How To Breed Celestial Pearl Danios: A True Walkthrough
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.ย. 2024
- Looking for more Detail? Watch to learn more than you ever wanted to know about how to breed CPD's.. Timestamps are included for easy navigation through this guide.
Spawning is just the beginning!
Timestamps below:
0:23 Basic Tank Setup
0:37 Substrate
1:02 Water Parameters
1:20 Lighting
1:46 Including Plants In The Tank
2:10 Tankmates
2:35 Male / Female Ratio
3:18 Conditioning Females To Breed
4:01 Building An Egg Trap
5:35 Placing Your Egg Trap
6:06 Identifying/Removing Infertile Eggs
9:17 Placing Eggs To Hatch (And How Long To Collect Eggs)
10:07 What Makes A Good Fry Enclosure?
10:45 Important Modifications To A Breeding Box
13:24 The First Days Of Life
14:00 First Foods For Newly Hatched Fry
14:28 How To Use A Fry Powder
16:04 Give Your Fry Food, Not Moss
16:33 Intermediate Foods For 2+ Week Old Fry
17:12 Introducing Live Baby Brine Shrimp (yay!)
18:16 The Importance Of Cleanliness
18:50 Skimming Surface Scum
20:04 Cleaning The Bottom (The Easy Way) And Other Necessary Maintenance
23:45 The Nuclear Option
24:40 How Many Fry Should You Attempt To Raise?
26:53 Signs Of Trouble
27:38 In For The Long Haul
Thanks For Watching!
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Hi.I found your videos are very useful. I recently purchased some CPDs. I think they are not yet fully grown. They are a little smaller than 2Cm. Males are showing their territorial behavior towards each other. Sometimes they chase females. How big they get when they are fully grown. Do you think they are spawning?
@@pasan.m.jayarathna4962 They are somewhere between 2 and 2.5 cm when full grown. It sounds like they probably are spawning - or at least attempting to. I hope you get some fry!
@@MakeMoreFish thanks.Then I have to set up a egg trap.
Would love to see you Hybridize these with Dwarf Emeralds. I have some and they are definitely first light spawners
Thanks for this informative video
How big is that hang-on fry box and do it have a name/brand?
Now this is how you make a guide
Best fish guide I’ve seen yet honestly
Lowell, I have to tell you thank you. A combination of your guides and keeping fish simple's guides led me to being able to breed hundreds of CPDs a month. As you know with these small fish its so much about raising the fry as opposed to getting the fish to breed. Your guides on live foods are outstanding and I just cant thank you enough. I hope to one day meet you at a convention or a fish club because your videos are such a beacon in this hobby. Anyway thank you for the inspiration I owed it to Phil to say hi to you
That is great to hear. Thank you! I started making these videos because I couldn't find any that covered the process in enough detail so I'm always happy to hear that they helped someone.
I have seen this video at least 50 times, and this probbably isnt going to be the last time. This video is both informative and relaxing
Just wanted to stop here and say thank you. This was the most informative and well put together video I have watched on breeding these little gems. I appreciate you putting it together to share.
Wow, the complete comprehensive guide to breeding celestial pearl danios
My dad got a few CPDs not really knowing how to take care of them and threw them in his community tank, a few weeks later I noticed that they just stayed hidden constantly so I decided to catch them and put them in my 20 gal jungle of a shrimp tank. I thought they would be happier without so many fishy roomates after learning that they were a shy type of fish. A few months later I noticed fry swimming at the surface and I was just dumbfounded, this was two years ago and now I have 12 fish, 10 that I rased. It just surprises me that those fry survived to adulthood after watching how much care a new fry needed, mine just lived like wild in my tank, I never fed them and only fed the 3 original parents every few days with generic fish food. I guess I was just lucky my tank had so much "bugs" (and tasty shrimplets) to get them to breed and that I had a ton of plants to hide eggs from adults and sustain the fry until they were big enough to eat fish food. The 10 surviving fry are adults now, and despite 10 not being a lot, it's still a mini-miracle. Just goes to show how hardy and prolific these little fish are.
They really are prolific. I'm glad it worked out!
Great walk through. Excellent detail. Keep up the good work!
