Breeding Tiger Barbs

[StyleUK]

I've just braught a new tank, I believe it's around 10 gallons. I'm going to try and breed a few tiger barbs but need some more help on what exactly to do. I've done some reasearch and people suggest a bare tank with marbles at the bottom. So my first question would be where to get enough marbles? Also, it came with a small power filter, not sure how many gph but it's only got too settings, slow or fast. I know your ment to use a spunge filter but I'm not sure how these work, and the filter it came with only has an inlet at the back directly facing the back of the tank, so I figure this will help prevent the fry from being sucked up.

I've found that your ment to put the barbs in at night so there not that stressed and have some time to get to know each other as it were. The actual spawning happens in the morning, they chase each other and the female lets the male catch up while she releaced her eggs and he fertilises them. The female will deposit around 500-700 eggs. I would have to remove the marbles now right so when they hatch they dont get stuck or anything.

After I take them out should I dose them with methylene blue at a 90% solution to kill off any fungus and leave them for 15mins then do a complete water change with fresh dechlorinated water. The eggs will hatch after 48hours and stick to the glass and bottom.

The things im not sure on are what to feed and what to put in the tank other then the barbles or just totaly bare?

Any help would be appritiated, and when I get it going i'll post daily pictures and information on the fry, if I'm lucky!

Thanks for reading!

 

[honmol]

A spawning tank for Tiger Barbs is easy to set up: 10 gallons or even less, water that has stood for 48 hours, a place in a window where early sun will hit the tank, spawning plants like lots of Java Moss, or the corks with green strands of nylon yarn attached (a "spawning mop"), maybe some floating plants for security, and the big marbles lining the bottom so they can't eat the eggs (or plastic screening). She goes in first, to get comfortable a couple of days. Brine Shrimp put her in the mood. Then in the evening, your Alpha Male, the sparkiest troublemaker, goes in with her. They should spawn in the early morning sunlight.

 

[chrism]

i'll be interested to see how you go with these, as i was thinking about breeding my tiger barbs, from what i've read you need to keep the male and female separate (place the female in the breeding tank) condition with live food, after a couple days add the male...

Marbles on the bottom have the draw back of fry possibly getting trapped & you not being able to see the eggs, ie how many, if theyre infected/infertile or not. I've seen a design for a breeding net, it's basically a net larger than your tank so you can fold the tops over the sides of your tank, (if you can make a frame even better) the idea is that the holes are big enough to let the egg's through, but not the adult fish. Using something like this you can use a bare bottom tank. the trick is to have enough space for the adults to swim, but also for the eggs to drop through before the adults can eat them.

i dont think methylene blue is a bad idea, not sure on what percentage tho, i think you'd want to leave it longer than 15mins tho, i think i read a couple days :?

feed newly hatched baby brine shrimp, dalphina (sp?) any small food basically, keep on top of water quality with pwc everyday. I'd use the power filter on slow, im not sure on sponge filters either :? never seen or used one, i'd guess its just a safer lower gph powerhead kinda thing?

ummm hope that helps some, and please keep us up to date

 

[lmw80]

moved to the breeding section.

good luck!

 

[StyleUK]

Thanks lmw80, did'nt notice the breeding forum

I've now setup the tank I've added a set of fake cambomba plants, a 50W heater and a new filter with ajustable flow control. I'm using old filter foam from one of my other filters running on my eel tank and it's been there for about 2months so it should be fine.

Going to let the water sit for 48hours like honmol suggested and then add the female for another 48hours and feed her bloodworms and the tinyest ammount of flake.

I've also picked my male, hes the biggest, fastest, and most colourful one in there so hopefuly the fry will have some nice genes!

Thats all I can do for now, oh and i've put an apple snail in there just so the bacteria in the filter does'nt start to get hungery for amonia, once the female is in I'll remove him.

If there is anything else I can or anything I've forgotten let me know.

Wish me luck!

 

[StyleUK]

I've just now added the female Tiger barb and have started to feed her blood worms, she loves them as most tiger barbs do!

She's pretty relaxed and after her meal and it got pretty dark she started to bed down. I'll add the male in a few days time and keep an eye on the female and make sure she is nice and plup before I add him, I want her as full as eggs as possible!

Have also braught some fry food, made by Interpet, I've also started by own culture of Infusoria, I've seen cichlid's eat these and they're small enough for most fry i'm guessing. I've started three cultures as I'm not sure how much to keep and how much Infusoria each culture actauly makes, hopefully I have enough.

Oh yeah, just as a side note, everything was sterile before I used it, I put the tank and heater in boiling water several times so most things left living on them were gone. Should help stop any fungus or bad bacteria that might harm the eggs.

Thats all for the next two days, wont be long until I have loads of little eggs!

 

[StyleUK]

Forgot to post the tank specifications!

At the moment the tank is 27 celsius or 80.6 fahrenheit. It's 10 gallons and the water chemistry is;
PH: 7.2
Amonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: < 20ppm

Not optimal for perfect tiger barb breeding, but it's the best I can do without spending lots of money, if I'm successful this time round, and a few people give me credit maybe I'll buy some more plants and yet another new filter!

 

[StyleUK]

Well, i'm a bit concerned, as I've never seen such a fat female! I mean she's about 10mm in diamiter and her belly sticks out well under her head, I don't think this is a desise or illness, i'll feed her some pea's now to unclog her just in case. I've just been feeding her a small ammount of blood worms, and a few flakes to help supliment with vitamins etc.

this is only on day one! so wonder how fat she will be tomorrow!

 

[honmol]

I hope your breeding goes well. If possible, could you give me some pics of the female, the breeding, possibly the eggs, and the fry? I'm just getting into the breeding part of the hobby and haven't bred barbs before. I'm currently making my first attempt at breeding cherry barbs. Good luck!

 

[magnaflow]

yes I would like to know how you make out I was lookign to breed tigers as well.

 

[StyleUK]

Yeah, sure, think there might be a problem with the female though, she's staying at the bottom, and the male does'nt look like he's entertaining her, just harassing, if it's not sorted in a few hours I'll remove him, just in case.

Hope it still works.

 

[Crusis]

So what happened? Did you successfully breed her?