Breeding Rainbow Madagascar

[smmetz]

Hi, I used to have 5-6 rainbow madagascar, but over the course of a couple years, I am down to 2. I have had these last two for several months, and it is hard to find more of them around here, to get them back up to a proper sized group.

Anyway, based on my research, I believe I have 1 male and 1 female. I noticed they are a "threatened species" and thought it might be nice to breed them. The tank also has a couple other fish in it, that really should be in schools also, but that I do not wish to keep anymore. It has a platty (I have a tank of 10 females, but keep this male seperate so they dont constantly breed), a neon tetra, and a zebra danio. I used to have a school of neons and zebra danio, but over a couple years, NTD took its toll on my neons, and I don't konw what got my danios 1 by 1 over a year or so.

My question is, if I put a "spawn mop" in the tank and look out for eggs on it, do you think the other fish, especially the platy, would eat any eggs before I notice them?

If I do breed them, I will start the fry off in my spare 10 gallon.

Also, do you think adult (3-4 inch) rainbow madagascar could be OK in a 55 gallon with 5 blue / gold grouami - the 3 spot kind? If not, I'll keep them in my 29 for now. I have not tried it because when I got my first blue gourami, I put it in a 20 gallon with a bunch of platty, and it killed a couple of them.

Also, would you recommend I just give the spare fish to a lfs, if they will take them? I do feel badly that my once school sized groups of neons and danio are down to 1 each. The male platy - I can put him in my 20 gallon with 10 female, but then I will have all kinds of babies again.


Anyway, thanks for the advice!

My tanks are in my profile, if you have any questions about that. Disclaimer - I know the pleco in my 55 needs a 6 ft tank, I am looking for one, then everyone can get bumped up 1 tank size.

 

[BigC]

To be perfectly honest I would use the 10 gallon for spawning and rearing, actually I found rainbowfish breeding and rearing almost like killifish, obviously the water stats are different.
Have the tank bare except for the spawning mops a heater and an airdriven sponge filter. Use water from the main tank gradually topping up so as not to distress the fish with water quality differences. Get the water to as near to their ideal spawning stats. You may be able to spawn them in any old water but for repeated sucess, egg yeald and viability of the eggs then proper water parms need to be achieved. (slowly) Ideally I would suggest to condition the female seperatly on a mix of live, frozen and dry foods. Then slowly acclimatize the male and re-introduce him to the female. I would collect the eggs from the mops on a daily basis and place in a margarine tub, floated in the parent tank. Discard any fungussed eggs daily with an eyedropper. I dont use any anti fungus gunk in egg tubs. but do waterchanges daily.
I have never bred Madagascian's but have bred many other species from Papua New Guinea and Australia. So I cannot comment on both the size of fry and fry feeding but looking at adult size I would guess the eggs and resulting fry would be quite large. Therefore newly hatched brineshrimp and microworms would naturally be their first foods.
Regards
BigC