Hands down one of the best guides out there to breed celestial pearl danios.
The only thing I had to add in my case was that transferring the eggs too soon after spawning caused them to fail. If I waited a bit longer, collecting them towards the very end of the day or even the day after, hatch rates improved greatly.
I never got to the root cause of this.
That's interesting.. I wonder why. As long as the eggs don't get eaten while you wait, I can't see a downside if it turns out better for you.
Massive thank you.
I was literally about to sink in a cloth in tank breeder but was struggling to see what might be next…… so much here to work with. I hope you continue to learn and share, all the best,
Ps god I love this hobby
Pro tip to keep enclosure clean. Add one or two ramshorn snail in there. They do a GREAT job keeping it clean and easier to siphon out the longer snail poop.
This is the best fish how to video I have ever seen. I truly thank you for your help
As many CPD breeding videos as I have watched, this is by far the most detailed. I my have terrible eyesight as I can not tell if there is eggs in my tank. I guess I will be rethinking the multiple pots with plants now for a single plant egg trap.
Holy smokes... what a super-informative video. Well done!
To keep my breeder box clean, I use a soft paint brush to wipe the bio-film off the walls every 2 days, or so. Then I siphon out and replace water.
I also use a tiny flat Aqueon heater to keep the water warm when necessary. Of course, I keep a thermometer in there, too.
I always put in an airstone, too, with low airflow.
Using all of these things has been helpful for me, but I've never bred CPDs, so maybe it's overkill.
I do use the large breeder box, so there's room for the extra items.
Thank you for your excellent videos. I always learn something new or get a reminder of something I've forgotten.
First video it can actually helped me see how eggs present themselves. Thanks!
Such a helpful video - I tried my hand at breeding these guys 2 years ago but suffered water quality issues the resulted in the eggs always going bad. Now I'm trying again and I'm reliably getting the eggs to hatch, but the fry never last to the free swimming stage. Slow progress - but lots of good tips here I plan to try out!
About the best vid on breading cpd's I've seen so far
Great video! It's very interesting to see how other people do it!
When I saw the first fry in my CPD tank, I quickly drove to the pet store and got the same hang-on box. After 3 weeks the box felt too small for all the fry I collected and I got a small 3 gal tank instead.
I absolutely love watching them grow on my desk now! I use a combination of Tetra Micron and JBL Nobil fluid till they are big enough for Artemia. Works great too!
They first ten fries are now big enough to move in with their parents. LOL
Oofta, feeling the heat after watching this, lol. A couple of times you referenced how I keep and breed my CPDs and that you don't do it that way, haha. Glad you are having success with raising them! I also like your channel.
Honestly there's a ton of of ways to get the job done. Whatever works for the individual is the right way to do it. If you have productive spawns another way, all you'll get from me is a high five. CPD can be really tricky. Thanks for watching
@@MakeMoreFish Completely agree. For me the hardest thing and trickest thing was raising up the fry. Once I got that down it was a lot easier.
I just got 4 of them today. They cost 8$ each. I’ll get more. They are little babies. They don’t have any color yet. I’m excited to be caring for them
Binge watching your videos back to back- and adding comments for the algorithm~! 🌻👍 Keep up the great content!
Lowell, just has to be stated, your voice demeanor is heavenly! I love the way your voice just glides through the instructions and you add that "sly" remark when a change or a precaution is coming. As an Educator, those nuances are extremely important for the learner to stay focused!! Thank you!!!
Funny that my LFSs hardly ever have CBD's in stock. It's been over 2 years since I have seen them near me. Unless I buy them online, which I dislike to do with Nano fish, maybe driving 2 hours north might be the only option I might have. BREEDING them here at home would be a great way to bring them back to the LFS!
Thank you for a genuinely AWESOME video!
That is so kind, thank you. I hope you can get a hold of some and breed them. Your LFS will love you.
what i do with powdered fry food is freezing them in ice cubes. every time i feed, i just skim the ice cube on the water surface once then right back into the freezer it goes. super easy and the powder sinks instantly. very controllable portion and no water surface tension to deal with.
Great Video!
