# Chilli Rasbora fry!!



## Steve Buce (16 Mar 2021)

Had a nice surprise in the rasbora/ buce tank, some fry







Usual piss poor pics I’m afraid

Some of the parents






feeding the tank baby brine shrimp and daphnia, fingers crossed I get more fry😀


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## dw1305 (16 Mar 2021)

Hi all,


Steve Buce said:


> Had a nice surprise in the rasbora/ buce tank, some fry


Brilliant, what are the water parameters like (particularly how soft is the water?)

cheers Darrel


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## timdjones10 (16 Mar 2021)

Brilliant! Would be great to see wider angle photo of the tank as well?


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## Steve Buce (16 Mar 2021)

dw1305 said:


> Hi all,
> 
> Brilliant, what are the water parameters like (particularly how soft is the water?)
> 
> cheers Darrel


My normal tap water is around 150 TDS, ph 7/7-2 “moderately hard”
But I’ve been doing w/c‘s with a mix of tap water and rainwater to lower TDS which is now 125


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## Steve Buce (16 Mar 2021)

Some of the other tank mates, neon blue rasbora and B maculatus


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## Wookii (17 Mar 2021)

Lovely looking Chilli's @Steve Buce, nice and plump, one of my favourite fish. That's a great result getting them to breed, I would have expected proper blackwater conditions, and a real acid pH would have been required - so that gives me hope for the future!


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## dw1305 (17 Mar 2021)

Hi all, 


Steve Buce said:


> But I’ve been doing w/c‘s with a mix of tap water and rainwater to lower TDS which is now 125





Wookii said:


> That's a great result getting them to breed, I would have expected proper blackwater conditions, and a real acid pH would have been required - so that gives me hope for the future!


That is really interesting. I've seen reports of them breeding, but always in very soft water, so I was expecting the same as @Wookii.
It is a lovely tank. 

cheers Darrel


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## Gill (17 Mar 2021)

Love it, 
Where did you get your Sundadanio Axelrodi - neon blue rasbora, I believe these are the only shrimp friendly fish mentioned by the crustahunter himself.


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## Steve Buce (17 Mar 2021)

Wookii said:


> Lovely looking Chilli's @Steve Buce, nice and plump, one of my favourite fish. That's a great result getting them to breed, I would have expected proper blackwater conditions, and a real acid pH would have been required - so that gives me hope for the future!


I intend to do more rainwater w/c to continue to lower TDS and ph 
I will also start to add more botanicals 
I also stopped gravel vaccing and have left the mulm build up, unsightly yes but a home to lots of microfauna


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## Steve Buce (17 Mar 2021)

Gill said:


> Love it,
> Where did you get your Sundadanio Axelrodi - neon blue rasbora, I believe these are the only shrimp friendly fish mentioned by the crustahunter himself.


I got them locally a while ago, had to worm them, lost a couple in quarantine

Horizon aquatics have them regularly and they ship nano fish I believe

would like to get more


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## aec34 (17 Mar 2021)

It’s a stunning tank! @Steve Buce how big is it? I’m planning a 60 litre tank and wondering about going rainwater so I can keep chillis


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## Steve Buce (17 Mar 2021)

aec34 said:


> It’s a stunning tank! @Steve Buce how big is it? I’m planning a 60 litre tank and wondering about going rainwater so I can keep chillis


It’s a dennerle 35litre scapers tank


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## sparkyweasel (17 Mar 2021)

Steve Buce said:


> I also stopped gravel vaccing and have left the mulm build up, unsightly yes but a home to lots of microfauna


I've been a mulm fan since the 70s. There weren't many of us in those days.


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## Steve Buce (2 Apr 2021)

Little update, TDS now below 100
Have a buce trimming session and adding some botanicals along the front of tank


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## Tim Harrison (2 Apr 2021)

Congratulations, that’s no mean feat.  And the tank is  looking great. Any more pics Steve? Post trim and with botanicals.


