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Old hatchery pix

sparkyweasel

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30 Jun 2011
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As promised in another thread, I found some photos including my old brine shrimp hatchery.
I kept the tank at 78°F to match my Angelfish breeding tanks, that way it doubled as a fish hatchery.
I preferred to let the fish raise their babies, but sometimes I raised a batch artificially. Hence the spaghetti jar, containing a leaf of Amazon Sword with eggs on. The water is treated with Methylene Blue to help prevent fungus attacking the eggs. There's an airstone gently bubbling for circulation.
The tank is 18" x 12" x 12" (45 x 30 x 30cm) and could hold up to eight bottles for hatching Brine Shrimps. I repurposed old pop bottles, inverted with the bottom cut off. An airstone in the neck of each kept the water swirling, and the eggs could not settle at the bottom. Being essentially free, I replaced them when they got grubby.
I used a reuseable coffee filter to strain the BBS from the water, putting the water into another pop bottle ready for another batch of BS eggs. Used the water four times, any more and the hatch rate dropped noticeably. Used TropicMarin sea salt.
I didn't separate the empty eggshells from the BBS, I let them float to the top of the breeding tank and skimmed them off from there.

That's enough typing for now. :)
I think that covers the BBS hatching, but feel free to ask question if it doesn't. :)
I'll add some baby pics soon.
BBS.jpg
Brine shrimp hatchery.jpg
 
I normally let the Angels choose their own partners, so here we have a 'normal' fully striped male and a gold pearlscale female. Hans and Lottie.
I found that having two or three pairs in a breeding tank seemed to encourage them to take good care of the eggs and babies, and very rarely ate their spawn.
The plants had a hard life in the breeding tanks. I'm convinced a bit of algae on them, with the associated biofilm, is good for the babies.
Plants were in pots for easy moving. They spent a few days in a pufferfish tank to get rid of any snails before going into the breeding tank. Breeding tanks were bare bottomed for easy cleaning.
Angels with eggs.jpg
 
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This is awesome @sparkyweasel - I'd like to try breeding my first fish soon, Phoenix Rasbora. Have you experience with breeding all kinds of fish? (like Rasbora?) or only specific species?
Hi, the only rasboras I've bred were Chili Rasboras and Strawberry Rasboras, and for those I didn't do anything special, just kept them in a densely planted tank with no snails. A few fry appeared now and then, but not really a proper breeding scheme.
 
Great, so it’s possible that a few make it through via the medium of nature? Thanks for answering. I could hope for some survivors in my densely planted tank in the summer when the temperature rises? (I use ambient heating). I have nerites and amanos knocking around in there too though, so maybe the chances are slim?
 
I believe that letting the parents raise the babies is the best way.
They won't spawn again until the babies leave home, so they don't get exhausted by frequent repeat spawning.
I think they find it distressing to lose their babies before they are ready to send them away. I used to move them into growing-on tanks when they were about 1cm body length. I could tell when the parents were losing interest in them.
I believe, from my observations, that the ability to raise babies successfully is higher in breeders that were raised by their parents. Because my babies were going to hobbyists, I wanted them to have the best chance of breeding for their new owners who could have the pleasure of watvhing them raise a family.
Here Hans is moving the last few of a batch of babies to a new leaf.
Angels-4 with alevins.jpg
 
Great, so it’s possible that a few make it through via the medium of nature? Thanks for answering. I could hope for some survivors in my densely planted tank in the summer when the temperature rises? (I use ambient heating). I have nerites and amanos knocking around in there too though, so maybe the chances are slim?
I don't know about Nerites, but if tiny snails, like Ramshorns or Tadpole Snails get into the tank I never see any more baby rasboras until/unless I can get rid of the snails. Some-one on here has probably got Rasboras, Nerites and Amanos together. Hopefully they will spot this and chip in.
 
Thanks @sparkyweasel it must be so rewarding when they mature and get past the ’danger’ phase!
Yes it is. I've mostly bred fish that care for their babies, like cichlids. It's great to watch, but things can go wrong, so yes, it is good to see the babies grow old and big enough to leave home. :)
Without parental care you either leave them to get on with it and hope for the best, or set up a breeding tank and look after the eggs and babes yourself. Then things can still go wrong but at least it's under your control. :)
 
Love this!! Absolutely beautiful angels 😍

I've only done it once, but having cichild parent/s raising the fry makes so much sense to me - can we really do a better job than they can? I don't think so! And it's one of the most beautiful and fascinating things to watch. It's nice to help them along, but really it is their babies rather than ours. The way they guide the babies around and manage them is brilliant. I also totally agree about your theory with the biofilm/algae, I watched my apisto babies as tiny dots eating biofilm/tiny creatures on some dried leaves, I think if it was in a completely clean tank with no plants or natural stuff then a lot more of them wouldn't have made it.

The way you hatched brine shrimp is super interesting and useful too, I think I will try it this way next time I let them breed, thanks very much for sharing! :)
 
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