Interesting Fish To Breed

[Nick16]

hi all,
 
not posted on here for 2 years, hope theres still some of the old crew left!
 
I have just obtained a 21x21x21 cube, about 140 litres
 
im looking to try to breed something more unusual or a bit of a challenge but I need inspiration...
 
local water is hard and I don't have an RO unit so please bear that in mind with your suggestions.
filtration, lighting, substrate, water quality will all be top notch so no worries there.
 
I have been considering things like CRS, but no RO unit so that's a no-no, zebra plecos and corydoras sp, appeal to me a lot, as they take some work too get them breeding but will allow me to have a few other small dither fish to fill the upper levels, something i cant do with CRS.
 
im not in it for profit or any of that nonsense, but obviously i will sell fish on if the population rockets.
 
please don't suggest silly things like guppies, platies, bristlenoses as they aren't a challenge to breed and you are left with millions of the buggers.
 
any suggestions?
 
would like to keep it community as ive already got mbuna getting jiggy downstairs!
 
cheers
 
 

 

[the_lock_man]

I was going to suggest Shelldwellers, but that may be too similar to your Mbuna setup.
 
Another option would be apistogramma species of some description.

 

[Nick16]

it would be nice to find some true C.julii which im asking a few suppliers about, in all honesty im still considering L046 as a challenge, just has a prohibitive start up cost.
 
ideally need to source 4 to be in with a decent chance

 

[Zante]

Ok, here's a bit of a challenge: dwarf angelfish.

 

[Nick16]

freshwater.. .not salties

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Zebras are ideal in terms of giving small spawns. The problem is they are seasonal spawners and with hard tap water you would likely need an RO or an RO/DI unit. Changing the conductivity/TDS is a key ytihhrt for spawning them. The other thing is thay also have a tendency not to respond to our running dry and and rainy seasons. My group spawned regularly for over 3 years and then stopped entirely for over 2. They resumed spawning earlier this year finally. But I just let them alone for the last 14 months or so,
 
The other problem is you really need to spawn zebras in a speciaes tanks to have any real chance at success and to protect them from other fish.

 

[Zante]

freshwater.. .not salties

 
You were loking for a challenge
You will find little in FW that is harder than anything in SW

 

[Nick16]

but this is posted in a freshwater section so theres a fairly big hint there!

i think im going to go with very high grade CRS, but it will be a long process as i need to mature the tank quickly with plants and fish in order to build up a biofilm

i will get an RO unit, some Ebi gold, water and substrate additives and a tds meter.

will begin a project thread at some point!

 

[Blobfish]

CRS = crystal red shrimp?

 

[Nick16]

yeah

 

[Zante]

How about breeding chocolate gouramis?

 

[Bettatamer]

Striped kuhili loaches?