Before breeding these CPDs recently…. I jumped right into breeding neon tetras not long after getting into the hobby. You can only imagine the amount of up and downs I have encountered over months of breeding them and trying to raise fries. After thousands of eggs I only successfully raised 20 neon tetras to adult.
These 8 CPDs I acquired came with a tank I bought off a local. Been getting 20-30 eggs everyday for the past 3 weeks with a hatching rate of 90-100%!
Good thing I came across your video as I have 50-100 fry in each breeding net. I think I need to split them to more tanks and maintaining those tanks clean. I got hundreds ranging from just hatched to 3 weeks. Not sure why I am still collecting eggs as I have way too many…. Could be from the neon tetra failure that I didn’t have much faith in raising these fries up. But now after 3 weeks and no death…. I might have over done it!
I'm not sure there's such a thing as too many CPD's. Your local fish store is going to love you!
This is an awesome walkthrough! Extremely thorough!!
Great info, thanks! I found a tiny free swimming fry when I was moving my new cpds from quarantine tank to main last week and have left it in there so I can feed it and keep an eye on it. It's grown so much already but not ready for bbs yet! I've set up an egg trap in the main tank just in case they spawn into it but the tank is big and heavily planted so they have plenty of other choices, though I've seen them scoping it out!
excellent. I have a ten gallon that I want to start breeding. I was looking for a fish that my local fish stores would be interested in buying or giving me store credit for, and CPD's seem to always be interesting and they are pretty fish. This is a great guide and you have convinced me!
Thank you for all of your informative information on breeding. I appreciate it.
Great vid, subbed, vinegar eels have always been my go to. I stay away from breederboxes and just use 10g tanks now. Similar to LRB method, old tanks with lot of buildup. The breeder boxes are so expensive but if you don’t have space it is difficult. Great stuff man keep it up.
If there's one thing I want to get better at with CPD it's better providing vegetable matter to their diet early on. I take a pretty micro managerial approach to raising fry but I've seen other species benefit so much from access to soft green algae. Best case scenario to me would be a tank that can support fry from hatch all the way till they are large enough for vinegar eels or BBS. Keeping the density down should help the growth rate too. There's some evidence that fish in the minnow family struggle with that hormone related growth suppression. Always more to learn and refine. Thanks for watching and for the kind words.
@@MakeMoreFish only if there was enough tanks lol, I’m running 4 10gs for breeding and you run out pretty quick of room with that method, once they get large enough I throw them in a 40g grow out. The method of just keeping them in one tank is pretty easy, but you need multiple tanks to get the numbers up and to alternate based on size. Look fwd to more vids, take care
@@MakeMoreFish Green water has worked really well for me with white cloud, Daisy's blue ricefish and other very small fry.
Beat care guide I have seen on youtube
I find the best way to feed fry powder is just to take a plastic syringe and put fry powder in the back, then put the plunger in and suck up some water, shake it up until it is all dispersed and then stick the syringe tip into the water and inject some food. Works super well, and you can then put whatever you didn’t use in the refrigerator to use later, just stick the whole syringe in the fridge. I actually use syringes for all my feeding. Live and frozen baby brine too. For frozen baby brine you do the same thing, stick the frozen cube in the back, put the plunger back in and suck up tank water, shake it around until it has all melted and then feed. Refrigerate whatever is left over for later.
ya, great idea. Over time I arrived at the same approach using a pipette. One thing I've been liking about it lately is that by adding more water I can make a low density mixture that allows me too spread a small amount of food over a large area, really get those particles diffused over the whole space without adding a dangerous amount of food.
Honestly this video will help me in the future for sure. I just got 15 from one breeder and 30 from another all around .5 inches. I placed them in an extremely large for them 75 gallon with the only tank mates being a pair of L144a's and an SAE. This pretty much lets me know even though they are in a large tank with plenty of room to increase in size, I probably should start getting an emergency 40 breeder just in case.
I had a five gallon tank which was a shrimp tank. I had a few CPD that had to be put in the tank for like 2 days. Maybe like a week later I saw three fry swimming around the 5 gallon. I fed them crushed omega flakes, and saw them eat tiny creatures. Two of them made it to adult hood and are still thriving today. Now, I'm using this video to make a CPD army for my 75P.
