Three Foot Breeding Project - Give Me Some Ideas

[ZoddyZod]

Hello all,

I have my old 3ft tank sat in my shed and it's calling out to me to be put to good use (I was supposed to sell it to part fund the upgrade, but a year has passed and I seem to have got away with it).

I'm thinking of having a little breeding project in there, but not sure what species. I'd prefet a species that shows some egg/fry care, so no egg scatterers.

My water is around the 7.8 - 8.0 pH, which will obviously affect what I can breed.

Current ideas so far

Shell dwellers - not kept any African cichlids previously
Smallish SA/CA cichlids - Sajica, Convicts, Apistos - something like that
Plecs - Currently have two bristlenose in my main tank - they've spawned before but not had any joy getting fry.

Has anyone got some suggestions for me?

 

[MBOU]

There are loads of nice species out there!

I think Sajica would get too big in the long run, they are average sized as south am cichlids go but as adults, they can get pretty big and boisterous.

Shell dwellers are awesome fish to breed!! Only... trying to move on babies is really difficult

There are loads of small cichlid species around that are less common but great fun!

-Nannacara anomela
-Nannacara aureocephalus
-Laetacara curviceps
-Dicrossus filamentosa (checkerboard cichlid)
-Taeniacara candidi (love these and worth a pretty penny to the right people too!)

Interesting african species:
-Nanochromis transvestitus

There are plenty of different sorts of kribensis around and they are easy to shift. Especially the Nigerian Reds.

Or there is the Egyptian Mouthbrooders!

-Pseudocrenilabrus multicolor
-Pseudocrenilabrus nicholsi



Or if not cichlids, how about freshwater gobies? Will make an awesome project!! I have a load of Rhinogobius duospilus in a subtropical setup with find gravel and lots of cobbles and the females are gravid, i reckon they will be breeding soon and they are seriously cool fish and something not common!

 

[Tizer]

haha, Zods come to the Tangy side with me, minnnt wont be far behind

 

[ZoddyZod]

thanks MBOU

Nannacara anomela - these are available locally
Laetacara curviceps - had a wild caught specimen previously - gorgeous fish - had to rehome due to aggression, but would like to keep again.
Pseudocrenilabrus nicholsi - these are also available locally - was very interested in them until I read about the aggression, could make a great species only set up.

Shellies - didn't think it would be hard to shift the fry, if that's the case it might not be a great option.

gobies - very interesting indeed! Would be nice to have something a bit different.

....one thing I forgot to add (and I'll edit that into my first post), I have HARD water with a pH around 7.8 - 8.0, so this may affect the breeding of some soft water species. Any of the above I need to rule out?

 

[MBOU]

I don't think many of the species would be overly fussed.

Certainly not the transvestitus cichlid and i think mouthbrooders.

As for the south ams, they are generally soft water but most arent wild caught and are less fussy, certainly wont hurt to be breeding stronger strains of the species that are more tolerant...

However, if you dont mind the colour of the water, use an external filter (better if breeding anyway!) and get some JBL Tourmec. Its peat pellets that go in the filter, they swell and release tannins, softening the water and creating a blackwater habitat. Can end up looking awesome! It lasts ages too. I dont recomend using the liquid blackwater extract as it bounces levels all over the place (like using ph up or down, it can be risky) and needs dosing most days, it gets expensive!

Gobies are great fun, especially the Rhinogobius duospilus! They seem to be incredibly easy to keep! They need cool water with a fast flow, gravel they can burrow into (the finer river gravel is good, sand is too fine as their burrows would collapse) and some cobbles and pebbles scattered all over for them to dig under. Great characters and cery food orientated. Mostly feed on frozen foods but learn to eat flake too. Will eat small fish but fish like danios do great with them if they are big enough, though will eat the babies if they breed...

Only get about 4-5cm so can keep a nice colony going as well!

Or if still looking for something different, how about breeding Empire Gudgeon? Hypseleotris compressa, these are a stunning fish with great personalities. The same sort of movement as cichlids but...well..they arent cichlids LOL

 

[mattlee]

a nice cave set up and a few smaller plecos maybe? something a little out of the norm that you can sell on like L128, L200, L309, L333 etc etc everyone breeds bn's and end up selling them on for nothing. a more classy expensive fish will give you back up when the mrs moans about another tank set up, just say that potentially they are a money earner

on a cheaper front why not try bolivian rams? mine have been spawning in tap of 7.6 and look stunning

 

[ZoddyZod]

like the Rhinogobius duospilus idea, but probably need better water movement than I currently can offer, so needs more investment.

Emprire gudgeon - at £13ish a fish locally, don't really fancy trying to get a breeding pair!

plec colony sounds interesting, I'll have a search through those L-numbers

Bolivian rams - have 6 in my main tank and have NEVER seen anything close to courtship/breeding behaviour.

