 |
Building Numbers and Quality through Managed Breeding
Greg Sage
Selectaquatics.com
selectaquatics@gmail.com
November, 2011
As an aquarium
hobbyist throughout my life, there has never been a time when
every species did well all of the time.
With many species, breeding them in enough numbers to
keep a population going was often an issue, and with species
that did not breed in large numbers to begin with, or
that were difficult to keep, it was a reward just to be able to
keep
them around.
With the creation of Select Aquatics, it became
necessary to breed a number of species in large quantities.
Species
that had taken a year to produce a tank of 20 or 30
individuals would now need to be bred by the hundreds. At the
same time, many of the species are also being
maintained in selective breeding programs, where fish are
separated by sex at a young age, then need to be grown
to adulthood to be evaluated as future breeders to
improve upon the line.
However, not
every species you may want to breed out will be possible for
you, given your water qualities, tank setup
or husbandry practices. For example, fish that require
small multiple feedings, exemplary water quality and large tanks
(such as sailfin mollies) are not the best option for
the use of my setup. At the same time, from experience there are
species that simply do not do well given my current
water conditions. Species that have done well in the past at
different
locations may not be an option today. The fish may
breed and survive, but slowly, and may not grow to their
potential,
while there are others that will do better here than
they have in the past with other water suppliers. Priapella
intermedia
had done very well when my water was supplied by a
local well system, but today does very poorly, and is not a
species that breeds using the current city water
treatment system I currently depend upon. When embarking upon
a breeding program with a species, not all fish are
created equal, and some species will be far better suited for
you
than others. Because of the consistent water changes
required within any breeding program, constantly buffering
or tweaking the water to meet certain conditions is
very difficult to maintain, and often not successful.
The practices you use then are not entirely responsible
for your success- an important part of the process is to select
a
species that you know will do well in your water. This
is not a "cop-out"- C. lateralis and Z. tequila both do well for
me
for me now, and neither bred well on that well water
mentioned earlier, and neither is a species known for being
prolific.
Experience will tell you which species to focus on, and
in general, if two species are of the same genus and one does
well, the other will also. This is not always the case,
however, as Alfaro cultratus does very well in this setup today,
but
Alfaro huberi does not. The only way to find out which
species will work best is to try, and move on if after 6 months
a group of adults has not bred, or thrives only
marginally.
The intention of this essay is not to persuade anyone
to change the way their tanks currently operate. But if you want
to focus on a particular species, breeding it to
maintain a reserve of that species for yourself and for other
hobbyists,
there are practices that can be followed to
get your numbers up in healthy, inexpensive, and effective ways.
_______________________________________________________
The practices
here were problems
eventually solved, or the result of trying things that went
against common wisdom,
but worked. The
aspects of problem solving and fashioning solutions keeps fishkeeping
interesting- when breeding
many
batches of small fry, there is routinely the need to create
dividers, breeders, tops and the occasional light
fixture.
Often I am faced with a problem that cannot be fixed
with something that can be purchased. For problems that can be
addressed with a little creativity and time to fashion
a quick solution, I keep on hand a number of plastic shoebox
containers, some nylon netting, electrical ties,
plastic cross stich backing, some nylon screws (as glue is not
always a fix
when exposed to water over the long term), and
"honeycomb" plastic light fixture grating (available at any Home
Depot), that I cut to size for tops and tank dividers.
Extra box filters, airline tubing, dechlor, Scotch brand green
kitchen
pads, and a few extra gang vales generally need to be
on hand. A dremel tool, scissors, plyers, colored electrical
tape
and felt tip pen (that I use to make labels to mark
each tank, as fish are constantly being moved) round out my
toolbox.
I also keep on hand a variety of sizes of plastic
containers that are used daily to move fish, sort them, etc.
Though rarely used, I have temporary tank dividers made
up for most of my tanks of the white plastic honeycomb sheets,
cut to size, that are carefully covered with cross
stitch backing attached with electrical ties, or nylon screening
material
so that young cannot pass through. On three sides these
dividers are bordered by attached, cut strips of the green
Scotch
pads so that the divider can be slid into place easily
and it will firmly stay in place until removed. Usually, I sew
the strips
on with nylon thread so that the seal with the glass is
consistent and even.