So glad it was useful for you. That was my goal and kind of what these methods are built around - building a CPD army. I got tired of bringing home low quality/sick ones and decided to make my own. Good luck!
100% one of the best if not the best explanation I have heard about breeding any sort of fish. Congrats on the quality keep it up. I have a question though, what size German breeder ring would you recommend for CPDs or is it one of those bigger is always better type situations.
I think I would choose the deeper one they've been offering lately. Depends on what you're feeding the fry but if a dry food, more distance between the water surface and the bottom of the ring would improve the odds a particle gets eaten.
superb vide, to the point, full of advice and practical knowledge! great!
I put 2 females in a hang on breeder box with lots of moss in it for a couple days, then added one male in the morning early on. Once the lights came on they started dancing towards the moss and I saw at least a couple of spawning attempts from the fish. After I took them out I ended up with about 25 eggs which was 3 days ago. Maybe 10 of them survived to hatching, the rest got fungus on them (I only thought to add Indian almond leaf later... My first time breeding anything other than shrimp, though I've been hoping to try to get my pygmy cories and ember tetras going in the past... After this batch of CPD fry I may try a more concerted effort for the cories or the embers).
Great video. After a few weeks of failed attempts, I finally got some fry! They’re about a week old now and seem to be doing well.
damn dude - very good information here - subscribed
great video thanks!
I’ve found using a pipette to drop little droplets of water will break the surface tension and cause the fry powder to sink!
That would work, good idea!
Fantastic instructions
The content you make is some of the very best out here💯%
Do a video on bettas and caridina shrimps, I love your detailed videos brother ❤ love from India 🇮🇳
Your danios are so pretty
Another option with removing the protein film on the top of the fry box is to place a piece of paper towel across the water surface and then remove it once saturated
Very true, that works
Very nice video! All the fish in Myanmar's two biggest lakes, like CPD and EDR, are endangered species due to the lakes slowly disappearing and being polluted. The aquarium hobby will keep these wonderful fish from extinction!
This isn’t actually true, they are found in several disconnected water bodies. Since they haven’t been studied extensively they don’t actually have enough data to determine whether they are endangered or not.
Superb
Thank you for this informative video. Have you considered adding shrimp to the breeding process? They would clean the eggs and the uneaten food from the breeder box.
Sure, it's not a bad idea and I've tried once or twice. It doesn't hurt but in my experience hasn't been tremendously helpful either.
Nice set up.
Excellent video
Thanks a lot, I needed this info. Good luck 👍
Very well presented video and good info!
this video made me subscribe to your channel.
Thank you! Great video 👍
I tested your theory on male/female ratio and agree. 2M with 3+ females seems to be right. Too many males and they they just chase the females and each other without achieving anything. Thanks for the great tip
I'm very glad to hear that!
Homestly the layer of oil on top can be removed by placing a tissue on the top
Great video! Really nicely done.
What’re your thoughts on keeping 1-2 young neocaridinas or younger snails in the hang on box to remove uneaten food, instead of siphoning it?
Also- which hang on breeder box have you had the best experience with when it comes to CPDs?
Snails would probably help, I tried shrimp and they couldn't keep up with the uneaten food. I might be heavy handed with feeding though. I liked the German breeding ring but I think any breeding box can work, even a net breeder
@@MakeMoreFish thanks for responding and for sharing your experience! Is the German breeding ring your favorite option for breeding CPDs and raising their fry then? Aside from your homemade breeding ring at least 😜
@@frankdizenzo1051 I think if I was going to buy one and only one breeding box I would probably do a German breeding ring. Maybe the newer ones he's making that are deeper than the original. It depends on what you're feeding the fry. Since they eat out of the mid column I found that extra height/depth was helpful because it meant more time a dry food particle would spend falling from surface to floor. More opportunity to get eaten by a fry. If they're eating a live food the depth is much less important. There's also a whole other approach to take to raising fry that is less involved. If you see the way I raised cherry barbs, I'm betting the exact same steps would work reasonably well with CPD's. Maybe some percentage of fry wouldn't make it but it's a lot less effort.
@@MakeMoreFish thanks again for the advice! Are you on Discord? Would love to ask you a few more questions if you’re interested.
