Breeding White Cloud Mountain Minnows

[sausagewinkle]

Hi all.
Im new to this whole forum thing and this is my first time on here.
Ok, Last week i set up a small 20 litre tank to try to breed my WCMM. (they are normally in my other tank with my other fish 170ltr).
I set the tank up, put about 70% of the large tank water and 30% new water in the small tank. Added a live plant, heater and a sponge filter (the filter had been set up in the large tank for a week prior to this). I left the small tank about 3 days with the filter running and then put my minnows in 2 nights ago.
Im pretty sure that i have 2 females and 3 males, but just incase i put all 5 of them in the small tank.
Its the 3rd day today and nothing seems to have happened.
Last night I fed them some blood worm and they starting acting as if they were going to spawn. 1 of the males was displaying him self to 1 of the females and after about half an hour another male joined in. Nothing more seemed to happen after this.

Am i doing anything right/wrong. This is the first time I have tried to breed these fish, i have raised fry before but only platy and molly fry.
Should i just leave the 2 that seem interested in the tank and move the other 3 back to the main tank?
Help please
Vicki x

 

[ste12000]

Hi all.
Im new to this whole forum thing and this is my first time on here.
Ok, Last week i set up a small 20 litre tank to try to breed my WCMM. (they are normally in my other tank with my other fish 170ltr).
I set the tank up, put about 70% of the large tank water and 30% new water in the small tank. Added a live plant, heater and a sponge filter (the filter had been set up in the large tank for a week prior to this). I left the small tank about 3 days with the filter running and then put my minnows in 2 nights ago.
Im pretty sure that i have 2 females and 3 males, but just incase i put all 5 of them in the small tank.
Its the 3rd day today and nothing seems to have happened.
Last night I fed them some blood worm and they starting acting as if they were going to spawn. 1 of the males was displaying him self to 1 of the females and after about half an hour another male joined in. Nothing more seemed to happen after this.

Am i doing anything right/wrong. This is the first time I have tried to breed these fish, i have raised fry before but only platy and molly fry.
Should i just leave the 2 that seem interested in the tank and move the other 3 back to the main tank?
Help please
Vicki x

Hi Vicki, if they have not spawned within three days i normally take them back out and start again. Put the fish back into your community tank and do all your feeding there, give them a varied diet including lots of live or frozen foods, pretty soon it will be unmistakable which are males and which are females, once filled with eggs the females are far larger in the stomach.

Now you need to setup the tank again, keep it completely sterile, empty it, take it to the sink and wash it out with as hot a water as you can stand, then fill it with 100% fresh water, old tank water does not make good breeding water! Forget the filter or real plant, both will only introduce bacteria to the spawning tank, they can be introduced if you do get fry. A 20litre spawning tank will not become polluted from a breeding pair! The heater will be required, set it low 70-72f.

Search on google for woollen spawning mops and try to make one, use this as a spawning media, so you now should have a tank containing completely fresh water(Treated for chlorine ect and pre warmed obviously) a spawning mop and a heater. Your fish should be fat and filled with eggs in the community tank.

Now decide on a day that you are going to be home and able to observe the spawning tank, if thats a saturday add a single sexed pair(Thats important!! you need to know how to sex your fish) into the tank on the friday evening, i usually give them 1 hour before the lights go out.. Go to bed with your fingers crossed and on saturday morning keep a eye on your fish, they should spawn with no help from you but if they dont there is a trick to try, simply turn the dial on your heater to raise the temp to 10f more than the original temp, thats why you wanted to start at a low temp, its then easy to raise it to 80f... This should definately trigger spawning.

Goodluck and let me know how you get on!!!

 

[sausagewinkle]

Thanks for your reply.
I left my minnows in the tank for 3 days and then moved them back into the community tank(on Saturday). After 2 days (this morning) i had a close look into the small tank and there is no signs of any activity.
Unfortunately one of my females was found dead in the main tank yesterday morning (sunday) not sure how this happened. I know for definite that i have 3 males, the other 1 im unsure whether it is a male or female as it was always larger in the stomach than the males but never as big as the other female, ill see how it goes over the next few weeks as to whether i attempt to breed them again.
Thanks for all your information, this will defo help me in the future.
Vicki

 

[fluvial]

I read the reply regarding breeding WCMM and thought, "wow - that guy certainly knows his stuff".
I then went back to the thread to check who it was -

Ste12000 !!

Nice to see you on this forum Steve -
and a couple of Cockatoo Cichlids that you sold me 6 months ago on ebay have turned out absolutely stunning !
And very nice temprements for dwarf cichlids too !