Controversial Idea

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The-Wolf

Ex-LFS manager/ keeper of over 30 danio species
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I'm toying with an idea that some of you may find controversial so I was wondering if

in a cycled tank, say my 42G, removing all current stock and adding 20-30
young CAEs with a plan on trying to create a spawning 'colony'.
I have no intention of raising any fry as just to getting them to spawn in captivity would be enough of a challenge.

I figure that in the wild they often encounter each other without too much fighting
(granted they are more restricted in escape routes in an aquarium),
and males must tolerate females in their territory, at least some of the time.

so do you think it could work, it will work or it is a disaster waiting to happen.

I'm not saying I will do this but I like to have options and this is one idea I've been considering for quite a while now.

feel free to speak your mind, I can take the bad as well as the good, but keep it clean and civil, ty.

I'd be interested particularly in the scientific argument(s) for/against,
bignose, nmonks etc feel free to add your comments
 
I'd say the numbers were a bit high, you'd want to consider that they're not small community fish and rehoming fry could be quite a difficulty. A dozen maybe, 20-30, possibly not.
 
How do they appear in the wild? Do they really tolerate others in their territory for anything other than breeding? that is the question to answer. Some fish (the fahaka puffer for one) are so aggressive that breeding is thought to be a one off when conditions are right and the rest of the time they are narcy to each other.
 
fishy
20-30 was just a number plucked from the ether, probably not the actual number I'll go for.

Andy
According to fishbase when keeping in an aquarium they do recommend groups of 5 or more,
which goes against what most people say. A lot of websites just seem to be repeating what
older websites have stated, which may or may not be the truth.

I can find no references to how many are seen in the wild at one time, no mention of 'school' size or anything along those lines.

Thinking back to working in the trade, I never encountered any problems in tanks full of CAEs but then again they were not there for long periods of time.

The more i think about trying this idea the more i want to do it, but only if it has some kind of beneficial knowledge for the hobby in general
 
I got several in a tank 25ft long and they still don't like meeting up much!!!!!.

Breeding is something i would love to see but i just have the feeling this is not going to happen in the home aquaria unless you start looking into hormone injecting the fish :angry:

Still I'll love to see what happens.
 

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