Breeding CPDs

[Fishperson]

So, like the titles says, I want to try my hand at breeding celestial pearl danios. I have not bred any fish before, but I have read they aren't hard to breed. I have kept fish and already have a 20 gallon tank. The setup:

This tank will not just be a breeding tank, it will be on display. I know that putting a load of java moss in there will be best for them to breed, but I want the tank to look good. There will be shelter for fry and eggs, in java moss, dwarf hairgrass, and riccia fluitans on the bottom, with more riccia fluitans on the top (floating). At first, I want to see if the fish will breed without any special stuff. It is going to be a 10 gallon, species only tank. I have a 2.5 gallon tank that I might use for fry or to breed the fish in. I was thinking about using an aquatech 10-20 hang on back filter. Is that certain to kill all fry? I am willing to buy a sponge filter instead, but I would prefer to use the Aquatech if possible. The tank will be heavily planted, with DIY CO2 and most likely a finnex fugeray for lighting. There will be mostly gravel and a section of sand. So here are my questions.

1. Are there any tips to improve frys chances of survival? I won't go out of my way to keep them alive yet, but later on I might do a seperate breeding tank.

2. Can I keep red cherry shrimp in the tank as well? Or will they eat the eggs?

3. Will the Aquatech be okay as a filter?

4. What should I feed them, and what are the parmeters to encourage breeding?

5. Will 2.5 gallons be okay to raise fry, or to have a male and female in just to breed in?

6. Anything else I should know about breeding in general?

7. What is your experience with these fish?

You don't have to answer all of these questions if you don't have time, any help would be appreciated!

in advance!

 

[Fishperson]

Oh, by the way, the gravel is black and the sand is white, there will be driftwood and rocks in there too. I don't have anything in the tank yet, not even the gravel or water.

 

[henningc]

Ok, first nix the idea of breeding them in a display tank. Those types of egg layers are good at two things: 1. Laying a lot of eggs, 2. eating a lot of eggs. I would give you close to zero chance any eggs go uneaten. Even if you did have a few survive and hatch they would be a snack the moment they went free swimming.

I believe that a 2.5gal is too small to spawn these guys in. You could siphon the eggs out and hatch in a 2.5gal. I would use a 10gal with water, heater if needed, a sponge filter and either java moss or spawning mops. Condition up the adults in another tank without the java or other sinking plants. Floating plants are fine. I would use frozen brine shrimp or live baby brine shrimp, live mosqueto lava, high protien flake food and frozen blood worms to condition the adults for 2-3 weeks. This will require about a 10% water change every two days. I'd use the siphon water to fill a 5gal bucket while running your sponge filter in it. You can then use the water from the bucket to fill the breeder tank. I would also take a large glass jar filled with siphon water and place it outside in a particially sunny place or in a window that gets sun to produce green water-i.e. fry food.

Once everything is ready, the females should be visibly boated with eggs place the group in the breeder tank. Give them a 10%-20% water change about 2-3 hours before you start the evening cycle, only make sure the room lights are left on for an hour or two. Either prior to dark or in the morning the fish should spawn diving just over the top of the java moss. You should be able to see eggs on the plants or bottom. Once you have eggs remove all the fish. Once the eggs hatch they will be wigglers for a few days. Once they start swimming start adding green water. You may want to make a back up green water jar and once they are 1-1 1/2 weeks old start them on live baby brine shrimp. If you use spawning mops you can actually siphon the eggs off the bottom and rear the fry in the bucket with the sponge filter.

I did this with mops years ago and kept putting eggs in a plactic kiddie pool. I produced a ton of Danios then had to figure out how to get rid of them. That is whu God gave us cichlids.

 

[Fishperson]

Okay. I just heard from other sites that people were finding fry in their community tanks. So I assumed that I would get at least a few fry, especially since the CPDs aren't very big, so the fry would be big enough not to be eaten at a young age. I have a tank in the crawlspace that might be 5 gallons, so would that be okay? Also, would the shrimp eat the eggs? And would an HOB filter kill any fry?

 

[Fishperson]

I cleaned out my 2.5 gallon tank today. Not really any other updates.