I just bought 2 of these today and would like to know if anyone has bred these before? I have been doing some research and have'nt found much info. except for temp, size, and ph...also I got some spectrum pellet food..at the shop the man showed me a full grown one that they have been feeding them with...wow really pretty.
TURQUOISE RAINBOW
- Thread starter roxie
- Start date
Most of the New Guinea rainbows breed communally, i.e. you have a group of them. M. lacustris is not that easy to sex by colour and finnage, so it is not always easy to tell if you have a sexed pair. The rounder females when full of eggs is a better guide.
A group in a large tank, with water to their liking, (slightly hard and slightly alkali), and well conditioned with quality food will often be induced to spawn if you add a floating mop. The females lay eggs in the mop which are fertilised by the males. You then remove the mop and put it into a seperate tank with similar clean water for hatching. The parents will eat the eggs otherwise. A tank maintained like that can produce a good "mop full" every 10 days.
The water rainbows like is easier to maintain then that of other trops, but it is easy to forget water changes. Remember, all the NG Rainbows like clean water, (which is why so many are threatened in the wild now with mineral extraction and agricultural run off).
For many years, only males were exported. The rationale being if they cannot be bred abroad, it keeps the price at a premium.
A group in a large tank, with water to their liking, (slightly hard and slightly alkali), and well conditioned with quality food will often be induced to spawn if you add a floating mop. The females lay eggs in the mop which are fertilised by the males. You then remove the mop and put it into a seperate tank with similar clean water for hatching. The parents will eat the eggs otherwise. A tank maintained like that can produce a good "mop full" every 10 days.
The water rainbows like is easier to maintain then that of other trops, but it is easy to forget water changes. Remember, all the NG Rainbows like clean water, (which is why so many are threatened in the wild now with mineral extraction and agricultural run off).
For many years, only males were exported. The rationale being if they cannot be bred abroad, it keeps the price at a premium.
A lot of fish are mop spawners.
I make mops out of dark green "cotton yarn" it is like knitting wool, but made from cotton - I don't know what you call it where you are. Cotton yarn works better then wool, because between each spawning, you'll want to thouroughly clean it. In my experience, Wool goes hard and is not readily reusable, this cotton stuff tolerates cleaning a lot better. Of course a big ball of "wool" will make many mops.
A lot now depends on the size of the fish and the breeding tank, but generally I cut "a number" of equal length pieces, "of a suitable length", fold them in half and tie another piece of yarn around the folded end to make a "mop", this I attach to a boiled wine bottle cork.
For M. lacustris, in a reasonably large tank, I would make a mop from 20 - 30 lengths of 12"/300mm so the mop is fairly, but not hugely dense and hangs down to about 6"/150mm beneath the surface.
If you keep the tank plants trimmed say 4"/100mm below the surface, rainbows tend not to bother, then the mop goes in and away they go. This same procedure works with many of the Atherines. I've bred several species like this, usually with a group of adult fish, say 6 in a 48"/1.25m x 18"/½m x 18"/½m tank, and 3 - 4 smaller tanks to take the mops and bring on the fry.
Watch for the fry, they take a week or so to hatch, much longer then many egglayers fish, and are pretty small compared to the size of fish. I've heard of people throwing their "failed spawning" out after a week or so and a few days later, see the odd fry. When the egg sack is absorbed, feed with small fry food, infusoria if you can make it in quantity, and/or a good liquid fry food. They grow slowly and seem to get "stuck" for a period - I figured they were a "bad batch" but left them, and they came on later. They feed readily enough on fine powdered flake food as soon as they are large enough.
I noticed the fry spend a lot of time near the surface so started leaving a few mops in the tank and would recommend doing so. You must keep the water quality up as they are pretty sensitive to pollution.
I make mops out of dark green "cotton yarn" it is like knitting wool, but made from cotton - I don't know what you call it where you are. Cotton yarn works better then wool, because between each spawning, you'll want to thouroughly clean it. In my experience, Wool goes hard and is not readily reusable, this cotton stuff tolerates cleaning a lot better. Of course a big ball of "wool" will make many mops.
A lot now depends on the size of the fish and the breeding tank, but generally I cut "a number" of equal length pieces, "of a suitable length", fold them in half and tie another piece of yarn around the folded end to make a "mop", this I attach to a boiled wine bottle cork.
For M. lacustris, in a reasonably large tank, I would make a mop from 20 - 30 lengths of 12"/300mm so the mop is fairly, but not hugely dense and hangs down to about 6"/150mm beneath the surface.
If you keep the tank plants trimmed say 4"/100mm below the surface, rainbows tend not to bother, then the mop goes in and away they go. This same procedure works with many of the Atherines. I've bred several species like this, usually with a group of adult fish, say 6 in a 48"/1.25m x 18"/½m x 18"/½m tank, and 3 - 4 smaller tanks to take the mops and bring on the fry.
Watch for the fry, they take a week or so to hatch, much longer then many egglayers fish, and are pretty small compared to the size of fish. I've heard of people throwing their "failed spawning" out after a week or so and a few days later, see the odd fry. When the egg sack is absorbed, feed with small fry food, infusoria if you can make it in quantity, and/or a good liquid fry food. They grow slowly and seem to get "stuck" for a period - I figured they were a "bad batch" but left them, and they came on later. They feed readily enough on fine powdered flake food as soon as they are large enough.
I noticed the fry spend a lot of time near the surface so started leaving a few mops in the tank and would recommend doing so. You must keep the water quality up as they are pretty sensitive to pollution.
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