PS - currently have my first fry free-swimming in a ring I ordered from Swiss Tropicals. 😎
@@frankdizenzo1051 That's great! I am not currently on discord but you're welcome to send me an email if you have more questions. I'll do my best to answer them. makemorefish@gmail.com
Amazing amazing video.
Thanks! I hope it can be helpful
A hill stream loach. On a sponge filter? Do those make more flow than I realize, or am I assuming too much about the word "hill stream?"
Hillstream loaches don't need strong current. They do fine with sponge filters
thanks for this my danios were pregnant and I made a little jail for them to lay eggs and some became white after a day and I automatically thought they were unfertilized so I fed some to my other fish but when the fry hatched I cant seem to see the white eggs....were they actually fertilized the entire time?
An easier and quicker way of removing the scum on the surface of the water without the risk of accidentally gulping fry, is to use strips of toilet paper/kitchen towels, and drag it on the surface of the water. You can also dip it, let it sink, and pull it out, it will drag the scum as it exits the water. Although, the latter method adds the risk of the tissue disintegrating in the water.
Yep, sometimes I do exactly that.
Ive had 1 males to 8 females and let them be for a few weeks and ended up with over 50 fry in the tank
Great video I just bred my first cpds! I have about 30 fry! I get the powder food on the tip of my finger also and dip it in to feed them it works great!
Wow small world I thought your name looked familiar! You commented on my post about breeding cpds on aquarium co op forum! Glad I found you here!
Oh hi! So glad to hear it's working out well. You'll have to post some pictures as the fry grow
So, after you magnified the bowl, was the tiny micros swimming around in there, well, what are they?
loose brine shrimp
I’ma use metelin blue
Where do you get the rigid tubing? What size?
At what point do you decide that the fry are big enough to get back in the tank with the adults ?
Once they are too large to fit in the adults' mouths and are comfortably eating a food the can be fed effectively in a larger space.
Thanks, great informative video. Loads more please. Would Ember Tetras lay eggs in the same way, or will they just scatter them all over.
Phil
I haven't attempted ember tetras myself but it wouldn't surprise me if they were attracted to plant cover when spawning. Only one way to find out!
Iam breeding embers in exact same manner as cpds x
How comes that the snails and the shrimp don’t eat the eggs?
New sub here, awesome video , excellent information. When you move them to a grow out tank do you raise the temperature at all to speed up their metabolism??
When I grew that batch out the temp was at 74-75 and they grew at a decent pace. I don't think it's a bad idea to come up a little
I don't mean to disagree, in as much as I haven't bred this fish, but I've bred a lot of others... Some years ago, I accidently hatched about 500 Nothobranchius rachovii... and all I had open was a 45 gal deep... so I just tossed all of the fry in.. and yes it was too deep and way too big, but literally all of the fry survived. Yes, I did feed a little heavy with bbs, but I was shocked with how fast the fry learned to come to the feeding location... practically new born.
Once I get fry free swimming, or the shoe boxes get skeevy, I usually move them into a grow out tank now. Something with java moss and substrate and a box filter. With the exception of Notho cardinalis... the bane of my existence, I almost never lose fry growing them out in a relatively normal aquarium set up.
As to raising or keeping fish in a high density situation... oh yea, too many fish in too small a tank almost always goes terribly wrong.
I believe it, fry can be pretty resourceful. I've found cpd fry to be particularly inept but they produce plenty of eggs. It's easy to make lots of fry and find what works best with the equipment you have
@@MakeMoreFish I like the use of the word inept there... But yes, once upon a time I did the pristine thing. then I got lazy and went more throw fry into established small aquariums with lots of java moss and somehow most actually did better. As you pointed out, most fish give you lots of eggs to experiment with.
Fantastic video. Developed got me on my way with finally breeding one of my favorite fish. I do have a quick question though. Is there anyway to prevent the fungus on the eggs. I was super excited to see so many eggs within the first few days, but unfortunately I've lost many of them to this fungus. I scattered them outside a medium breeder box that is hooked up top the parents tank.
I just spent some time talking about exactly that. th-cam.com/video/TDxjRJ_8ETQ/w-d-xo.html should take you directly to it but if not, go to 21:40
Also they do get better at it with more practice. Mine started off with a poor fertilization rate but improved over time. Let me know if you have any more questions that I didn't cover.
