Daisy rice fish spawning

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Fishfur

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Aug 14, 2013
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Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
I have just one pair of these charming little fish, with their neon blue glowing eyes.

I've started seeing eggs on the female every couple of days, which is great, but I've never raised fry from eggs and I read they take about 3 weeks to hatch. So assuming any hatch, they have a day to use up the yolk sac, then a few days where they need infusoria size food.

Does the crushed lettuce and tank water method really work ? If I get any hatchlings, I'd sure like to raise them. Any advice appreciated.

If you've never seen a Rice fish spawn, they have an odd habit. The female lays crystal clear eggs, which look like tiny glass bubbles. She sticks them to her ventral fin for some period of time before they end up on plants. They prefer fine leaved plants, so they have a choice of java or fissidens moss, or Ambulia. There's also Hygro Difformis, which is very soft, though not fine leaved.

Keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for some luck.
 
That's really interesting. I've seen Rice fish for sale once and they had ich really bad. I wish I saw them for sale more.

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One reason I'd really like to have some success raising the fry. They aren't all that common, and I'd have no trouble selling them if I can grow them on successfully. Not to mention I'd like a few more myself. LFS is selling them for $12 a pair, when they have them, which is not often at all.

They used to sell them cheaper, but the stock was always infested with something, so they switched to another supplier. Healthy fish, but a lot more expensive. Local and tank raised should bring a decent price if I can raise some.
 
I have raised literally hundreds of these fish.

The easiest way to get and keep the eggs is by using floating plants or a spawning mop. These fish are voracious egg and fry eaters.

As soon as you see the female has released the eggs, (usually within a few hours) remove all of the floaters or the spawn mop to a separate fish-free aquarium. If you don't have a spare tank, just put an airstone in any clean, watertight container. Buckets, whatever are fine. Add a large, sundried leaf to the water to create infusoria. The green water method does work, but I find it easier to use leafs. You won't have to feed them anything else if you had the leaf or two in there from the moment you move the spawning plant or mop. You do NOT have to defungus the eggs with methyl blue or whatever with these eggs.

Some people remove the eggs from wherever they were laid on by using a magnifying glass and tweezers, but I'm way too lazy for that.

They do take 3 weeks to hatch, and you probably won't be able to see them when they first hatch without a magnifying glass. After a week or 10 days, you can start to see their super-bright blue eyes, but the bodies are hard to see.

They can start eating bbs after 3 or 4 weeks.

I find these one of the funnest fish to play with, and I also like them because they are rare and unusual.
 
Oryzias woworae - A very neat little type of fish native to Sulawesi (Indonesia). they are sometimes called Lampeye killies but are NOT killiefish. But they spawn in a very similar manner to mop spawning killies though.
 
Thanks so much for the info Mudraker !

There are several rice fish species.. these are, IIRC, the smallest of them, and to my eye, the most attractive. Males have dark orange on their fins, females a bit of colour to the fins but far less, and smaller dorsal fin.

The eyes literally do look like neon lights glowing. It's been fun watching the female to see if she has new eggs, so far, about every other day she has new ones in the morning.

Their tank at this time contains some pygmy cories, yellow Neo shrimp and one pair of very shy female Dario dario. I had no idea the rice fish might spawn so the setup wasn't designed to be conducive to breeding.

Eggs that have been laid so far may be on the moss tied to the driftwood, on some ambulia and now I learn they might also be on the floating plants. The tank is virtually covered with floaters; Lemna major, Salvinia minor, young frogbits, some Azolla & a water poppy, with floating leaves like a lily, but much smaller. The poppy normally is roots in the substrate, but the substrate wasn't deep enough to hold them, do they're floating too at the moment. I have more substrate to add, but should I replant the poppy if theres a chance of eggs on the roots ? Maybe just drop it in the hatch tank for a few weeks 'til I'm sure it hasn't got eggs left, if it had any ?

The floating stuff is all because the frog is an ambush predator that eats crickets, etc., which need something to crawl on 'til they're caught. I can easily remove plants to a hatching tank, but do you think there will be eggs on the ambulia or moss or the poppy roots ? I haven't ever been able to catch the female depositing her eggs, though I've tried to.

According to the little I could find to read, this rice fish isn't much of an egg eater, but will eat any fry it can find. But if they're also egg eaters, I need to remove as much of the plant material as possible, right ?

Do you have to buy spawning mops or can you make one ? I have tons of yarn, but it's made mostly of acrylic. I could leave mops in for future spawnings ?

I have lots of almond leaves and clean dried brown oak leaves. I have some that have already been soaking for a couple of weeks in a tank that contains a single shrimp and a few small snails. I was planning to use this tank for hatching/brooding. [ I'd remove the shrimp for safety, though it's only a small algae eater ].

