Breeding Project: Cherry Barb

As you may have noticed, the font has changed for my spawn blogs. This is because blogspot is being stupid and the font and color changes don't fully register and I've officially become too lazy to write the html for it myself, as I've been doing for the past couple of entries.

Anyway, 2 days after Cherry Barb sexy time, I finally removed the pair today. This was because after the first day, I wasn't sure if they had bred or not. The female definitely looked more thin on the second day than the first, however, I'm pretty sure they still bred on the first day. When I woke up, I found the female wedged under a large marble, clear hints that she was attempting to get at the eggs.

In retrospect, 1 day is often enough and for future references, keep the pair in there for only one day max! Egg yield was awfully low - about 5 eggs, more or less. More marbles need to be added as well! Just one layer is simply not enough as there are pockets where the barbs are able to wedge in between and pick at the eggs. While it is recommended for at least 3 layers, the 2 I plan on having should suffice. This means I need at least 200 more marbles.. Also, for the next spawning I will not use as much java moss. For this time, I left all of the java moss that was in there previously and that may have influenced egg survival as well. While the eggs are not completely adhesive, they are slightly sticky and I'm sure a fair share clung to the java moss to which the parents were happily lingering around. For the next time, I am only going to add a very small layer of najas instead.

While I wouldn't exactly call this attempt a pure success, I intend on trying in another week or so. This time, I will implement my solutions to the problems I faced during this time in the hopes that a much higher and more successful yield will occur. As for the few eggs I have now, they shall be left to their own devices. If the eggs are unfortunate enough to fungus, then that will be sad. However, if they hatch, then that will be good! I will attempt to feed them if I can find them but I do not have high hopes.

Breeding Project: Cherry Barb

It has been a week. A long, grueling week full of work and exhaustion, but finally! Tonight's the night things will finally commence.

I suspect that my filter for the 5 gallon hex wasn't fully cycled (which I don't blame from all the constant moving and whatnot), which caused havoc and death upon a number of my fish. One of these fish unfortunately happened to my male Cherry Barb. So on Tuesday I made that daunting voyage to PetsMart to pick up a lone male. As luck would have it, I much like this male a lot more than the previous male. He may not be as large as the other male, but patterning and coloring are a lot better than the last one.

Two subsequent visits to the 5 gallon breeder in a bag happened on Tuesday and Thursday. Hopefully the enticing worked, though both the male and the female seemed to be very receptive on both occasions. A feeding of bloodworms occurred throughout the week as was water changes every couple of days (though I took some out daily anyway).

Yesterday, I took out all the java moss, the four Cherry Shrimp, and lone male Ram and gave the tank a good scrubbing to remove all the algae. Playing around with my various filters, I made the tank seem like it was new all over again without removing any of the water. I also did a 50% water change and squeezed out the sponge filter (to help out a new aquarist), hopefully there's still bacteria on the sponge media. Today, I added in the marbles. 325 marbles later the breeding tank is primed for function. I added 5 large marbles in for fun. :)

Tonight, before I go to bed, I will place the male and female together. This should give them some time to cozy up together before the first light of tomorrow. The female, while looking as though she's holding eggs, is not as plump as I'd like her to be. Regardless, I'm sure she still has a good set of eggs on her and hope everything goes smoothly.

Breeding Project: Cherry Barb

So! Its been a while since I've last visited or added to this page. Seems about that time once again.

Moved into a new place with more space, and with that gained 3 tanks and a number of small temporary container setups. Increased species count on fish (+5), invertebrates (+2), and plants (+6).

Anyway, I'm once again more involved with my aquaria with a renewed passion for breeding and thus, will be more dedicated in the next coming months.

While the new tanks are established, lots of work will need to be done on all of these. However, time is precious in terms of growth so I must utilize as much of it as possible. In the next week, I will be conditioning the breeding pair and prepare the 5 gallon breeder for it's latest task. A new pair of Cherry Barbs have been purchased from Big Al's, however, I will not be using this pair to breed with. Instead, I will be using the last Cherry Barb (a female) from my original brood as she seems to be full of eggs already and more than ready to reproduce.

As I am typing this, I've already commenced enticement. I've bagged the male and placed him in the breeder tank where the female is currently residing. Visual contact is always a very powerful stimulus, but I will be exchanging water from the tank and the bag shortly after. This is because I speculate that the two individuals are releasing chemicals into the water to advertise their breeding potential.

Much work is needed since I need to give the 5 G a good cleaning and will be going out to purchase more marbles for the tank. Removal of the other inhabitants will also occur, but the question becomes where to put them. I have once again obtained a culture of Microworms which I am trying to propagate. However, I am running into difficulties.. already having to throw one out due to it's virality. Much work will be needed to ensure proper culturing although I fear my efforts are wasting. The starter culture is already becoming inviable with the two additional cultures I made beginning to struggle.

We shall see what happens in the coming week. I also need to begin focusing more into school. All this work, is it really worth it?