_______________________________________________________
In the hobby currently there are species that routinely
disappear through lack of communication between hobbyists,
stalled efforts to enact effective species management
programs, and inconsistent husbandry by those keeping the
fish. Often, under what may seem to be the best of
care, fish born healthy do not survive to adulthood to help
increase
their numbers. Accidents happen, each species responds
to its environment differently, and some fish are simply
not healthy to begin with. One hobbyists friend
believes that you should never part with a fish until you have
at
least 30 on hand, yet few fishrooms can boast that they
maintain at least 30 healthy individuals of each species
they keep.
Select Aquatics breeds primarily livebearers-
swordtails, both wild and fancy lines, show guppies and goodeids.
There
are also Barbs (The puntius padamya), while beginning
to work with rarer species of Danios and Ricefish. Using the
methods described in this essay, most species are kept
in fairly large numbers, in over 120 tanks that are between
10 and 100 gallons each, and the room contains about 25
species.
I have chosen four representative fish that are bred
here- The Swords, the Alfaros cultratus, the Goodeids and the
Odessa Barb, to hopefully cover many of the specifics
that are essential for some species, and how those requirements
have been dealt with.
______________________________________________________
Basic
Tank setup for any species that does not require a substrate to
spawn:
Any breeding tanks are going to be covered to prevent
jumping and to provide security, bare bottom (no gravel or
substrate), with adequate filtration (I use 4” simple
plastic box filters, with polyester floss) and minimum 20-30%
weekly water changes. Live plants are always provided,
primarily Java Fern and Java Moss, moderate light, a heater
when needed, and all of the fish covered here do best
with substantial aeration. The size of the tanks will depend on
the species being kept.The biggest obstacle to breeding
fish in larger quantities is tank space. Don’t let this deter
you-
you do not need to go out and buy a number of new
aquariums. Having the tank space is ideal, but when the space is
not available, particularly if access to 5 or 10 gallon
aquariums is not possible, there are a number of other solutions
that will be mentioned throughout this essay. One of
the most ideal solutions comes from breeding large numbers
of guppies to be culled down to just a few, I would
expand my capacity and space for pairs and trios, etc. with
Sterilite
brand plastic containers. Often sold as the white
plastic kitchen trash bins, they come in a variety of sizes from
5 to 10
gallons. They are lightweight and stack within one
another when not being used. Avoid the rubberized or Rubbermaid
brand containers as they can contain a chemical that
leaches into the water and kills the fish. When set up next to
one
another with small box filters and overhead light, you
can keep a number of temporary spaces going as breeding spaces,
places to raise fry, etc. They can also be lifted
easily and will never leak.
Once tank space is established, the amount of space you
will need can be calculated. Each line or species you choose
to work with will require a minimum of 4 tanks. A tank
for the breeders to mate in, a tank for the female to have her
fry, and two grow out tanks- one for males and one for
the females. With fish that do not need to be separated by sex,
such as the goodeids, you will need a minimum of 3
tanks. Obviously, as soon as you have two gravid females, the
need for more tanks quickly comes into play. Using
shoebox style plastic containers of various sizes, I was able to
make large, comfortable breeders to have on hand. The
sides are cut out with a dremel tool, and the openings are
then covered with an attached, inexpensive nylon mesh.
A small brace is tied on with nylon electrical ties that hold
the breeder in place when hung from the side of the
aquarium. These breeders can both serve as a space for the
females to spawn in as well as the initial tanks to
raise the new fry, until regular tanks are available.
An effective breeding effort requires a lot of handling
of the fish, raising them by size, moving them gradually to
larger tanks to grow out. Large batches of 30+ fry
quickly outgrow a 10 gallon tank, and waiting too long to split
a
batch up will stunt their growth.
No breeding program will do well without hatching and
feeding baby brine shrimp (BBS) on a regular basis once
fry are large enough to benefit from it. Most
livebearer fry can take BBS immediately. Adults to be bred
should be
fed at least twice a day a mix of dry and occasional
live foods, and young should be fed 3-4 times lightly per day at
first to quickly get them past their most fragile
stages. One practice is to immediately freeze ½ of every batch
of
brine shrimp that you hatch in ice cube trays.
Depending on the amount of BBS hatched, you can then maintain a
reserve of fresh frozen baby brine shrimp in constant,
convenient supply. The best way to obtain Brine Shrimp
“eggs” (they are actually cysts) is to purchase them in
a 1 lb. can from a number of vendors on
the internet.