Should I remove the pygmy cories and shrimp from the spawning tank too ? I hadn't thought they'd be much danger to the eggs, given the cories & shrimp feed mainly on the bottom. I do know they all may eat eggs if they find them.

If I remove the pygmies/shrimp, it would leave just one frog & pair of female Darios. The Darios spend 90% of their time hiding under the wood. I rarely see them. Their male died, unfortunately. I'd rather leave them, they're very easily stressed, but if they also would be hunting eggs, I can try to find a tank for them too. I had hopes of finding them a male this fall, in hopes of more fishy romance happening.

Any other suggestions welcome, I am so new at this part of fish keeping. Livebearer fry are simple to manage, but raising egg layers has been something I've really hoped to try. Btw, I raise micro worms, which have the delightful habit of surviving for days in the water, where fry can find them on the bottom easily. How old would they have to be to take microworms ?
 
Thanks so much for the info Mudraker !

There are several rice fish species.. these are, IIRC, the smallest of them, and to my eye, the most attractive. Males have dark orange on their fins, females a bit of colour to the fins but far less, and smaller dorsal fin.

The eyes literally do look like neon lights glowing. It's been fun watching the female to see if she has new eggs, so far, about every other day she has new ones in the morning.

I may not be able to help you since I do not know about the fish, but can I request some pics from your tank?? They sound amazing.
 
Been trying to get pics, as it happens.

In part because of their small size and swift movement, the heavy shade from the floating cover and the male's stubborn preference for sticking near the rear corner, [ they set up little territories when spawning] I have not yet had any success with pics, especially any that show their gorgeous eyes. I will keep trying and post when I get one that shows the fish properly.
 
Acrylic yarn is definitely preferred over wool. You can indeed make extra and just leave them floating in the tank until the mother lays them.

If it were me, I'd just move the plants you know have eggs into the little shrimp tank plus a healthy amount of floaters. The shrimp should not bother the eggs. Not sure what kind of shrimp you have, but I use RCS to keep fungus off cory eggs, so you may or may not have to remove the shrimp.

It is odd the rice fish would lay eggs on the bottom if there are floating plants. Are you sure they aren't cory eggs? Rice fish eggs are very hard to see without a magnifying glass. I've never kept pygmy cories, but the eggs of my little barbatus are about the same size as regular size corys like Aneus. Something to consider...
 
Sorry if I confused you.. I have not actually seen any eggs in the tank. It has a glass sliding lid to keep the frog in, and the glass lid has a large number of mystery snail egg cases, and has a lot of hard water stains. Can't really see through it very well, so I have to remove it to do anything in the tank.

I don't know where the fish may have laid their eggs. What I read suggested they would choose fine leaved plants like ambulia or mosses. I got a large bunch of Java moss and tied it to the driftwood to keep it from clogging the filter. Probably should have left it floating. I also got a bunch of ambulia, a week ago. There's hygro difformis too, a fair bit, both planted and floating. Loads of floating stuff too. There is one patch of fiddidens, which is on a patch of mesh on the substrate. I have seen the female investigate the fissidens, but don't see any eggs on it. She pulled some strands of fibre out of the moss patch one day, but didn't eat them, and didn't appear to lay any eggs there.

So far, I have only seen the female carrying her eggs around sticking to her ventral fin. Later in the day, they'll be gone.

Can you give me an idea just what I'm looking for.. the eggs on the female that I have seen are crystal clear l and so tiny, it would be really hard to see them on almost anything at all.

The shrimp are yellow Neos.. cherry shrimp in yellow. And I don't think the cories have laid any eggs, I haven't had them very long. Less than two weeks, as it happens.
 
If it were me, I'd just move the floating plants like the fissidens. If you get a magnifying glass, you might (maybe not) be able to spot the eggs. Like you said, they are tiny and almost see through. They somewhat stick to the plants singly, rarely in clumps. At least that is how mine do it.

if the female is really laying that often, you will probably get fry doing it that way. IME you will go bonkers if you try to find and hatch every single egg. Its hard not to though when you first start :)
 
Bonkers ? too late, already happened ! Thanks for the tips.. we'll see how I get on then. I need new glasses anyway, so a magnifying glass is going to be essential, I think. If I see even one egg I'll be tickled pink.. so I'll just put most of the potentially egg harbouring plants into the hatching tank and hope for the best, and make up a few spawning mops to use in the spawning tank for however long she keeps laying. Don't want her to wear herself out but I don't imagine I get any say in how long she plans to spend making babies.
 
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