@@MakeMoreFish Thank you for the update. Using your method I believe that I can identify the ones that are fertile, but maybe I'm a bit overconfident. I also know that based on what you said in your new video that my ratio of male to female is probably causing some major issues.
hi, mine are not swimming even after 7 days, they are just laying on bottom, if i blow them they will swim few inches and than again just lay on bottom. I thought when they become free swimming they will swim ALL TIME around their container and than to start feed them, or I am wrong
Two small fish with them guppies or tetra. They will definitely swim together and they will make the move all around the aquarium.
can you give me the link 🔗 for the power head with extra airline or water line and also the link the fry case used in the video
The one I was using at the time was a topfin brand powerhead from petsmart. I mostly use aquatop powerheads but they don't have the venturi airline attachment. It's still the "simplest" way I've found to pump a very small amount of water but before spending money on that method it might be worth a try to cover the outlet of an air uplift with foam to dampen the flow and kind of achieve the same effect. The breeding box was the fluval/marina hang on tank
www.amazon.com/Marina-Hang-On-Breeding-Box-Medium/dp/B005QRDDJ2/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=fluval+breeder+box&qid=1653679000&sprefix=fluval+bree%2Caps%2C131&sr=8-2
I have watched your CPD breeding vids at least 5 times by now and I'm more or less replicating your methods, but my fish aren't laying any eggs. I have 2 males and 4 females in a 1.9L Fluval hang on breeder box, and a small container with a big chunk of java moss in the box. I feed them every day, some days two times. I have had them in there for almost a week now and not a single egg has been laid. The fish are probably 4-5 months old at this point. Also, the reason I have the fish in the breeder box is because I have a 250L community tank and my shrimp took over the egg trap when I tried to put it in the big tank.
Anyone have any idea what could be causing them to not lay any eggs?
Stress, probably. Breeding boxes are great but they aren't really a comfortable place for adult fish to hang out in for extended periods of time. If you want to collect eggs that way, I would separate the sexes, feed them well for a few days, then put them back in but don't leave them there for long. That scenario also has a large number of adult fish stuck in a small space with any eggs that do get laid. I don't know if your breeding box has the slotted plate but not all eggs make it down there. They might land on the moss and then get eaten soon after.
hi i love your content i get spawns every 2 days after a few hours the egg yolk get a yelow colour then a few hours later the yolks turn solid white then grow fungus do you use any airation i use an egg tumbler for my eggs
Not aeration really, just some gentle water flow. I've never tried a tumbler
Does this method work for chili rasbora?
It''s possible, but I don't know yet. I've seen them gravitate to moss.
Will the trap work with guppy grass?
Absolutely. Any bushy vegetation.
I asked my fish a lot of eggs, but the hatching rate is less than 5%, why is that, how to incubate the eggs? thank
Nice Video. Can you tell how long it takes bringing them to a selleble size for you?
3-4 months but I like to get them as much to adult size as possible. LFS just aren't equipped to feed half inch column feeding fish
@@MakeMoreFish thanks for the quick answer.
i know this is an old video, i also hear it mentioned in lots of videos but yesterday i tested one of my tanks water for the first time and i gotta ask about nitrates, are they really that harmful to fish? i have a somewhat heavily planted 29g that i barely maintain and do gravel vacs twice a year only because i have huge root feeding swords among other root feeders i only do water changes or top ups once a month and clean the HOB filter only when the uptake gets clogged, when i tested my water ammonia and nitrites where zero or negligible but nitrate levels were over 100ppm, my julii corys and platys were spawning my male krib grew to over 4.5 inches long my otos are active and a fish hasnt died in months so whats the deals with nitrates they can be over 100ppm and my tank still thrive
I think of nitrates like air pollution. You can live in a heavily polluted city for many years without overt symptoms of illness but it's hard to argue that you wouldn't be better off without it.
