Breeding My Galaxy Rasbora's - Journal

[Ryefish]

You don't know just how excited I am about starting this journal. My boyfriend went away on Thursday so i've needed something to keep me busy, so i decided to try and breed my Galaxy Rasbora's. I have five Rasbora's - unfortunately i have four males and only one female. Since planting up the tank more, i have noticed they have been harrassing her to breed and i don't want the stress of four males trying to breed with her to kill her I had the option of buying more (lack of funds for that and the shop i originally bought them from closed down) and hoping for more females, or breed her and pray for female offspring. The female has been getting more and more plump over the space of a week or more.

So, on Thursday, off the boyfriend went on his holiday, and I got busy preparing my tiny little 6litre 'tank'. I cleaned it out with a vinegar and water solution, dried and rinsed again. Found my spare mini heater, grabbed my java fern and siamese fighter's 'house' from the main 31G tank and made a make-shift home for the fish for a few days

The set-up

It's been sat on my windowsill and rather cold the past few nights so i've been monitoring the water temperature.

Two or three times per day i've been changing 4 litre's of water for water straight from the main tank (keep PH, temp and water parameters nice).

I might not have done everything by the book, but i've never attempted this before and i don't have cash to throw around on things so i've used stuff that i've got laid around the house. I've been feeding them live daphnia and frozen/thawed brine shrimp

Thursday morning - i caught the female fish and chose the best of my males - brightest colours, healthy, best fin markings, the one that seemed more interested in the female. Put them both in the tank together to settle down

Friday - upped the heat to 27/28C, kept male and female together, watched him dance to her most of the day

Saturday - Made a divider and split the male and female up. Covered the tank with a thick towel on the night.
divider (rather messy hahaha)

This morning (Sunday), last day before i was putting the fish back into the main tank - Uncovered the tank at 10am, replaced two litres of water

I found some eggs in the bottom of the tank an hour later
I don't know if they are fertile or not, but it doesn't matter. It's one step further than i ever expected to be at.
I have put the fish back in to the main tank. The female didn't look as plump as she had and they weren't dancing together anymore and with having a bare bottom tank, i didn't want the eggs to be eaten.

Some eggs have white spots, some are slightly white, some are clear (thinking the clear ones aren't)

Going to the shop to get some infusoria (i belive its called that) and startingsome brine shrimp hatching (got eggs in the fridge already), just in case

I've read about putting some methylene blue in the water so stop fungus on the eggs, but i've already read that it isn't always necessary???

If anyone has any advice / comments then please, feel free. I've never done this before, and even if it fails i plan to try again at another time and will continue to use this thread as a journal

 

[Ryefish]

the tank has been moved to a side table and covered with a towel again to make it dark. just gunna have to sit and wait now

 

[pacman]

Will follow this with interest. Very best of luck with the breeding

 

[Ryefish]

some of the eggs seem fuzzy today, but other than that there is no difference
still, not giving up hope just yet. already planning what i can do different next time. Just gota wait for my little lady fish to be ready to breed again haha

 

[Ryefish]

The eggs didn't hatch. It's no big deal though Ive been watching my female and she looks like shes getting plump again and i recon she will be ready to go in about 2 weeks. Feeding live foods to get them going

 

[PJPJ]

HeHe, they need more practice.

Have you shown them some videos and shared your books?

 

[pacman]

Never mind, practice makes perfect..!

 

[Ryefish]

hahahaha i gave up on the idea of the eggs hatching in my last post, but i just left them in the tank and went and stayed at my boyfriends house for a few days. I turned the heater off and left the water stagnant. Yesterday came along and i figured i should start prepping the tank for next time. I took it out into the garden, noticed the eggs were gone and just sat for 20minutes watching... nothing really.

THEN!!!

something moved!... just as i was about to throw the water over the garden

crop:

how fantastic is that!! I only counted two, and have only seen one swimming around today, but WOW!!! did i expect this? no way!

i immediately kicked in to gear and put the heater back into the tank and did a 50% water change, very very slowly syphoning water out, and then back in to the tank so i didnt disturb the water too much because boy these guys are tiny!




now the hard work begins

ETA: buying another tank next week to get my lady fish ready again

 

[PDSimon]

Good little journal rye, I think plenty of protein filled food and waterchanges help, certainly when there are fry in the tank Good luck

 

[pacman]

Congratulations and well spotted! So very nearly thrown out onto the lawn eh?
Good luck with the rearing of the fry

 

[Ryefish]

Yep, literally very nearly thrown out over the lawn lol

I thought one of the fish had died, but the past two days both have been swimming around a lot I think there is a days difference between the fish, one seems a tiny bit more advanced than the other
Im starting to offer newly hatched brine shrimp. No takers yet, but no big deal

here are some terrible pictures for you (near impossible to photograph haha)

All they are at the minute is eyes, but if you watch carefully (you need bloody good eyesight ) you can see them feeding on things that are too small to see

 

[Ryefish]

Baby fishes are 8 days old today
They are being fed 4x a day on Interpet Liquify and im still offering baby brine shrimp. The fish are really active, exploring the whole tank and now growing little tails, which are cute. They swim up to the bbs, but don't eat it (still too small), and swim away again

They are almost impossible to photograph now

Buying a really cheap tank from Asda later in the week to breed the fish again

 

[alex.wardle]

Cracking little journal. I have recently bought 10 for my 125litter tank and will hopefully in a week or 2 be getting another 10.
At the moment i have a rough split of sex 6 females to 4 males. Hopefully if sighns of spawning shows i will move a few over to a breeding tank. Hope your little ones make it. Keep us posted.

 

[pacman]

Good to hear that things are continuing to go well for the young fry
Well done with the progress so far

 

[Ryefish]

Cracking little journal. I have recently bought 10 for my 125litter tank and will hopefully in a week or 2 be getting another 10.
At the moment i have a rough split of sex 6 females to 4 males. Hopefully if sighns of spawning shows i will move a few over to a breeding tank. Hope your little ones make it. Keep us posted.

It took a move to a larger tank (from 30L to a 120L) and about 4months before they even showed any signs of wanting to breed. my fry tank is literally a tiny 6L plastic viv that i've had sitting around for a long time, but they will have to be eventually moved to the 30L until they are big enough to not get destroyed in my community tank

it hasn't been overly difficult, but i tell you, it feels better and more rewarding than having fish that do all this themselves