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## Steve Buce (3 Apr 2021)

Tim Harrison said:


> Congratulations, that’s no mean feat.  And the tank is  looking great. Any more pics Steve? Post trim and with botanicals.



After a trim, a bit more open, more swimming space for the rasbora





fry still knocking about, Tend to stay at bottom of tank





Buce trimmings


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## Steve Buce (8 May 2021)

Spotted some more fry today








There’s lots of mulm,moss and botanicals now at bottom of tank, breaking down
TDS still below 100


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## Steve Buce (8 May 2021)

I also think they might be maculatus fry, by their colouring, we shall see!


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## AverageWhiteBloke (8 May 2021)

Love it, it's something special when fry just appear without any intervention from the keeper it's like the pinnacle of fishkeeping. Hasn't happened for me with egg layers for so long I've forgot what that feels like. Maybe one day, I have six Chillis in a 50 ltr which have been there some time with shrimp and Sterbai, I'm hoping to get another 6 next week when I'm at MA, my local stores don't sell them apparently because they don't sell well when they're young, small and not so colourful. When they grow out they are lovely fish though for a small tank.
I wonder if weather plays a part? My Sterbai never show any breeding activity but the other day when there was a serious down pour, first for ages they started "T" ing up.



aec34 said:


> It’s a stunning tank! @Steve Buce how big is it? I’m planning a 60 litre tank and wondering about going rainwater so I can keep chillis


I don't think don't mind that much for living in not so sure about breeding. I tend to use rain water as much as possible so generally keep my tank around the 100 TDS area, rain being a scarcity lately I've been using tap so it's crept up to 200, soon get that back down now the storms are back. When I bought the Chillis the water they were in was in the 300's from MA.


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## sparkyweasel (8 May 2021)

AverageWhiteBloke said:


> I wonder if weather plays a part? My Sterbai never show any breeding activity but the other day when there was a serious down pour, first for ages they started "T" ing up.


A lot of Corys can be encouraged to spawn by a water change using cold water.


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## aec34 (9 May 2021)

Congrats! Are shrimp/snails coping ok with the decreasing TDS, or is this tank fish-only?


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## dw1305 (9 May 2021)

Hi all, 


sparkyweasel said:


> A lot of Corys can be encouraged to spawn by a water change using cold water.





AverageWhiteBloke said:


> My Sterbai never show any breeding activity but the other day when there was a serious down pour, first for ages they started "T" ing up.


Same with a lot of the <"L numbers">, people condition them, and then they wait for a low pressure system and do a large water change with softer water. This often gets them going.

cheers Darrel


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## Steve Buce (9 May 2021)

sparkyweasel said:


> A lot of Corys can be encouraged to spawn by a water change using cold water.



Try not feeding for a day or 2, then give them live food, like black worm, bbs, frozen bloodworms for a few days, combined with a cold water change, that does the trick for my orange vens.
But a lot of corys have different triggers, some are seasonal for example


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## Steve Buce (9 May 2021)

aec34 said:


> Congrats! Are shrimp/snails coping ok with the decreasing TDS, or is this tank fish-only?



Haven’t lowered TDS in the Cory tank or the shrimp tank, I put the baby corys in the shrimp tank, I think they all like mess and rabbit snail poo!!


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## Steve Buce (9 May 2021)

I will start lowering the TDS further in the chilli tank, now my water butt is starting to fill😂


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## dw1305 (9 May 2021)

Hi all, 


Steve Buce said:


> give them live food, like black worm,


Blackworms (_Lumbriculus variegatus_) <"are brilliant"> for <"conditioning _Corydoras_">_._

cheers Darrel


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## AverageWhiteBloke (9 May 2021)

I have a legacy Siamese fighter in my tank so even if I was lucky enough he would probably hunt out the Fry. When he goes I'm just keeping Chilli's, RCS and the Sterbai which are also legacy fish from another setup. They are probably 6 or 7 Y.O


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## Steve Buce (9 May 2021)

AverageWhiteBloke said:


> I have a legacy Siamese fighter in my tank so even if I was lucky enough he would probably hunt out the Fry. When he goes I'm just keeping Chilli's, RCS and the Sterbai which are also legacy fish from another setup. They are probably 6 or 7 Y.O



Had endlers in with mine, only after removing did fry pop up
I’d say most corys would attempt to try their luck with small fry, even their own


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## ScaperJoe (9 May 2021)

Hi Steve. Great looking fish and congratulations on the successful spawning!

