Breeding Galaxy Rasboras/celestial Pearl Danio's

[MHunt]

Ok Finally!!!!!!

I've managed to use my intended galaxy breeding tank for breeding galaxy's!!! After it's temporary use for raising cory fry, and treating a sick endler, I've had my male and female galaxy in who appear to have partaken in much spawning activity, and i now have countless wrigglers hovering on the glass near the top of the tank!

For those who are interested in doing the same the setup is an AquaOne 320 cube tank with sand substrate and an air powered sponge filter. There is a large wool spawning mop in the middle of the tank. The tank is heated to 26 degrees C and has the standard power compact lighting which I use during the day (although not strictly essential for breeding). I couldn't tell you the exact water parameters as I haven't bothered testing it. I can guess that it's similar to my other tanks in that it's soft and slightly acidic, typical community tank water I think. The adults (a single male and female) were put in one morning, and the following morning the male was 'dancing' round the female and the leading or driving her into the spawning mop where they came together before parting. I noticed this activity morning, afternoon and night so I can't say what the trigger was, I guess these fish just breed prolifically in decent conditions. Three days after the first noticed spawning activity I have noticed tiny specks wriggling near the glass at the top of the tank which I can only assume are the fry, but they are tiny, miniscule. If you weren't expecting them you might think you have parasites! I'm trying to produce potato infusoria, part boiled potato soaked in some tank water, and some starchy water from the pan in for good measure also. Hopefully this will feed them enough for a couple of days till I can culture some live food.

Here i'm at a bit of a loss. I would normally do brine shrimp for my cory fry, but these fish are so small I'm not sure what I can feed them that I can easily get hold of. I don't think microworms is going to be an option unless I can collect from someone local. I could just do infusoria till they're big enough to take flake and brine shrimp. But I risk loosing the batch if I get it wrong. At least I know I can spawn them easily now, but catching the adults is a challenge in itself!

Anyhoo, that's where i'm up to. Any suggestions and advice will be welcome. All being well i'll be posting in the buy sell and swap in a few months time.

 

[Renate]

I'm trying to produce potato infusoria, part boiled potato soaked in some tank water, and some starchy water from the pan in for good measure also. Hopefully this will feed them enough for a couple of days till I can culture some live food.

How do you make this? What do have to buy to make this?

 

[MHunt]

I'm trying to produce potato infusoria, part boiled potato soaked in some tank water, and some starchy water from the pan in for good measure also. Hopefully this will feed them enough for a couple of days till I can culture some live food.

How do you make this? What do have to buy to make this?

It's my first attempt at trying this but as far as i'm aware you just put a piece of part boiled potato in a container of water taken from the tank and draw off the cloudy water to feed the fry.

 

[Renate]

Found a recipe for lettuce Infusoria

 

[MHunt]

Ok, update.

Not that much to update so never mind. I now have loads of wrigglers near the glass at the top of the tank. They're starting to venture out into open water too so I guess for now all is good. I'm adding the water from the potato infusoria jar, I hope it's feeding them with something and i'm not going to have a poisoning in a couple of days. I get the impression the the infusoria is basically cultured mold from what i've read from a couple of google searches, correct me if i'm wrong. My original impression was that it was microscopic bits of food after it's broken down int he tank water. But yes mold is perhaps the best description.

Anyhoo, that's all for now. I'll keep you posted how the project is going. Pictures are an imposibility at the moment. I can barely see the fish let alone geta picture of them.

 

[Amerce]

If you have a mature tank then infusoria will exist, if you have some java moss then you will get miniscule micro organisms in there so creating more infusoria should not be an issue.

As for microworm you can get that off ebay or for smaller worms go for banana or walter worms both of which you can get from ebay.

Good luck it is nice when you get youngsters and even better when you see them develop and grow.

 

[MHunt]

Ok, forget my enthusiasum about my newly hatched fish the other day, I think they were actually snail larvae so yes they were actually parasites. Today I noticed 5 or 6 slivers of glass with eyes swimming about and hovering round the edge of the tank. They're not quite as small as I thought they would be, so they may be able to take small fry powder, but I will be starting a brine shrimp culture, probably today to feed them up on in a couple of days. Even as tiny fry they look fantastic with a rainbow sheen as they catch the light.

Anyhoo, it's all going well dispite having a nice bacterial bloom this morning by adding too much infusoria water yesterday.

 

[MHunt]

Right, still going well raising the fry. I think I have about 20 fry in the tank, but they're all appearing to do quite well. The biggest difficulty is feeding the things, I made up a brine shrinp culture, ut the napauli are too big for the fry to take. I haven't managed to get any microworms, but what I have managed to get is some Hikari first bites. This is a very fine powdered food and the fry appear able to take it and are certainly surviving on this for now. And may be able to take brine shrimp later when they're a bit bigger.

My biggest surprise was when I was back at the P@H where I get the fish from, they now only have 2 left, at 5.99 ( I think, can't quite remember) each! I only paid £2 each for my 5. Result!!!

 

[MHunt]

Well quick update, two weeks on the fry are looking good, and responding well to being fed on the Hikari first bites. I still have about 20 fry and they all look pretty much alright. They haven't got any adult colouring yet but they're certainly starting to get darker as they grow.

 

[MHunt]

I'm nearly a month on and the majority of the fry are doing well. Most appear fit and healthy, but I do have a few that swim erratically, andhave a kink in the tail. I suspect these are mutts and ideally I need to cull these to give the healthy fish a better chance. I may just throw them in my main tank and let the angels and congo's look after them.

Generally the rest are fine, getting to a good size now and starting to darken up, but no sign of the galaxy colouring, we'll have to wait and see.

 

[joshjames]

great! are you willing to post??? or i can come and collect but it would be quite a treck
just set up my new 25 litre planted tank which would be perfect for a few???

 

[MHunt]

great! are you willing to post??? or i can come and collect but it would be quite a treck
just set up my new 25 litre planted tank which would be perfect for a few???

I'm not posting fish, I know the trade does it but I'm not confident in the majority getting there in one piece and still being in water when they arrive. Sorry. We'll have to arrange to exchange fish when we're passing. I think we're planning to pop in around our hols in June so we might be able to do something then? In any case the fish will be bigger and actually look like Galaxy's by then, I hope. Plus it'll give you a chance to get the filter cycled properly, or are you just cloning with media from your big tank?

 

[joshjames]

I'm not posting fish, I know the trade does it but I'm not confident in the majority getting there in one piece and still being in water when they arrive. Sorry. We'll have to arrange to exchange fish when we're passing. I think we're planning to pop in around our hols in June so we might be able to do something then? In any case the fish will be bigger and actually look like Galaxy's by then, I hope. Plus it'll give you a chance to get the filter cycled properly, or are you just cloning with media from your big tank?
[/quote]

yea no worries i wouldnt post either yes i got some mature media out of current filters so is almost finished now.didnt no about seeing you but ok maybe then !

 

[MHunt]

I had my first loss today, only one fry with fungus, wasn't dead but I wasn't faffing about with meds and it was one of the deformed ones too so I just took it out, save any infection of the others. All the others are doing ok.

 

[MHunt]

Hello all, quick update for those that are still with me.

The largest fish are starting to gain their characteristic metallilic spots on the side, it's very feint but it's getting there. I think we can say that they start to colour up between five and six weeks.

Other than that no major worries.