_______________________________________________________
Livebearers- Swords-
If possible, start with groups of 1 male to 4-5 females
in 10 gallon tanks to be bred. Put in enough plant cover
to provide a sense of securityfor females being chased,
etc., but not so much that mulm buildup will happen,
or such that you cannot see each fish easily. You do
not want females having stray batches of young in the
plants that may then get eaten.
When a female becomes gravid, remove her to a small
tank (or temporary container) of her own, filled with
water from the home tank, or with aged water that is as
similar as possible. Feed her well to help ensure
fully developed, healthy fry, while also discouraging
her from eating her fry. I have found that livebearers
benefit from earthworms (chopped or flake) when gravid,
for larger batches and healthy fry.
A female placed in her breeding tank 1-2 weeks before
she drops is ideal. Moving a fish too close to when
she is about to drop may cause her to drop early- often
too early for the fry to survive. A female whose
abdomen begins to “square off” is generally ready to
drop within a day or two, but the ability to predict
based on gravid spot color and body shape can be very
imprecise. Their gestation is generally 25-40 days,
based on temperature, and when first building up a line
it is important to log the date a female drops,
then isolating her when she will be due again so that
you will not miss the next batch.
Fill the tank with Java moss so that she can swim
around, but young can easily escape into the plants,
out of her reach. The goal is to catch every fry
released by every female you are breeding. Most livebearers
will drop their fry between sunup and about 10AM. If
you see one fry, unless she is in the middle of having
them, all will have been born and she will need to be
removed. If you are not convinced she has released
all of her fry, put here into a separate bucket with
some Java Moss for another hour or two while you are
tending to the rest of the spawn. If you have the tank
space, it is best to allow a female that has just dropped
a couple days to recover before putting her back in
with the other adults.
After she has dropped and been removed, carefully
remove the majority of the plants- leaving some for
the fry to hide in and feed from, shaking them gently
but thoroughly to let any stray fry fall away. Put the
plants into a separate container filled with water to
let any fry you may have missed fall to the bottom and
be removed later. Once the young are swimming about,
feed a light dose of baby brine shrimp to get them
going. After 2-3 days, carefully observe any “belly
sliders”, mutations etc. that may appear, and remove
them to be raised separately or disposed of.
I feed BBS (Baby Brine Shrimp) daily, changing 50% of
the water each day for the first 10 – 14 days.
At 2 weeks I will put the young in a net breeder in
their eventual grow out tank, releasing them when they
are big enough to be let go with the adults, when they
can fend for themselves. When tank space is a
problem, and another tank or breeder is not available,
I will float the new fry in an intact, rectangular
plastic shoebox container with some Java moss within
another larger tank with the appropriate water
temperature, removing and changing the water in the
container daily until a better space opens up.
Once a group of females is having fry regularly, I will
put a gravid female in a 20 gallon breeder to have
her young, and let the young grow out for 1-2 weeks. At
that point the fry have become too large for most
females to be interested in eating, and are too small
themselves to bother new fry. Another gravid female
is then added to the same tank, and kept well fed. Now
the older fry function as “dither fish” for any new
young that the gravid females release- when she gives
birth, her new young mix with the old, and predation
ceases, as the older young discourage her from
attempting to feed on the new young in the tank. Once
20 or 30 young are swimming around, I will then put as
many as 2 other gravid females in the tank, removing
them as soon as they have thinned down. Once that tank
is fully stocked, I will let them grow out, and get
another one started.
The young, whenever possible are raised by themselves
in tanks small enough that finding food is never a
problem. Generally, livebearer fry are raised in 10-20
gallon tanks with box filters, moderate aeration and
some Java moss for infusoria growth and biological
filtration. With the amount of brine shrimp fed, live
plants in a fry tank are essential to keep the ammonia
levels down. Keeping fry separate also allows for
better spotting of mutations and identifying fish that
you may wish to raise separately, or cull to maintain
quality within the line.