I've got Phoenix Rasbora that I would really like to try and breed soon and I had a couple of questions if you don't mind:

- Do you have Amano (or similar) shrimp in the tank with the Chilis and if so, have they shown any interest in hunting the fry;

- What do you feed the adults; and

- What temperature is / was the tank?

Many thanks


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## Steve Buce (9 May 2021)

ScaperJoe said:


> Hi Steve. Great looking fish and congratulations on the successful spawning!
> 
> I've got Phoenix Rasbora that I would really like to try and breed soon and I had a couple of questions if you don't mind:
> 
> ...



No amano 

BBS is my preferred food, hikari first bites is good as it stays on the surface
I also make a mix of vibrabites, colour enhancing flake and bug bites , then crush them to a finer powder 

Temp 23/24c

HTH


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## ScaperJoe (9 May 2021)

Steve Buce said:


> No amano
> 
> BBS is my preferred food, hikari first bites is good as it stays on the surface
> I also make a mix of vibrabites, colour enhancing flake and bug bites , then crush them to a finer powder
> ...


Thank you, Steve - it does 👍 cheers


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## louis_last (11 May 2021)

ScaperJoe said:


> Hi Steve. Great looking fish and congratulations on the successful spawning!
> 
> I've got Phoenix Rasbora that I would really like to try and breed soon and I had a couple of questions if you don't mind:
> 
> - Do you have Amano (or similar) shrimp in the tank with the Chilis and if so, have they shown any interest in hunting the fry;


I've got a lot of fry in my tank at the moment. I don't know whether they are from Boraras maculatus or the pair of scarlet badis but I have some extremely aggressive amano shrimp in there and the fry are way too fast for them. The amanos prey on vulnerable cherries after moulting and I even put two assassin snails in there to try and control the ramshorn snail population - the amanos killed and ate both of them. For some reason they ignore the ramshorns but I saw two of them tearing apart an assassin snail while it was still alive. I don't reckon you need to worry about amanos hunting fry but I'm sure they eat eggs..


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## Wookii (11 May 2021)

Man, your Amanos are savage @louis_last! My Cherry shrimp bully mine out fo the way at feeding times by jumping on their backs.


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## ScaperJoe (11 May 2021)

My Amanos seem to be fairly peaceful too. They ignore the 2 cherries and they are absolutely terrified of the rasbora half their size. The Rasbora try to pinch food out their mouths!


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## louis_last (11 May 2021)

Wookii said:


> Man, your Amanos are savage @louis_last! My Cherry shrimp bully mine out fo the way at feeding times by jumping on their backs.


I am totally convinced that providing them too much live food gave the amanos, and berried females in particular, a taste for flesh. This NEVER happened when I was feeding the boraras flake food and the shrimp vegetable based foods. I was always still feeding the shrimp various algae based foods, even some with a lot of protein from peas, but it was only when I started making various livefoods constantly available to fish to try and get them to breed that the amanos started preying on cherries and the assassin snails after I had seen them eating grindal worms and moina. Could be a coincidence but I struggle to believe it, the amanos have been in there for more than a year with no issues prior to me feeding so much livefood. I've seen a lot of people worrying about assassin snails eating their shrimp so I was very surprised to see two amanos working on an assassin snail that was actively struggling to escape. The first one could have been dead already but the second they were literally eating it alive.
Anyway they haven't prevented fry from appearing and nor have the ramshorns that I was concerned about eating eggs, I just need to figure out which fish the fry are from.


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