Breeding?

[Rachel]

Hi, in a few weeks time my tank is going to be delivered. The fish i am having in it are:
Catfish x 2
Mollies x 4
Discus x 2
Angelfish x 2
Guppies x 4
Red tailed black shark x 1
Neons x 6
I am confident that all these fish will be fine together, the catfish and the red tailed black shark are both fine with the other fish and i am really excited about it all being set up, however, i dont know much about breeding!!
The only thing i am concerned about are if several fish spawn at the same time and then i am worried i wont know which eggs are with which fish and which do i take out or leave in or will the angelfish eat theirs.... very worried!
Please can someone help me!!
Rachel

 

[Lateral Line]

Sorry, but that sounds like a disaster waiting to happen! Believe me, breeding is the least of your worries.

First, a tank must be cycled. For that you can do a fishless cycle, or with fish, but if you cycle with fish you'll need tough ones - several of the species you list will simply not survive.

Catfish - you dont say what kind, most are predatory and will regard neons and guppies as food.

Mollies, pretty tough, fiar enough.

Discus, are very sensitive to water chemistry, like it warmer than most other fish, and are VERY easily upset by excessive activity in their tank. In nature they eat neons and so forth.

Angels, to delicate for cycling, will eat neons for breakfast.

Guppies, okay.

RTBS, not for cycling, and not ideal, but benefit of the doubt.

Neons, sensitive to poor water.

So we're left with guppies and mollies.

 

[Rachel]

Do you not think the fish will be ok together? I have had loads of people say they will be fine and loads say they wont, your opinion would really help.

 

[Lateral Line]

>>> think the fish will be ok together?

No, I don't, see above. The cycling is the first priority though - how do you propose to cycle your new tank?

 

[Rachel]

A filter

 

[Lateral Line]

Well, yes, a filter, but a tank/filter system has to be cycled before it is of any use. Have a read through this!!!

 

[MAM]

just putting a filter in and water DOES NOT cycle your tank. go to the beginner section adn read the pinned article on new tank syndrome by alien anna. she has some links in it about how to properly cycle a new tank

 

[Rachel]

Yea, well i dont know much about setting up the tank obviously, but the man thats making it is setting it up and he will tell me everything about the tank thankyou. He has told me the fish will be fine together, obviously it is the type of catfish that are ok with other community fish. I only need to know about breeding for now, All the basic information on the tank and the filter etc he will explain to me.

 

[Lateral Line]

Well, I hope your man knows what he is doing, otherwise there's going to be a lot of dead fish. Sorry - but that is the way it reads.

Mollies and Guppys have live young - no eggs to worry about. The cats, RTBS, neons, will not breed in a community tank. If the discus survive the water, they won't breed in a community tank. The only egglayer you have there that could possibly breed is the angels, but you'd need an adult sexed pair, and it'll be pretty obvious in the unlikely event they spawn.

 

[Rachel]

Why are you being so rude?
I dont know much about this and i am trying to do the best i can by listening to only one person otherwise i will have 50million different opinions. Maybe i should just ask him instead of asking people on here, you make it sound like you cant be bothered helping me just because im a beginner

 

[MAM]

we ARE trying to help you. you have to understand that quite often people at the lfs who are selling you this tank and fish don't always ahve the customer's or the fishes best interests in mind (granted, some places are great and will up front with you about all the things you need to do to get a tank up and runnig the correct way) but more often, they just want your money, and if the fish die on you, to them, thats great, means they can get more money off you for new fish, just telling it like it is. we're just trying to let youknow this so you won't be dissappointed down the road.
also, lateral DID answer you breeding concerns..........................

 

[Lateral Line]

>>> Why are you being so rude?

Who is being rude?!

I was offering you sensible advice - if you choose not to accept it - well, that's up to you really isn't it?

Tell any of the other experience aquarists here what you are planning to put in your brand new tank - you'll get very similar answers.

 

[Lithril]

I'm totally with the others Rachel, you're gonna lose a lot of fish if you don't listen the person supplying the tank sounds like they're more after your money than anything else.

 

[fisherman9844]

Rachel, you'll find a lot of very knowlegable folks on these boards that are passionate, not rude. Our assumption is that you bought your tank, set it all up, maybe waited a day or so for the water to warm up, and added your fish. You took the advice of the folks at your LFS and assumed that it would be good advice. Unfortunately, as has already been noted, that is often not the case.

Your tank, every tank, has to be cycled in order to establish the biological filter (good bacteria) that convert the ammonia introduced by fish waste, excess food, etc to nitrItes. Then other good bacteria convert the nitrItes to nitrAtes. Ammonia is extremely toxic to fish as are nitrItes. NitrAtes are also toxic in high concentrations (> 40 ppm) but but safe in lower concentrations.

New tank syndrome refers to fish dying as the result of being added to an uncycled tank, or adding too many fish to a cycled tank that does not have a biological filter large enough to support that many fish. The reason is simple enough, the bio filter grows to support the amount of ammonia/nitrItes available. So...small number of fish = small bio filter. Introducing too many fish too quickly does not give the bio filter time to compensate and the fish die from ammonia and/or nitrIte poisoning.

Believe me, you are hardly the first (and unfortunately will not be the last) to fall victim to bad advice. What's even worse is that if our assessment of your situation is correct, you will likely experience some fish deaths in the near future. Many, many new aquarists experience the same thing, get discouraged, and give up the hobby thinking that fishkeeping is just too hard or complicated. Nothing could be further from the truth. You just need a little knowlege to get you started in this terrifically interesting and exciting hobby. Bottom line, listen to the experienced folks on this and other fish forums. They are by far the best resource you could possibly have. Think about it, you have access to the experiences of not only one or two people, but hundreds. Read as much as you can, especially the sites you'll be referred to by experienced aquarists. Be patient and expect to make some mistakes - we're all students of this fishkeeping business. Your persistence and willingness to learn will be richly rewarded.

Good luck and do keep us posted on your progress. Keep asking questions. You'll keep getting answers. B)

 

[yhbae]

Rachel,

These guys knows what they are talking about...

I was a total newbie in aquarium hobby 4 months ago, and went through the same debates at that time - getting different advices from LFS vs the forums like this one. In my case, I decided to follow the forum advices, and I have yet to loose any fish due to any human mistakes. (Well, lost one but at least I know the exact reason why I lost it). In fact, my confidence grew during the past two months to the point where I changed my tank plan and started adding more sensitive fishes. Despite this, all fishes are healthy and I am confident that they will continue to do so...

During the past few months, I was "testing" the advices from the LFS by playing stupid to see what their responses are, and in just about all cases, they clearly know less than what you can pick up in these forums in few months... Just looking at the fact that two different LFS sales people giving me two different advices on the same topics says alot! You will eventually notice that most of the sales people simply don't care as much about your fishes as the people who exchange messages here...

Simple example:
- Me: Eh, you have two types of algae eaters here. Which do you recomend? (They had oto and false SAE, which they don't realize they do)
- LFS: What types of algae do you have?
- MS: Both brown and green. Some hair algae as well.
- LFS: Buy three of each. (Notice, they didn't even ask my tank size!)
- Me: Ok. I'll try out just one of them first. (Walked out with 3 Otos only).

You won't regret it by following the advices from these forums...

(message from a newbie to a newbie... )