@@MakeMoreFish i like that comparison it makes a lot of sense, i had some issues with that tank a few months back and nothing i did helped so decided to leave the tank alone and it worked itself out and it felt like thats when im tank really started to thrive so i took that approach moving forward but i guess i should be a little more hands on with it
This is how I used to do it, but now I use tubing and and airline tube to suck the eggs out of the cage and into a breeder box. It takes the manual effort out (which was the main purpose), but I found it also increased my harvest by a factor of 10-20. So it kinda supports my theory that adults eat the eggs.
You're right, they absolutely eat eggs. Some think males eat each other's eggs to eliminate competition but I think it's more indiscriminate than that.
@@MakeMoreFish yeah..dunno of they are that smart. lol. I was getting 2-3 eggs checking each evening, but now getting about 30-50 a day. Happy to link you to my design, but don't want to hijack your thread.
@@DIYMick oh don't worry about that. Link away and I'll check it out
@@MakeMoreFish Cool. Here you go. It's been a gamechanger for me and cost me nothing. th-cam.com/video/kW6h6OKtkyM/w-d-xo.html
Question: Can you recommend a good small pump to use on a breeder box? One that’s not so strong it’ll cause too much turbulence?
My favorite so far has been connecting airline tubing to the venturi air input of a powerhead with adjustable flow. If you close the flow valve all the way it will pump a gentle flow of water back out through the airline tube rather than sucking in air. It will still push a good deal of water out through the powerhead but you can baffle that flow by covering the outlet with an intake sponge. I know that's kind of complicated but I haven't yet found a convenient pump to take its place. There's a section of this video that discusses how I set that up. You can also cover the outlet of a breeder box's uplift tube with some coarse foam and that will reduce turbulence in the box
substitute for live baby brine: culturing daphnia moina, live food that basically keeps itself
Absolutely. Daphnia is next on my to-do list. I know cultures can crash but that would be nothing new.
How do you keep water quality and stable temperature inside the maternity box outside the fishtank?
10 minutes 7 seconds into this video is all about the breeding box and how it works. It circulates water from the main tank
@@MakeMoreFish Thank you so much! Somehow I skipped that part...
Absolutely, best of luck!
I have some CPD fry I am growing out right now. How long do you think it takes until they get to adult breeding size?
I would say 3 months or so. That was my experience with the ones I raised at home.
What breeder box are you specifically using?
Fluval/Marina hang on tank
I just got a couple of danios the other day and they dont eat. I even got the same food the store feeds them. They are just swimming above the sunken food and completely ignore it. Im really worried about them not eating. Any tipps or is this normal behaviour when they get into a new home?
I would say that's somewhat normal but if they don't start eating soon you might try something else. Maybe some frozen brine shrimp or daphnia.
@@MakeMoreFish Thanks! What time do you feed danios? I was thinking since they have their spawning process in the mornings it might be better to feed them in the evening.
@@MakeMoreFish Just an update, they started eating finally.. but looks like they need to relearn how to eat. They are very shy, but once one starts to eat, the others follow. Also, they dont seem to like to eat from the ground only when my cory stirs it up they catch the upfloated food. Strange, but i hope they will get used to it and also get less shy.
Stupid question but how many weeks of age is a CPD fry OK to stay with younger CPD fry? i.e 4 week old with a 4 day old
I am netting 3-4 fry every few days and putting them all in the same external breeder. I dont think there is any risk of the 4 week olds eating the 4 day olds yet.... their mouths are microscopic, is this even a risk?
Also how old do you think the fry should be before re-introducing? Is it size dependent?
Also what age do you think they can actually eat baby bring shrimp? I dont think my 4 week old fry can yet
I don't think you're going to have a problem with larger fry eating smaller ones. Once you start approaching adult size you might have to worry but I think you'll know. I recommend keeping fry of a similar size together only because it gets more complicated to feed appropriate foods to fry of different sizes in the same space. Also you might struggle with the smaller ones going underfed because the larger ones eat faster and more aggressively. But really, if it's working, it's working. At four weeks I actually would expect that they can eat BBS just fine. I would give it a shot and watch them to verify. I would reintroduce fry to the parents once they are large enough to compete with them for food successfully. If I had to estimate an age or size, I would say that if they have developed some of the "star" spots on the body, they should be just fine. Possibly earlier but their further growth will be throttled by how well they can compete for food.
