Celebes Rainbows Not Breeding

[Sparkle]

I'm having trouble with getting my Celebes Rainbow's to breed. I've searched the internet but information is limited.

Earlier this year I purchased 6 rainbow's. It was supposed to be 4 females, and 2 males. However, one of the females turned out to be an immature male. And, one of the females developed a tumour and I put her down (RIP). So now I have 2 females and 3 males.

During the middle of the day the males darken their colour and chase the poor females. I've not seen any eggs, except for Panda eggs on the glass. I've read that the rainbows eggs are supposed to be amber coloured and I've not seen any.

I've been trying to get another 4 females for the past 3 months, but have not been able to get them. I've an order at 3 different aquarium shops.

The tank is a large 270 litres (71 gallon). It is about 40% heavily planted. The rainbows tend swim around the open area. The rainbows don't appear to be bothered by the platys or the corydora's.

For food I provide flake, sinking tablets, vegetables, frozen bloodworms, frozen brine shrimp, and live worms that reside amongst the gravel.

My panda corydora's breed like crazy, and I've had some offspring from my female-only platy population.

Any suggestions? Could be the problem be the male/female ratio?


Current Tank Occupants:
5 Celebes rainbows (2 Females, 3 Males)
9 Platy's (All females)
13 Panda corydora's (4 to be sold when big enough)


Water stats:
No ammonia or nitrite
Low nitrate <5
PH 7.2
Temperature 24 C (75 F)

 

[Sparkle]

No replies, thats OK.

Celebes Rainbows are fairly rare, so I suppose not many people breed them.

 

[drobbyb]

No replies, thats OK.

Celebes Rainbows are fairly rare, so I suppose not many people breed them.

The eggs are clear and slightly amber in color. You probably won't see any eggs as they are very small and few in number. Blue eyes eggs are slightly larger than say Melanotaenia eggs. They could be breeding and you just are missing the actual act. Do the males display to the females?

 

[Colin_T]

Sorry this is the first time I have seen the post. If the males are displaying to the females and chasing them around, then chances are they have bred in the tank. However, because it is a community tank the other fishes are most likely eating the eggs or newly hatched fry. If you want to breed the fish and get some young from them, you will need to put the adults into a separate tank. A 2ft tank should be fine to use. Have a thin layer of gravel, some fine leaf plants like Java Moss, and a well established filter. Put the adults into the tank for a week and then remove them. They lay eggs each day for a while and the eggs take about a week to hatch. The fry can be reared up using liquid or powdered fry foods, or infusoria.

 

[drobbyb]

I breed bows. I feed my babies Vinegar eels and Hikari first bites as soon as they are born. After about a week to week and a half you can start feeding freshly hatched baby brine shrimp.