Alfaro cultratus-
Known as the “knife livebearer” for its elongated shape
and lower body scale structure, this peaceful, 3 inch
butter yellow schooling fish has some interesting
characteristics that can make breeding challenging. This is
a species that will casually eat its fry, so that a
batch of young will slowly disappear over 1-2 days if they are
not removed. Females do not possess a “gravid spot” as
in many other livebearers, and a female being gravid
is not always entirely clear. Moving a single female to
her own 10 gallon and waiting is sometimes a fruitless
and weeks long undertaking. Lastly, this fish can
produce spawns that are heavy toward one sex or the other
for the first generation or two in a new environment.
Oddly, in my room the sex ratio seems to have evened
out as the species accustomed itself to this
environment.
After a number of approaches, the best method has been
to raise the adults in a 30 gallon or larger aquarium,
where the fish can be easily seen. Females are removed
when they are obviously gravid- they are wider,
fuller and heavier in the abdomen. Up to 4 gravid
females are then put into a 10 gallon tank heavily planted
with Java moss. It should be thick enough so the fish
can navigate around the tank, but just barely. The females
will then tend to hide down in the plants, staying
hidden and out of sight. Females of most species are aware
they are gravid and feel compromised in their ability
to avoid predators or disruption. When looking to catch
a gravid fish it is routine for the gravid fish to be
the first to dart to the farthest reaches of the tank. A group
of
gravid cultratus will stay buried within the furthest
reaches of their aquarium.
However, cultratus fry always head to the surface when
they are born. A batch of new fry born shortly after
sunrise will school in a group above the Java moss
where they can be easily netted and moved into a grow out
tank. The plants are then gently lifted, any other new
fry are removed, and the females that dropped are
removed and put back with the adults. Other gravid
females can then be added to the tank.
Goodeids:
Most goodeids have few fry, and first time females will
often only produce 5-10 fry at a time. The young are
large, but they are still eaten in some species.
Lastly, some female goodeids do not tolerate being moved
when gravid, and will drop their lifeless batch soon
after. Here is how goodeid species that are well known for
being difficult to breed in any quantity are being bred
here:
Zoogoneticus tequila- Adults are
raised together and they are not selectively bred, so with the
exception of
the rare deformed individual that will be culled, they
are “colony bred”. Adults are in 30 gallon tanks, and
females are removed to have their young as fry
generally do not do well in adult tanks with this species.
A 10 gallon is set aside as a breeding tank, and about
half filled with Java moss. The female is released,
then recaptured after she drops, and put back in with
the adults she was with before breeding. Young are
fed BBS and raised normally for about 1-2 weeks. I will
then put another gravid female in with the previous
fry, and fill up the 10 gallon fry tank just as I
mentioned previously with the swordtails. There are times
when as many as 4 gravid females are in the breeding
tank at a time. Over 200 tequilas were produced in the
last year this way.
Characodon lateralis- These are
kept in the same manner as the tequilas, except that they
are a species that is selectively bred. This species,
however, is even slower to breed than the tequilas. The
adult chosen breeders are in a 30 gallon tank, and the
fry are raised in 10 gallon tanks just until they begin
to sex out, and moved to larger tanks to grow out. The
10 gallon tanks fill up with fry just like the tequilas,
but this species seems to prefer the smaller tanks.
This is a fish where every breeding age female is known,
and every female is watched closely. Having full
control over each aspect of the process is a big part of making
it work. The fry are then raised separately.
Ilyodon furcidens- This species
gets large, and the sexes are not easily identified at a young
age like many
other goodeids. This species is carefully selectively
bred, and far more closely so than the Characodon lateralis.
Because Goodeids do not store sperm, a fertilization
does not affect future fertilizations, so the sexes can be
kept together until breeders are chosen. Their color
and markings are spectacular, but they do not fully develop
their appearance until they are 3-4 months old. The
females, however, tend to be less intensely marked and
colored than the males. The problem, because they are
difficult to sex, is that culling them at 3 months will get
you the best looking individuals, but they will grow
out to be mostly males. So you must also keep the culls and
grow them out also, going back to them for the best
looking females when it is time to select breeders for the
next generation.
In this fishroom, about 20 breeder adults are kept in a
50 gallon tank and females are pulled when they
become gravid, 3-4 to a 10 gallon tank heavily stocked
with Java moss, and moved back as soon as they drop.