Went to a LFS for lunch - had some multies in there for £8.95 a fish. How come babies are hard to shift if the adults go for that price, or are these very over-priced examples?

 

[Tizer]

What shop Zoddy?? Im after multis, been to so many over the weekend and cant get any (although i have reserved 6 at windsor MA)

i took my Nichols back to Windsor :\ Got bored of them

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

A few random ideas, in no particular order...

Steatocranus spp. (I've raised 3 S. casuarius broods since buying 4 young specimens them 2 years ago)?
A small and less common livebearer eg. "Pygmy Swordtails" (there are loads out there if you talk to the likes of Oldman47, fish48, ricefish)?
A less common Tanganyikan shell dweller like "Sumbu dwarf"?
Pseudocrenilabrus nicholsi (as MBOU already suggested, Tizer recently returned his hareem to the LFS, I was really intrested in these myself)?
One of the mouthbrooding small catfish, from Tanganyika (Lophiobagrus/Phyllonemus spp.)?
L204 Flash Pleco (doesn't care for young as far as I'm aware but the tributory river they come from can get as alakaline as pH 8.6)?

Empire Gudgeon are gorgeous fish suited to our hard alkaline water, but raising the young is apparently a dark art!

 

[MBOU]

Empire Gugeon are easier to sex than bloomin livebearers you can hardly get it wrong! And at £13 each, its not much worse than buying a colony of multies at £8 each lol. Plus the babies will sell as they are good in community tanks

If you cant tell the difference between the two... well...
http/www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=empire+gudgeon&start=95&hl=en&biw=1095&bih=635&tbm=isch&tbnid=wgm7WSY9xPGanM:&imgrefurl=http/creekyclean.blogspot.com/2011/09/flora-and-fauna.html&docid=X9MEDtrb3mNeZM&imgurl=http/4.bp.blogspot.com/-D68mdjze4CA/Tmbc24sP9VI/AAAAAAAAAD4/gzoAWYCJIxs/s1600/fish%252Bidentification%252Bguide%252Bfor%252Bmoggill%252Bcreek.bmp&w=180&h=196&ei=q7nxT-2qEcmg0QXX5aiNDg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=327&vpy=341&dur=290&hovh=156&hovw=144&tx=78&ty=183&sig=103349512573384008980&page=6&tbnh=136&tbnw=125&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:6,s:95,i:25

Plecs are a cool idea, i like the L333s, shops will deff buy them. To get them in and sell them retail, i had to sell a 2-3cm L333 for £35 and that was way below what it ought to have been at. Blue phantoms more so.

Mind you.. i just dont have the patience for breeding fancy plecs, they are slow growing and slow to do anything, more expensive to buy in the first place and an awful lot more difficult to sex accurately and at that price, its not a mistake you want to make lol

 

[MBOU]

Or how about breeding some whiptails? Or some of the more 'exotic' species of cories?

 

[Tizer]

A less common Tanganyikan shell dweller like "Sumbu dawf"?

These are really nice, some people keep them with the small shellies to keep the fry count down, or so i've been reading. Comps and Calvus look pretty funky. Not sure they will go into my stocking though with Multi's. I'd like to have a crack at breeding multis before they get predated!

But breeding these guys would be very cool and would make some excellent money too, they don't seem very common here.

 

[thereverendturtle]

thanks MBOU

Nannacara anomela - these are available locally
Laetacara curviceps - had a wild caught specimen previously - gorgeous fish - had to rehome due to aggression, but would like to keep again.
Pseudocrenilabrus nicholsi - these are also available locally - was very interested in them until I read about the aggression, could make a great species only set up.

Shellies - didn't think it would be hard to shift the fry, if that's the case it might not be a great option.

gobies - very interesting indeed! Would be nice to have something a bit different.

....one thing I forgot to add (and I'll edit that into my first post), I have HARD water with a pH around 7.8 - 8.0, so this may affect the breeding of some soft water species. Any of the above I need to rule out?

Nannacara anomela -Nannacara aureocephalus -Laetacara curviceps -Dicrossus filamentosa (checkerboard cichlid) -Taeniacara candidi
And most other SA dwarves.

Central American and East African cichlids, would be your beat choices, besides gobies.

 

[ZoddyZod]

What shop Zoddy?? Im after multis, been to so many over the weekend and cant get any (although i have reserved 6 at windsor MA)

i took my Nichols back to Windsor :\ Got bored of them

Ashford Aquatics - near Heathrow. I highly recommend them.

 

[Tizer]

Oooh, nice, only 23 mins away according to google maps

might bomb down today and have a look around

checked out MA at Iver yesterday without much luck