I've made up my mind

[sushi]

hello. I've just decided - finally made up my mind.
I'm going to buy another fish tank. Just a small one, about 16" in length, to fit on my computer desk.
I'm going to use it to breed livebearers and my tetras and barbs. That's if they'll breed. I'll got 6 black widow tetras, some of which I'm reasonably sure are males and females. Probably not old enought yet though. i've got 5 tiger barbs - 4 fm, 1m (I think? )
Now for the questions:
Has anyone bred these fish? IS it hard? any special requirements?
And has anyone bred neons? I want to get about 10 and just hope for the best, unless i find out how to sex them in the meen time
So if anyones bred these, especially neons because I don't know anything about breeding them. I haven't researched them yet.
Like I said, I just decided
THanks to anyone who can help

 

[Lateral Line]

The biggest problem facing people who want to breed egglaying fish is number of tanks. If you keep males and females together during the conditioning process, they frequently drop a few eggs which are immediately eaten. The females never get really full.

What you need to do is condition the males and females seperately. Then when they are ready, move a pair into a breeding tank. As soon as they are finished, then take them out and move them back to their original quarters.

I posted a link to my Tiger Barb breeding story in the other thread you posted about them, here. Black Widows use the same procedure and are a little easier. Neons, procedure is the same, but the water has to be very clean, acidic, and very very soft otherwise the eggs won't hatch.

Livebearers are much easier, the common ones at least.

 

[silver]

Are you seriously going to put 5 tiger barbs and other fish as well in that small of a tank??

 

[sushi]

NOOOOOOOOO! I'm not completely stupid.
I'm buying a small tank. it is specifically for breeding fish. If i decide I want to breed one type of my fish ie. tiger barbs or neons or whatever, then I'll move them into the tank to spawn. I'm researcing their requirements, fry food, basically everything I can fit in my brain, to ensure that fry survive.
I have a 200L tank (3' long) that all my fish are in. As I said, when I want to breed some, I'll transfer them to the small one.

I've read that neons cant have sand or gravel cause the eggs get lost. SO I'm going to take the idea I read (because the neons have to stay in this tank, they get eaten in my big one) and put coarse mesh about 1" from the bottom of tank, maybe higher. I might put a tank seperator in so the adult neons are on one side (or what ever fish I'm breeding) and the fry on the other.
I'm just a beginner. I don't have a small tank yet, nor the money for one. IT's just an idea I'd like to try. I really do love my fish, I talk about them all the time. I'm not going to do something that is cruel or stupid.

FOr example, I have a golfish which, not inc tail, is about 4 1/2" long. I want to sell it cause I cant keep neons but I wont take it to the petshop cause I'm scared they'll sell it to some kid with a fish bowl.
So in answer to your question, no I'm not putting all those fish in there!

 

[sushi]

P.s. Lateral line. I read that info breeding barbs etc. It's very informative, thankyou. I didn't see it last time. I lose track of where i've written posts. I've got too many different sorts of fish to ask questions about