Young are raised in the 10 gallon tank for 2-3 weeks,
then combined with other fry in 30 gallon tanks. At about
1.5 inches they are then culled down to the best
looking individuals, the culls being kept separately to retrieve
future females, obvious inferior males are given away
or disposed of. The choice group is then put into the large
breeder tank, and older past breeding age fish, or fish
who no longer represent the advances of the line are
culled.This species has always bred seasonally for me,
tapering off around October, beginning again the
following May. But I have recently found that intensive
feeding during the winter months has kept them
breeding.
Ameca splendens- This is one of
the species mentioned above where the females do not tolerate
being
moved when gravid. Fortunately, they are not big fry
eaters, so fry released into the tank, particularly with
adequate plant cover are generally safe. To breed the
female so that the young can be raised separately,
I use “shoebox” style storage boxes as in-tank
breeders. The bottom and sides were cut out, covered with
a fine nylon mesh, and a clip was fashioned so they can
hang into the tank and stay put, creating a breeder
that only moderately confined the female. Gravid
females would then be put into these with a little Java
moss for security, and young were netted out and put
into a grow out tank as they appeared. Being in the
same water, in the same tank, and in a large enough
breeder has not triggered females to release their fry
early.
_________________________________________________________
Egg Layers- Barbs, Danios,
etc.-
The Puntius padamya (Odessa
Barbs) bred here are typical of many egg scatterers in that each
female
releases a lot of eggs- 150-300 at a time. But you
cannot make the assumption that a single spawning from a
single pair is going to produce 300 fry. At the same
time, I hear from others breeding these (or other species
of similar types of fish) that with each spawn they may
get 8-10 fry. With effort and the right approach,
your results should lie somewhere in the middle.
There are many specifics to breeding these fish, but
the effort must result in continued, consistent clean
water, the fry must be “surrounded with food”, and the
food must be appropriate for their size. It takes about
5 weeks of daily 50% water changes and feedings 2-4
times per day, of foods appropriate for their size, to get
maximum growth and save the greatest number of fry.
The 30 gallon breeding tank is prepared, and a number
of males and heavily egg laden females are put
together for 2 days with lots of Java Fern. I use a
screen divider for eggs to fall beneath, though it is not as
effective as it would be for non-adhesive eggs. From
then on, raising the fry is a constant balance of water
quality vs. introduced food. Vinegar eels, microworms
and paramecium all work well. The goal is to get each
hatched egg through its first week- this is when the
majority succumb. Having fresh, correctly sized food
available for the young when they hatch is the key,
then feeding those first foods mentioned earlier while
consistently maintaining adequate water quality will
determine the number of fry that survive- and the
payoff is worth the effort. Of a pair that lays 300
eggs, I would expect to raise out 50- 75. It is routine for
many to be unfertilized or to not survive for one
reason or another. Finding a way to change water without
removing the tiny fry is one important step. Also, only
add clean aquarium water from another tank to do
water changes.
Development of lines, keeping a fish specifically to
build it up, or to selectively breed requires a lot of fish,
and with numbers comes culling of fish- something none
of us like to do. When breeding strictly to build the
size of your population, a fish too old to breed is
generally removed to save your resources (food, etc.) for
those that will still breed and produce. I keep all of
my non-breedable or too old fish in tanks used for show,
but most breeders find ways to pass them on to others.
________________________________________________________
A few things to keep in
mind-
- A species that does not produce large broods simply
requires more females breeding at a time.
The entire line of Red Hybrid swords here is currently
being produced by 3 females. Each female will drop
40-60 young each time. But with the goodeid Ilyodon
furcidens, each female produces 5-15 young at a time,
and I keep about 10 females with a few males in a 50
gallon tank. Pulled when gravid, I always have at least
two females of that species off in their own 10 gallon
tank dropping fry.
- A fish that takes longer to mature simply takes
longer to get started. Provided that food and maintenance
costs are not prohibitive for you, you will get to a
point where fish regularly reaching maturity occurs as
regularly as with any other fish, but the longer
maturing fish require more food, and more fish will need to
be kept on hand, taking up more tank space, before they
become ready to sell or breed.
- All fish will eat their fry. With regular feedings
3-5x per day of a variety of dry and live foods, I rarely feel
that fry are being eaten, and do not see it take place.
