Rainbow Fish Not Spawning!

[zoeya]

Hi thanks for reading. I have 3 Boesemani Rainbow fish in my 175 litre community aquarium, i had 2 females and 1 male.
I have had them for around a year now. When i first had them they would constantly be spawning, the male would chase the females and flash his colours. They would spawn successfully laying lots of eggs. It has been about 3-6 months now that i havn't seen them spawn once, i have tried putting them in their own spawning aquarium with no luck. Any ideas or comments would be greatly appreciated.

 

[GRD1985]

What are you using for spawning? Rainbows should spawn very easily in a community or alone. You should be using a mop and feeding them a good stable food with frozen bloodworms or live blackworms 1-2 times a week. Regular water changes as well. They will spawn early in the morning and rarely at other times. Best to check for eggs then.

 

[zoeya]

Hi there, thanks for your reply. I used lots of plastic plants, some of the plants I left them floating on the top. I feed them frozen bloodworm and mosquito larve as a treat. Do you think they are not spawning because I'm not using mops or because I'm not feeding them anough frozen foods?

 

[GRD1985]

You have no spawning area for them that is why they are not spawning. You need to buy a roll of yarn, preferably black, and make a spawning mop for them. Another option is live plants but collecting eggs will be a challenge. My rainbows have always preferred their yarn mops over any plant in their tank anyway. Check the mop daily for eggs. Rainbow eggs are very resilient and can be taken out of the water and handled with your fingers and they will be fine. I usually pick the eggs off the mop since they don't spawn a ton of eggs at once. With two females, two dozen eggs would be a good days spawning. They may not spawn every day. I put the eggs in a dish of water with a bit of salt and an airstone usually. Float them in the tank they will be hatching in. Temps should be high and you WILL need a range of foods for the fry. Breeding rainbows is usually the easy part, raising their tiny tiny fry can be a challenge and takes a long time. I use a mix of 5-50 micron golden pearls and pure spirulina powder as an initial food. Other option would be infusoria. After a few days on that they can usually start to handle microworms then newly hatched baby brine shrimp and so on.

 

[zoeya]

Thanks for that, i shall try the yarn. I recently put my Rainbows back into their community tank (as i had them in a breeding tank) and the spawned the next morning, maybe it is because they didn't have no spawning area. I will buy some yarn and try them in their own breeding in a couple of weeks. Do Boesemani eggs prefer to be in the dark or will they hatch in light?  

 

[GRD1985]

A regular light schedule will be fine for rainbow eggs. I personally would breed them in the community tank. I've never spawned mine in their own tank. The adults will eat their eggs just as readily as any other fish.

 

[zoeya]

My little neon tetras like to eat all the eggs up, but i could try to save some and put them in a breeding box till they hatch. How long does it take for the eggs to hatch? 

 

[GRD1985]

The yarn should lessen the loss from other fish. With nothing to offer cover for the eggs they are likely to get eaten. I'm more surprised they will even spawn without some moss or yarn. Rainbows will literally spawn then turn around and try to eat their eggs. A proper spawning media like plants and yarn helps prevent this. My adults are in with neons and I still collect more eggs then I can hatch, which takes about 7 days or so depending on temp. Like I said above tho fry will not survive without specialized foods.