Dwarf Neon Rainbows Mating

[philak]

I have one male and 3 females at the moment. Although they are pretty young , maybe 2cm, the male and one of the females are in a corner going in tight circles around each other with extended fins. They are very close whilst doing this, almost seeming to head butt each others abdomens.

The male is also adopting some unusual positions eg tailstands, laying on his side whilst circling around her etc.

I assmue this is mating behaviour even though they are both relatively young. Should i expect eggs at this age and if so do they lay on plants or substrate?

Any info would be appreciated.

 

[drobbyb]

When praecox are mating the males get a cream colored stripe known as a breeding stripe the extends from the tip of the nose to the first dorsal fin. The behavior you are seeing might be breeding behavior.

 

[philak]

Thanks, any idea if they would produce eggs at that size? (2cm) If so where do they normally lay and what do the eggs look like?

Ta again.

 

[drobbyb]

They lay their eggs in fine leaved plants or moss, but if there is no plants/moss they will lay their eggs just about anywhere. They look like small glass beads.

I'm not sure if they are fertile that small, but rainbows do mature rather quickly when compared to other fish.

If you want to collect the eggs, buy a skine of synthetic yarn and wrap it around a book 50 or more times. Cut one end of the strands of the "mop", and secure it with a strand of the same msterial. Soak it in dechlorinated water until it sinks, then add it to your tank. The rainbows will lay eggs into the mop and you can pull it out of the tank and look for them.

 

[philak]

Thanks Drobby, by "yarn" are we talking about single strand cotton or something thicker like wool used for knitting?

Cheers

 

[drobbyb]

You want to avoid natural fibers like wool and cotton because they will rot and pollute your tank, but you are looking for that style material (not single strand.) It can be found in many places, but hobby shops and other retailers that deal in sewing and knitting supplies are your best bet. I use dark green since the eggs contrast nicely.

 

[the_evil_duboisi]

I used to have dwarf rainbow, and they bred in a very odd way. I had one huge male(Almost 2.5"!) and 3 females(Just like you!) Unfortunantly they were kept with mbuna(I didn't know better then)
, with no plants, fake or alive. But sometimes, the male would color up spectacularily, and lead a female to the corner. There they would do as you described, and all of a sudden they take a dive at the bottom, and the female releases eggs almost explosively(Maybe they thought they were annual killifish? Lol) But the mbuna who were watching would swarm in and quickly make quick work of the eggs.

So I guess yes. your rainbows are ready to breed As drobbyb said, spawning mops will probably increase your chance of success.

Good luck!
PS: Almost forgot....My eggs looked like tiny transparent orbs. But I don't know if that's natural

 

[philak]

Well i haven't seen any eggs yet but then i've not had time to organise the mop( but the tank is planted).

On the other hand i have seen the cream breeding stripe on the male! I fed them this morning and the stripe appeared about 5 minutes later, like a light bulb going on, and off he went strutting his stuff. I'd been staring hard at them looking for a slight cream colouration but when it appears you don't have to look hard do you.It's stunning.

 

[drobbyb]

If they are showing their breeding stripe they are sexually mature and you could pull eggs from them now.

 

[OpalineAqua]

That's so lucky! I can't get my dwarf rainbows to mate no matter what I do.

 

[drobbyb]

Getting rainbows to breed is the easy part. As long as you feed them a good diet and keep their water clean they should breed every day. You need to condition them with a varied diet. With mine, I fed spirulina flakes as a staple, mosquito larvae during the summer when I can collect them, cooked shelled peas, a little bloodworms and frozen spirulina gut loaded brine shrimp. The important thing here is the staple. It's vegetable based and has lots of protein for getting the females to produce eggs. The live and frozen food are for simulating enviornmental breeding conditions. One more thing that should be noted: temperature is important. Bows like a little cooler water than most other tropical fish. You want to be between 72 and 77 degrees F (22C to 25C.) If they are too warm or cold they won't produce many eggs.

Once the eggs have been collected, move them to a separate hatching tank with mature sponge filter (I find a 10 gallon does well) kept at 82 degrees F (28C) for the first 4 weeks. It takes the eggs about 7 days to hatch and once the fry are free swimming they need to be fed. I start out with Hikari First Bites powdered fry food for the first 3 days along with a mass of java moss. After 3 days I feed vinegar eels and the powdered fry food until they are large enough to eat baby brine shrimp (BBS.) Once they reach this stage it gets easier. You don't want to change the water for the first 3 to 4 weeks so It's important not to overfeed. If you get some food on the bottom, it will certainly spoil and foul the water. A handy trick I learned was to get a piece of rigid airline tubing and attach a piece of regular flexible tubing to it. You then take this siphon to clean the bottom without removing a lot of water and without sucking up any fry. After 4 weeks, gradually drop the temperature to 77 degrees F over the course of several days. With the sponge filter, you want to set it pretty low for the first few weeks, maybe a bubble every second or so. After the fry are growing well you can turn it up to full without harming anything. Also, you want to keep the light on for 24 hours a day until they are eating BBS. This does 2 things. Firstly it will allow algae to grow and the fry can eat all the rotifers and other natural micro foods. Secondly, this allows the fry to search for food 24 hours a day ensuring maximum growth. You are going to want to feed them 5 to 6 times a day for the first month.

I think that's it in a nutshell. I have had great success with this method and of course different people do it different ways.


Any more questions? I would be happy to answer them.

 

[bushbrother]

Thanks for confirming the cream stripe thing, my male rainbows have been showing that every morning this week. Its quite crazy that it just goes away when they are not "in the mood"