Breeding Firemouths Project

[AdAndrews]

I am planning on getting the fluval roma 125, 33 US Gallons. i have been thinking about firemouths, and realise that i could breed them..

what i want to know is how hard is it for them to breed?- i have never had sucess with any of my fish breeding, would you recomend i spend a few months getting a grip with guppies first? and do you have to have any particular things for them to breed, my ph is abut 7.6 7.8 not sure about hardness??

plus could i keep anything else with them? maybe a pair of breeding sulawesi snails or a pair of breeding plecs?

so basically i want to breed fish, i have my rekord60 that i could clear out for the fry, just need info about it, however im not sure if the rekord is too big so i should use that for say puffers, and then get a small 45litre tank second hand?


please advise

 

[simonas]

I keep a few firemouths and am waiting for a pair to form, one thing I know is the fireouths in the shops are a shadow of how they should be they havbe been that commercially bred. If youever see a full grown firemouth you realise why

I've got one decent and obvious male who is gorgeous just waiting for a female to come to the fore!!

good luck

 

[minxfishy]

To get a pair, you would need to get a minimum of say 6 young FM's and allow them to pair off naturally, then re-home 4 as a 33g is only large enough for one pair. They are very aggressive fish naturally and once paired up and breeding, even more so, so you couldnt keep anything else in with them.

They would look after the fry themselves, although once they reach a certain stage you would need to remove the fry before the parents spawn again.

To be honest, if you have problem breeding guppies, I wouldnt recommend trying cichlids, but if you do, read, read and read some more before trying, your ph is a little high for breeding, but FM's are easier to try to breed, then say rams I would guess who do require their water much softer to breed.

Also, FM's arent hard to come by and therefore re-homing/selling them on wont be that easy, be prepared to give them away to and LFS, not actually make any money from them.

 

[AdAndrews]

ok, this was the plan to get a few and then wait until a pair formed.... what i mean by guppies is that i have had like 4 at any one time, and they didnt breed, probably due to poor water quality that i have now corrected... shall i start breeding something easier before moving onto these then?- what do you suggest?

and could i keep anything else with them while the pair were breeding, ie a pair of breeding plecs, or sulawesi snails?? or maybe just a single plec or single sulawesi snail???

is there anyway that i could neutralise my ph to make it more suitable?

what kind of decor would be needed for the firemouth pair?

and up until what age would you then get rid of the fry?

 

[minxfishy]

Convicts would be the easiest cichlid to breed, again hard to get rid of the babies though.

You couldnt keep anything with them whilst breeding, they would terrorise another fish and snails are toys as far as cichlids go.

RO water mix to lower the ph but probably not necessary for the hardier cichild species.

Rocks, caves, fake plants, small gravel or sand substrate or just leave it bare.

Fry would need to re-homed once they reach about 0.5-1", eating properly and before parents breed again or they would be seen as a threat to the new fry.

 

[AdAndrews]

ok thanks, i have read that the firemouths can breed in anything from 6.6 to 8.2 ph is this correct?- is it neccesary to do this or as long as i keep good water quality should it be fine?

shall i try my hand at live bearers first?

 

[minxfishy]

Stable ph is always better, whether for breeding or not, never having tried to breed FM's, I couldnt say for certain the 'optimum' ph, like I said, read up a lot before trying, being easy to get hold of fish, I doubt they are particularly picky.

You can do LB's if you want to, maybe try some of the rarer LB species if you want to make something from them. Guppies, platies, mollies are all easy to breed and hard to re-home because they are plentiful.

How about trying to breed corydoras instead? Fairly easy to do and easier to re-home.

 

[AdAndrews]

ok thanks, to be honest i havnt ever tried to breed anything, i will list the fish that could have bred but didnt:

5 sunset platies- although at a time of poor water quality and many deaths- early days
4 guppies- still quite bad water quality, this is abut 2 months down the line
1 male 1 female bosemani- he chases her all the time but nothing!!
2 otto's- unsexable


but none have bred, i will look at a bit more profiles, and see, if i wanted to breed though with corys or lb's then i would have to clear out my jewel rekord60 wouldnt i?

it currently contains:

1 platy
2 guppies
2 boesmani rainbows
1 otto- may be re homed soon in dwarf puffer tank
1 young bn plec
2 harlequins

im not really a fan of catfish, i dont see the attraction really, i want more exciting fish, that have something intresting about them, a good character, etc.. this is why i am starting to move onto the things like dwarf puffers, and cichlids

 

[minxfishy]

Ok, well without trying to annoy you, those boesemani need to be moved from the 60L and also need to be in a group of 6 minimum, my opinion being they should be in a 55g minimum, they can reach 5" and are not happy in small groups.

As for the other attemps, bad water quality would have hindered the breeding, so maybe now you have those issues sorted out, try upping the number of the fish you have (cept the boesemani) and put them in the larger tank and let nature take its course, then you have the 60L to grow out the fry.

 

[AdAndrews]

ok, i know about the rainbow, but the male is wicked, the colours are stunning,

really if i was going to start breeding some lb's first i wouldnt get the 33gal until i wanted to move onto firemouths... so it would have to be the rekord 60 where they were, so if i put the otto in my dp tank, re-home the rainbows(unsure how as they are really fast) and the harlequins as there is only 2, and then get some guppies/platies?

maybe about 6?

 

[minxfishy]

Be careful putting the otto in with the DP's, although usually ok, they may kill it, usually the ottos should be in the tank 1st before adding DP's. You could leave it in the 60 it wont harm any fry.

Rainbows are easy to catch, least I have no problems catching mine and they have way more room to swim than yours do. Two nets is usually the easiest way. Return them to the LFS or put an add up here for rehoming.

Stick with one species, either platies or guppies, overcrowding is a reason for them not to breed.

 

[AdAndrews]

ok thanks for your help... on the dp note, i was planning to get some shrimp, about 8, but will he just kill them now he is in the tank first. will it work if i stick him in a bucket, put the shrimp in at the same time as a few plants to rearrange things, and then stick him back in?

 

[minxfishy]

I wouldnt add shrimp to a DP tank, they dont stand much chance tbh.

 

[AdAndrews]

Anyone else got any advice about keeping and breeding firemouths?