# Top Breeding Tips



## Superman (31 Dec 2008)

So my new tank came at Christmas and has meant that my plants to breed my Celestrial Pearl Danios (_Celestichthys margaritatus_) and have read and been told by Bolton Aquatic Museum that they are pretty easy to breed and don't need much effort.

As I've never bred any fish before, I would like to get any top tips from people?

I'm going for a simple bubble filter in the tank with some moss on a rock or maybe a mat where the eggs can go (where do you get the mat from?) but other than that, leave a pair in there for a few days and remove them. I might also put some of my floating plants in there to drown out some of the light as they like heavily planted tanks.

I've got some fry food from an Otto fry that appeared.

Any help/advice is much appreciated.


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## Thomas McMillan (1 Jan 2009)

maybe try thickets of cabomba, then half moss bottom and half mesh bottom, also marbles for the eggs to fall through


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## Tom (1 Jan 2009)

Not knowing anything about breeding Danios, I would guess that they scatter sticky eggs into spawning mops (Cabomba/Moss!), but I am not sure. I would have a bare bottomed tank, and use the little air powered box filter. I'd also try a group rather than just a pair.

Judging by the adult size, I would think the fry would need to start feeding on infusoria. Rather than making this yourself (but you can do), you could try putting a load of moss in there. They may also find stuff to feed on in mature filter floss in the tank/box filter. Then you may be able to get them on baby brine shrimp and commercial fry foods/egg. 

Hope that helps.

Tom


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## Thomas McMillan (1 Jan 2009)

I've heard with Danios you should feed them live food/freeze dried for a couple of weeks and then select the biggest female and two males, then put them in the breeding tank overnight. The tank could have cabomba, moss, mesh, marbles on the tank floor - anhting for the eggs to fall through/stick to and be safe from the parents, who will eat their own eggs after spawning. The parents should spawn the morning after, with the female swimming around and the males going after her and nudging her belly. Take the parents out straight away after spawning.


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## Ed Seeley (1 Jan 2009)

I'd basically treat these like non-annual killifish.  Stick them in a bare bottomed tank with lots of cover.  I use large clumps of moss, artificial spawning mops and java ferns on bits of plant pot, rocks and wood.  A sponge filter is perfect to filter the water.  Get the parents into condition with lots of live food (brine shrimp are the easiest and most nutritious but microworms are exceelent too and good for smaller fry) and regular water changes.  

Hopefully you may see the fry appear in with the parents as I don't think they'll be particularly canibalistic and being so small I imagine they won't lay huge numbers of eggs in one go like zebra danios.  They'll get infusoria from all the moss and then will eat the brine shrimp you're feeding the parents.

If this doesn't work you could then try and separate the females, condition them then add the males and remove the adults after a day or two or when you see them finish spawning.  Good luck!


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## andy (1 Jan 2009)

Thomas McMillan said:
			
		

> I've heard with Danios you should feed them live food/freeze dried for a couple of weeks and then select the biggest female and two males, then put them in the breeding tank overnight. The tank could have cabomba, moss, mesh, marbles on the tank floor - anhting for the eggs to fall through/stick to and be safe from the parents, who will eat their own eggs after spawning. The parents should spawn the morning after, with the female swimming around and the males going after her and nudging her belly. Take the parents out straight away after spawning.




That's exactly how i'd do it....1 female to 2 or 3 males. Make sure they are well conditioned with live and frozen high protein foods for a week or two.  

The tank should have plenty of places for the eggs to hide...im pretty certain the eggs are non adhesive so will fall through the gaps of marbles/pebbles.  Remove the parents immediately after spawning as they will hunt down the eggs !!!

Make sure you have food waiting for them when they're free swimming....infusoria, baby brine shrimp and microworms.  I fed my baby fighters on microworms from day 1 with no problems at all and those babies were weeny !!!


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## altaaffe (1 Jan 2009)

I have bred these and will probably get back to it in the New year.  As said above you can switch a couple of fish to a tank with plant cover and then remove then after you see spawning action - the male will drive a female into a spawn area (I found mine loved Blyxa after I added it to their tank) and she will lay eggs which are not very adhesive.

The way I have them is in my main planted tank (around 30 in a 180 litre tank) and I vac the main spawning areas during the weekly water changes.  I then put this water into separate fry tanks, I also tend to get numerous fry appearing in this water and transfer them to a fry tank too.

As for leaving them in the tank, the adults can and will eat young fry.  I've tried leaving an initial spawn, where I had around 30 fry free swimming, in with the parents and they quickly disappeared.  That was even before I started dosing EI and kept nitrates at zero for spawning purposes.

I have noticed that once I concentrated on high flow around the tank for the plants, the fish stopped spawning, now that I have revisited the layout of the tank and have spray bars installed the fish are much happier and have started to spawn again.


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## Superman (2 Jan 2009)

Thanks for all your help.
I'm going to order stuff today for it.
I've seen them pairing up in the main tank but think that if there were any fry or eggs they would be eaten by the parents or the other fish in there.

Hopefully, I'll be able to catch a female and a few males when I need to! Need to find out what are what too!


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## Thomas McMillan (2 Jan 2009)

Superman said:
			
		

> Thanks for all your help.
> I'm going to order stuff today for it.
> I've seen them pairing up in the main tank but think that if there were any fry or eggs they would be eaten by the parents or the other fish in there.
> 
> Hopefully, I'll be able to catch a female and a few males when I need to! Need to find out what are what too!



If they do decide to breed in your main tank, it's pretty well-planted. You'd be surprised what can survive amoungst a few plants, Clark!


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## Superman (2 Jan 2009)

Yes, I do remember how surprised and excited I was when I found my Otto fry hiding behind a circulation pump.
It doesn't seem too difficult to breed them as I keep finding other bits of news elsewhere so fingers crossed.

What type of heater should I get?


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## Thomas McMillan (2 Jan 2009)

Superman said:
			
		

> Yes, I do remember how surprised and excited I was when I found my Otto fry hiding behind a circulation pump.
> It doesn't seem too difficult to breed them as I keep finding other bits of news elsewhere so fingers crossed.
> 
> What type of heater should I get?



Are you using one of those little opti-whites from Aqua Essentials? You might not even need a heater to be honest. CPD's don't need their water that hot to begin with, and it's such a small tank that it'll probably be warm enough with the tank light on and the room heat. 

You should probably get a heater just in case though,  maybe one like this: http://www.aquaessentials.co.uk/index.p ... mifd3t0og3


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## Superman (2 Jan 2009)

Thanks Thomas.
I'll get one to be on the safe side.
Going to get a light like the arcpod type.


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