Dwarf Neon Rainbowfish - Breeding?

mark4785 · Feb 14, 2011

I currently have a 60 litre aquarium set up has a quarantine aquarium for a pair of DNR and a German Blue Ram (GBR). Two days after placing the DNR in there they have started chasing each other and rubbing up against each other. Now the female seems to be taking an interest in going in and out of the synthetic plants in there as though she is depositing eggs.

So, if I was to presume they are breeding, what do I do to take care of the eggs and then what do I need to do to take care of fry?

Unfortunately, I might not be able to keep all of the fry so where would be a good place to sell them to?

Thanks,

Mark.

mark4785 · Feb 14, 2011

bump.

myrtle · Feb 14, 2011

You can do any one of 3 things.
1. Leave them and the adults will eat them
2. Remove the synthetic plant and gently remove the eggs and place them in a breeding net or separate hatching tank
3. Look on the Killifish section for instructions on how to make a breeding mop or use a clump of moss. Place this in their tank and they will spawn on this instead of a synthetic plant (at least they should lol). You can then remove this and place it in the hatching container.

For the fry you'll need small food such as vinegar eels, microworms or a prepared fry food (I'm using ZM fry food, but you can use Hikari first bites if necessary) until they can take baby brine shrimp.

There's a fair bit of info in my thread in the Cyprininds, Characins and Loaches forum regarding breeding my Celebes Rainbows.
I've not bred my Neons yet so this is only generalised info. As for selling them, your lfs may want them or a local aquarists club auction?

mark4785 · Feb 15, 2011

Thanks for the reply.

You can then remove this and place it in the hatching container.

Sorry, what is an hatching container?

Also what is the reason for suggesting swapping the synthetic plants with moss etc? The fish in the 60 litre aquarium are in a non-planted quarantine aquarium.

myrtle · Feb 15, 2011

The hatching container is anything watertight that you can put the eggs in while they hatch otherwise the parent fish will eat them. Personally I use an old ice-cream tub floated in a water bath set to the required temperature. You can either run an airstone in the hatching container or put some anti fungal liquid in, either works to prevent fungusing. Once hatched the fry can be moved to the fry tank. The water for the hatching container should ideally be from the tank they were laid in and you don't need much. Hopefully someone who has bred these will be along with some advice!

The reason I suggested putting a mop or moss in the tank for them to spawn on was simply to make it easier for you to remove the eggs instead of removing the entire plant. They may also prefer to spawn on this.