But if I were to miss a feeding or two, or a small enough
new fry swam out in front of a big enough female, I
fully expect that the fry would be eaten. I have watched
many females eagerly eat their young- swordtails will
sometimes swoop around and devour each young as
they are giving birth, until they are full. To further
discourage fry eating, I do not feed live fish to any of the
fish in the room. Though I breed purple delta guppies,
and cull routinely, I do not feed the culls to the I. furcidens
(Though they would love it!), for I assume it would
encourage them to eat their own fry when they appear. You
can minimize or nearly end fry eating with frequent
quality feedings, and watching closely for when fry are born,
and removing the female shortly afterwards.As mentioned
earlier, most livebearers drop their fry at sunup.
- There is nothing worse than watching an entire batch
of fry get eaten because you released them too early
in with the adults. It’s amazing how big a meal some
species will try to choke down. With some fish the fry may
need to become full adults before being released in
with their parents, or the adults will pick at them and kill
them off. The time to release fry in with the adults is
generally when they are at least a month old, depending
on species. Always feed the tank where the fry are
going well before releasing the fry into the tank. It is also
good to feed the fry well before releasing them- they
look larger to other fish, and go into the new tank with a
full belly until they figure things out and are able to
compete for food. Oddly, a well fed gravid female put into
a new, smaller tank than what she had come from will
rarely bother older fry already in that tank (which is why
the trick mentioned above works).
- The future fish you have is entirely dependent on how
well you raise your fry now. That seems obvious, but fry,
for example, do not grow at their maximum when raised
with adults. Besides possibly getting eaten, they don’t
compete well against larger fish for food, and
generally benefit from slightly warmer temperatures. Raising fry
in a simple, well oxygenated bare aquarium with a few
floating plants and moderate light, where access to food
is ideal is far better than competing with larger fish
in the aquarium. You want them to grow as quickly as possible
the first 4-5 months to get the best size and color
from them over the remainder of their lives.
- To get female egg layers in their best health to be
bred, I increase the number of daily feedings, and usually give
the females all the time they need to re-plump out and
fill with eggs between spawnings (though they can spawn
again in about 10 days). In most cases, with good water
quality and consistent, quality foods, if a female is thin she
has either just spawned or is too young to breed. When
well fed, females will fill out with eggs when they are ready-
it is definitely not a situation where a well fed
female will then also need a special feeding regimen to fill
with eggs.
With the Odessa barbs, the females are not ready to
spawn until they are about 8-12 months old. The best
circumstance is to raise up a group of females as
breeders, then choosing the “ripest” when looking to spawn the
next batch of fry.
- Always save any water siphoned from fry tanks for any
reason. Many fry, particularly egg layer fry or eggs, are
innocently siphoned away in attempts to clean up mulm
from the tank. If possible, put in an airstone and wait 2-3
days,
then net out any fry that appear.
_______________________________________________________
Ultimately, the secret to raising large numbers of
young is to keep the variables to a minimum- multiple bare
bottom
tanks with live plants, controlled matings, removal of
gravid females to recover all fry, which are then raised
separately
so that they can be carefully observed and supported.
Simple aeration-based filtration with consistent,
substantial water changes keeps the grow out tanks and new fry
tanks stable and disease free. You must use quality
foods that can be fed often without fouling the water- or do
substantial water changes after each feeding. The
routine tasks when breeding are to keep the filter medium clean,
with 50% daily water changes on all new fry tanks,
which are generally kept slightly warmer than the adult tanks.
New fry must be fed BBS daily from birth or as soon as
they are ready. New water change water must always be
clean aquarium water taken from other, cleaner,
disease-free tanks. Multiple groups of 1 male to 4-5 females for
livebearers ensures the production of maximum amount of
fry, when females are isolated when gravid to have
their fry which are then raised separately.
Maintaining water quality is everything, particularly
for fragile egg layer fry, which can be maintained only through
consistent water hanges, before any particular feeding
has the opportunity to foul the water.
In fact, the focus needs to be on keeping things as
simple as possible, keeping the process as manageable and as
under control as it can be kept. The time for heavily
planted, gravel bottom tanks and mixing with other species,
etc.,
can take place once the fish are healthy, big enough
and old enough.
With many species currently being kept, an effort needs
to be made to build up numbers and keep them in the
hobby, or they will certainly disappear.
Greg Sage
Selectaquatics.com
Copyright 2011
Back to Articles Page
|
|