Breading Pond Fish

[ctaylorhill]

Hey,

My mum has a pond as has been finding hundreds of fry in there, she has been bringing them in and putting them into tanks and feeding them liquifry food.

About 4 months ago she had about 12 in a tank, along with a newt, the newt somehow managed to get out and do a runner and from the 12 fish we still have 7 growing in the tank.

She also has 2 more tanks with real small fry, one tank with about 40 in another with about 25.

Are there any kind of rules / guidelines that I can tell her which will help with raising more fry as we are loosing a lot but are still finding a lot more in the pond?

Thanks in advanced,

 

[Ludwig Venter]

Many, Many open rules which include rearing a brood of about 3 000 at one time (once a week), .... What is it that you really want to know???

 

[ctaylorhill]

Many, Many open rules which include rearing a brood of about 3 000 at one time (once a week), .... What is it that you really want to know???

Anything, mums new to this but really enjoys doing it, so anything that will help, I don't know anything about at all, so anything from experienced breeders will be ace

 

[Ludwig Venter]

From one pair, You can do controlled breeding..... which means setting up a tank specifically for breeding ( I normally put in - AT LEAST - 2 male and one female in a tank with loads of plants in the dark corner, (females go in first after well conditioned and seperated from the males for 1 week) & the night before I want to spawn them, I introduce the male & switch off the lights......

Next morning, (as the sun rises) they will (def) spawn..... This ritual normally takes place for about 4 to 6 hours, after which I remove all fish and have the eggs develop on their own with mild aeration.... The fry will be hanging onto the glass about 2 days later and will be free swimming in about 4/5 days...... Thousands of the little blighters..... (if a 3ft tank is used, 4 males and 5 females can be used with a resultant 5 - to 8000 eggs).... the same lot will again be ready for spawning about a week later....

The fry feed on tetramin No.1 for egg layers (or infusoria.. if you know what that is) for the first week and then "weaned" onto crushed flake foods.....

 

[ctaylorhill]

Sorry I missed this out,

The fish are constantly breeding in the pond, and as we are out there we're just finding cupfulls of fry. It's not as if we want to bring them in and breed them as they're already doing it in the pond, we just need to know how to look after the fry once we have them in tanks?

 

[Davo86]

Hi ctaylorhill

what species of fry are they?
what are they being kept in?
what conditions etc?

if you can answer them we may be able to give you more direct answers for your situation
Thanks, Dave

 

[ctaylorhill]

Hi ctaylorhill

what species of fry are they?
what are they being kept in?
what conditions etc?

if you can answer them we may be able to give you more direct answers for your situation
Thanks, Dave

I'm not sure what the species of fry there are but I know there are normal goldfish, red comets and Shubunkins (spelling?) So the fry can be any of them I guess.

At the minute mum has them in indoor tank as they just get eaten in the pond.

 

[Davo86]

I'm not sure what the species of fry there are but I know there are normal goldfish, red comets and Shubunkins (spelling?) So the fry can be any of them I guess.

At the minute mum has them in indoor tank as they just get eaten in the pond.

They are all goldfish varieties then,

what size tanks are you using?
are they filtered / cycled?

 

[black angel]

Its one thing trying to raise them but what next?

do you have anyone that will take so many young fish? most pet shops will give them as feeders or to kids with bowls. my own fish breed but i leave them to nature...some will get eaten...maybe 90%... and some wont survive the winter. In the last two years of my pond ive had 2 survive. I wanted to save the young ones but realistically theres nowhere for them to go that i would feel happy about.

a growing goldfish needs a lot of room to grow well and not be stunted like the miserable creatures you see cramped in three foot tanks in a shop.

 

[ctaylorhill]

I'm not sure what the species of fry there are but I know there are normal goldfish, red comets and Shubunkins (spelling?) So the fry can be any of them I guess.

At the minute mum has them in indoor tank as they just get eaten in the pond.

They are all goldfish varieties then,

what size tanks are you using?
are they filtered / cycled?

We have a lot of smallish tanks and they're all spread between 3/4 tanks (I'm not sure what the size of them are) Is there a size tank that they should be kept in?

I'm sure my mum will do anything just so she can keep some of these fry as shes in the process of digging another pond for the surviving fish to go in as our current pond is full of goldfish and some sterlets.

 

[nikirushka]

Why not just leave them in the pond?

My pond fish breed several times a year and I never bring the fry in - I leave them to it. Okay, so not all of them survive, but given that it'd be difficult to find homes for all of them that isn't a bad thing.

At the moment I have my 12 adults and around 100 babies of different sizes, from 1" up to 3", mostly from last summer. They are healthy and growing extremely well.

I did try to raise some indoors a few years back and I didn't find it very easy - I found them rather delicate as fry go (I have bred livebearers, danios and cories in the past). I managed to get two to a decent size, but one was always sicky and had to be put down in the end, and the other is now a permanent indoor resident as every winter he gets sick.