary tbh. Did no water changes, just topped up water. After 2 weeks removed parents, and thought I had had no luck, but left it sitting anyhow. However after approx 3 or so days I started to see a few fry. Now I am 2 weeks on, and I have at least 50 fry that I can count. I have an airpump in tank, and am adding about 3 litres of water a week to the tank. Feeding on liquifry and tetra min baby flakes. Largest fry are about 6mm, smallest 3mm. I'm delighted!


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## Radik

Hi Omen, nice but I would recommend infusoria else they will die or only few will make it. At least I had little luck with liquifry and using it as side food now. I do not filter water in my tank I have only 7 fry there which I recovered from main tank and infusoria is growing in my fry tank primarily. I did help it with infusoria culture. Liquifry helps infusoria to grow as well. I just change water here and will put filter back when larger enough feeding on normal food.


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## mlgt

Well done on the success. I guess for me I never took such precautions and ended up with a few successful breeding but the sad story is that during a water change I probably emptied the tank water with the fry in it.

I eventually found 1 left over which grew to just under adult size and then went missing (jumped)

These are lovely fish and I would try to breed them in a later stage.


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## omen

I would be paranoid about siphoning off any fry, so I don't do any water changes! I started with an 30L arc tank, loads of moss, and loads of stems. Idea being that the fry will be provided some food from the moss, and the stems will soak up any nutrients, so no need for water changes. I just add another 2-3L of water a week, and I reckon byt the time that tank is full (in another 5 weeks or so) the fry will be big enough to spot when water changing at that point. I intend to have at least 100 CPD in my 100L high tech tank, so this breeding will be going on some time I reckon! 

Will try and let you all know how they are getting on.

Conor


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## omen

Quick update, I still haven't done any water changes, and have a further 6-8L of water to add to the tank. Fry are getting on great! Just did a quick count, and I could see 40! The largest ones are now about 10mm and resemble a miniture CPD. Smallest are probably 8mm and still look like indistinguishable fry. Feeding ground up flakes, although they seem to refuse this food sometimes, so I suspect they are feeding on other tank inhabitants, either daphnia, or grindal worms (both of which must have come on some of the moss from other tanks).

I reckon another 3-4 weeks, and they will be ready to join gen pop in the big tank


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## Radik

Omen, inject some infusoria if you can and prepare microworms already. They could deplete infusoria in tank quite fast. They refuse to eat anything not moving. I am feeding microworms 6-7x a day and even some smaller (2-3weeks younger been eating them).


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## omen

The adults only get dried foods, so I will try to get the fry eating the same. I figure they will eat whatever is given when they get hungry enough.


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## mlgt

Most natural way I guess 

I would like to start a CPD tank in the future when I have the space. THey are delightful fish.


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## spyder

I have 6 CPD's in a 28l planted nano (2m/4f)with about a dozen RCS. Had them almost 2 months and the males seem to be colouring up nicely. Great to watch.   

Signs of courtship but no signs of fry.I have a small group of frogbit for surface cover for fry but no signs yet. Early days though, they are just maturing nicely. Fed on Hikari Micro pellets and regular treats of frozen micro bloodworm.


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## bigmatt

i've heard that the shrimp are most likely to eat the eggs. The fish apparently breed best if moved to a dedicated spawning tank. Matt


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## omen

If you move the fish out of the tank to a seperate tank, you should have a decent amount of fry within 3 weeks. The biggest issue I found was that the parents ate the eggs and fry. The females scatter eggs pretty much constantly as far as I can tell, I had 2F 1M in a tank, and have ended up with perhaps 40 out of 50 fry intitially. The ones that died had swim bladder disease.


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## Maximumbob

i bred these a few years back.  Best way i found was to set up a tank similar to what you have in post 1. 

I used:

2 wool spawning mops.  1 floating 1 sunk.
Plastic grid in bottom of tank

The plastic grid is a hobby thing sometimes called 'plastic canvas'.  I cut it larger than the tank bottom, so that it bows upward when placed in bottom of tank.  I use this to avoid egg eating.  the holes of the canvas need to be a couple of mm so the eggs fall through and fish cant get to them.

i place a female in tank for 2-3 days and feed well (grindal worm red crumb).  I then put the male in and leave for 1-2 days.  Whenever i see eggs, i remove the male the following morning.

Fry fed on liquifry and microworm and moved onto grindal worm when juvenile size.


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## Phill Austen

I found that they had to be kept away from the eggs to get a reasonable ammount of fry, grid in the bottom of tank or layer of marbles.


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## Plunket

Probably a bit late on this, but....
I started with about 15 adult fish - 5 females and 10 males - all conditioned on frozen bloodworm.  I put a mass of Java Moss in the centre of the main tank, (temp 25.8 deg) and left if for 4 days......observed spawning every morning as the lighting dimmed up.  The moss shouldn't be tied down or too compressed - the fish like to get right into it to lay their eggs.  On 5th day, carefully lifted the java into a container with system water, and transferred this to 15 litre breeding tank with air-driven filter.  Observed first fry after about 4 days, and because I included multiple spawnings, this carried on for about 2 weeks, with more becoming visible each day.  
Fry seemed to get all the food they needed from micro feeds in the moss, but I did supplement with de-capsulated brine eggs from about second week.  I've done this twice and ended up with almost exactly the same number of fish from each batch - about 30.
Anyone wanting some strong, young fish, let me know...


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## spyder

Well finally I have fry in my nano. 5-6 fry have been regulary seen hanging out at the back of the tank above the stems over the weekend. The fry about 2-4mm and silvery grey in colour. The tank has been running about 4 months and fish were juvies when added. 

Funny thing is they got spotted whilst looking for cherry shrimplets which I haven't spotted yet. 2nd berried shrimp about to drop soon. 

I have no plans to attempt a rescue right now, the tank runs with a "survival of the fittest" policy. I will be attempting organsised CPD breeding after I move house in a couple of months.


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