Breeder Nursery's Vs. Breeder Nets

[foxxybrownn]

I am seriously trying to understand the difference between the two. I have A 75 gal tank with (2) 350 Magnum running, 4 Black Tetras, 7 Swords and 6 Platys. I am new to the site and decided to come here to find a solution to my problem. My platy's have had three different batches of frys in the last 4 weeks. I look in the tank and see them get bigger and bigger then when I go back to check they are slimmer the black spot is gone and no matter how hard I look I cannot find any fry. I believe that the other fish or the momma is eating them. So to fix the problem I went the the pet store and they sold me this maternity/nursery breeder which has an air pump connected to it and when the fry are born they are automatically drawn to the nursery away from the mother. However the majority of the posts here say not to use them because it stresses the fish. So what do you do if you want to save the fry? And when do you put the female in the breeder? Is it possible that the Algae eater is eating the fry also? PLEASE ADVISE...PLEASE!!!

 

[magafish18]

breeder nets are better i whould use that but the only problem is water changes if you use a breeder box it can flot so it makes water changes easier. good luck.

 

[Kame-San]

First off, if you have a CAE, it probably is eating fry...

I prefer breeder boxes/nurserys for the fry as they are being born. But some people prefer nets because they are bigger (you can get bigger boxes too, which is what I did).

Livebearers should have fry every 3-5 weeks. Keeping track of the time between births would help some, so you can put the fish into the net/box to save fry.

 

[tubes_is_tubular]

Personally I prefer the boxes. I believe that the whole box vs. net situation is all personal preference.

 

[magafish18]

agreed

 

[stargirly1208]

i like the nets because your other fish can't pull fry out by the tail at the slits of the box like my gourami did. some fish are pretty smart. plus i think water circulates better through the net so as to not stress out the fish even more. i do believe that the more preferred way to let your fish have fry is to have a breeding tank, this way the fish isn't stressed out and can have the babies at leisure since you can put them in well before they're ready to have them. i got a 10 gallon for this.

 

[magafish18]

your spose to have thr slits out of water for air.

 

[nmonks]

Take look at the pinned topics on breeding traps/nets and breeding tanks.

Please try to understand that while traps and nets are cheap and widely sold, they are of VERY limited value.

You cannot put adult mollies or swordtails in them at all. If you try to confine the larger species in a trap/net, it will stress the female intensely, likely leading to a miscarriage. You can put females of the smaller species, like guppies, in them, but only for a very short while (a few days at most).

Even the baby fish cannot stay in them for long, perhaps a week or two, maybe slightly more. To raise them to maturity, you will need somewhere safe for them for a period of about 3 months, depending on the species in question.

Tetras, angelfish, and so on will readily eat baby livebearers, so if you want to leave the babies in with their parents, keep the livebearers in their own aquarium. If the tank is well planted, some babies will survive. Floating plants are what you need, with many aquarists consider hornwort the ideal. It is cheap, tough, bushy, and easy to grow. The baby fish hide among the plants, keeping them safe, and giving you plenty of time to remove them to another aquarium if you want.

Ideally though, set up a ~10 gallon tank just for breeding. Transfer the pregnant female there, and put lots of hornwort in with her. Once the babies appear, you can remove the female and raise the baby fish safely. A breeding tank does not need to be expensive. You only need a heater (probably not even that in summer) and a simple air-powered filter. A basic system will cost you very little money. Since you can now easily raise the babies to maturity, you can sell them on, and recoup your costs! I've been selling on my halfbeak youngsters, last time getting £15 for 10 juvenile fish about 3 months old. It's important to concentrate on producing fish aquarium shops can sell, so try and only keep a single variety of platy or whatever together. Aquarium shops don't really want mongrel fish that are just a mish-mash of colours and patterns. Similarly, they don't want deformed fish either, so make sure you only breed from good stock and destroy any obviously deformed fry.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[dwarfgourami]

Neale has covered most of it. I'll just add that the problems of stressing out in a trap can also affect the smaller livebearers: I've had problems with guppies and have given up on using breeder traps. Another problem is that, unless you have a system that forces the fry away from the female (never seen the one you describe), all the trap/net is doing is giving her easy access to a nourishing snack.

I think there can be an advantage in keeping the fry themselves in a trap/net for the first few weeks, particularly in the case of platy fry, who are not very good swimmers when first born: a week or two will really make a difference to their ability to keep out of the way of trouble. A separate tank would of course be better, but we can't all manage that.

Plants are good: if you can't find hornwort (none of my local shops do floating plants), any reasonably fine-leaved plant will do, as long as it doesn't sink: I've had good results with Java fern and cabomba.

 

[Rafael Dilone]

Well over the years Breeding boxes have improved. The first one I ever bought was 2 way breeder. It was not so good because my gouramies were able to suck the fry through the holes were water is circulated. I think nets are better, but after I bought Baby Nursery For Live Bearers I can say they are equaly as good. It is specially made for livebearers. It also has a built-in filter and divider allows nursery to hold 2 mothers.

 

[nmonks]

Is this the thing?

[image link: here]

You could not possibly keep swordtails or mollies in this, and even two guppies for a few days is a push. It may have two compartments, but the fish can hardly move inside them. These would be like me being trapped inside a lavatory cubicle... OK, I'd fit, but I wouldn't want to live there!

There is really no such thing as a good breeding trap or net. Why spend $6 on a trap, when for $20 you could get a small tank that would let you keep and raise dozens of fry to a large enough size you could sell?

Cheers,

Neale

Well over the years Breeding boxes have improved. The first one I ever bought was 2 way breeder. It was not so good because my gouramies were able to suck the fry through the holes were water is circulated. I think nets are better, but after I bought Baby Nursery For Live Bearers I can say they are equaly as good. It is specially made for livebearers. It also has a built-in filter and divider allows nursery to hold 2 mothers.

 

[BWBettas]

I agree totally with Neale, after my first batch of swordtails got stunted, fair to say i never used a breeder trap/net ever again. Apart from seperating a female betta


Bret

 

[magafish18]

i dont rasie my fry in breeder box or nets i use a grow out tank