Evidence

[devil238]

what evidence is there that fish have mated or bred? and if i see this evidence what shouild i do? get a small birthing area? let them eaat each other (fish surprise me that they eat their off spring, surprised but creeped out...) nah that would be evil but i mean how can i tell when a fish (lets say minnows) have or wanted to breed?

 

[black angel]

With minnows they follow a two weekly cycle where the females get bigger with eggs and the males display. Once the females are ready the males will swim into the side of the female to get her to scatter her eggs and he then fertilises them. The eggs fall to the gravel where they will hatch after 3 days but with other fish and the parents in the tank its likely they will get eaten.
You cant tell when they have mated only if you see it happening. If you want to breed them then you will need a seperate smaller tank and you will need 3 females and 1 male.

 

[devil238]

my females are gettin preety big now. maybe they will breed! woooh! then ill need a seperate tank for little fry! Cant i buy something that i put a male and a females in so the eggs fall to the bottom and the fry arent eaten(that prospect still creeps me out!)?

 

[black angel]

I have bred them in a 4 gallon plastic tank by mistake.
I was swapping fish around and put the minnows with a heater set at 24c for a week or two then took them out to put back into the main tank.
I then kept the little tank running and put 3 baby guppies in to grow on. About 3 days later I noticed these tiny black things on the surface and then realised they were fry from the minnows.
Because i didnt have anywhere else to grow them on they died or were eaten by the bigger guppies.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

hmm... out of curiousity, how old were the guppies when you added them to the 4g and what variety of minnows did you have?

 

[black angel]

The guppies were around a week old and they were wcmm. The guppies came from a larger female so they were bigger than normal.