@@MakeMoreFish So new problem. My CPD fry seem to be dying off randomly after 2-3 weeks of age... no idea why. They seem to go into like a vertical pencil and die off almost 1 per day. Water is correct temp. I siphon the external breeder 50% per day. Feed the fry powder.... should i transition them to their own tank? Main tank params are flawless 0/0/10 adults are doing great..
Any idea? Maybe too long in the breeder box?
@@porchemasi They can spend a long time in a breeder box if you need them to, especially with good hygiene. If you have a free tank that isn't super spacious that works too. They like plants if you can manage it. At 2-3 weeks I would expect them to be large enough to eat food other than fry powder. In fact, once they get larger I would expect them to stop recognizing powder as a food. They may not be eating. I really really recommend baby brine shrimp if you can. Vinegar eels are a great transition food too. If not you can give hikari first bites a try. It's a bit chunkier, more of a fine granule than a powder. Still, their eating needs have always seemed best handled with live foods to me. If it isn't a feeding issue, verify there is adequate circulation through the box if you haven't already. Even if the main tank parameters are fine, that small volume of water can foul quickly if any of the workings get clogged and flow is reduced. Hope that helps.
Hi, one question: what are your water parameters (ph, gh, etc)
water comes out of the tap at 2-3 degrees gH and kH most of the year. pH starts at about 7.2 but will gradually acidify into the high 6's unless I add a buffer or do frequent water changes.
Do you sell your fish?
Hi, I spawn cpds in a tank what is about 5 L tank and feed Fluval bug bites. Works a treat. I leave the parents in for about three weeks and then remove me. There's also java moss in the tank. I start getting fry about a week later.
Love the bug bites!
How many males and how many females do you put in?
Do you think the CPDs would try to breed over a carpeting plant...? I am guessing they probably will 😕
Yes they would be very likely to. I have some extra cpd's in a tank with a hair grass carpet and I see them spawning in it frequently.
@@MakeMoreFish thanks! I want to breed CPDs since they are so hard to find in my area, but I also want the tank I need them in to look beautiful, so I can have it as a display/breeding tank 😅 I'll have to re-think my aquascaping methods for their tank!
Sometimes aquascaping and breeding don't mix but I think you can still pull it off. CPD's will spawn in a breeding box too. You can cover the bottom in vegetation and leave the fish in the box to spawn for a few days then remove them and let the eggs hatch. If the fish are well conditioned they will spawn for you just about anywhere
@@MakeMoreFish that's a great idea, thanks so much for your help! I really appreciate it!
At what age typically can you safely put the offspring in with the adult community?
Depends a bit on how much they've grown but you're probably safe after two or three weeks. They just need to be too large to fit in the adults mouth.
@@MakeMoreFish thank you so much!
@@MakeMoreFish thanks to your videos. I’ve had two successful hatches.
@@bradsmithstudios8881 Congratulations! I'm very glad to hear it
Would it benefit the breeding stock if you waited a year after they become sexually mature?
My thought process is this: if you breed fish and wait for a year after they become sexually mature, you can root out weaker fish that die early on.
The fish left after a year make for higher quality breeding stock, because they lived longer and are most likely going to live a longer healthier life.
Is my idea wrong? This is selective breeding, I’m aiming for longer lived fish.
That's a fun question. I'm no geneticist but my take would be that certainly if you breed only fish that lasted a year, you'll get offspring a bit more likely to also last a year. The tricky part is, you're selecting for longevity in the specific environment you provide them. Water parameters, specific pathogens etc. You could make a super fish for your house and then hand it off to someone else and it might not be as ideally adapted for that new setting. I still think you could accomplish a lot though. Not a bad idea if you have the patience
What are the best water parameters for best hatch rate? I find it to be very inconsistent.
I don't think I've noticed a difference in hatch rate above or below neutral. The biggest influence I've found on hatch rate is keeping the eggs clean and spaced apart from each other. The parents also get better at producing fertile eggs over time. First spawn is terrible then gets better. I've never pulled eggs and not had at least a few be infertile.
@@MakeMoreFish i agree and found that better the water flow (but not turbulent) the better the hatch rate. If there's no flow, you get a higher rate of eggs going white/fuzzy