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?

Breeding Project: Cherry Shrimp

Okay, well the two pregnant Cherries finally hatched their shrimplets! But of course, I am super late with procrastinating on this update as they hatched about 2 weeks ago, on October 2 at about 4-5 am. It was quite exciting!!!

They were so miniscule when hatched and since have grown quite considerably! Interesting as I have yet to see the exoskeleton to prove that growth has been happening. Things seem fine for the young shrimplets as they are constantly foraging for food and I'm dropping pellets every so often.

Unfortunately, today one of the adult Cherry Shrimp died. I have no idea what happened, but probably me slacking with the water. With midterms a stone's throw away, I've become engulfed with my studies and have horribly forgotten about water parameters. I removed some water but then didn't add any fresh water for a while. Its not as bad as it sounds though as I only removed about 1/5 of the tank's water and they still had plenty of water. However, it didn't take me until today to add some more, so chemical levels probably rose. Maybe the shrimp died of natural causes? I'm always hoping for just that.

I'm aware that when shrimp pass, they often turn the characteristic orange because of the keratin, however, these guys explode into red after death! Such vibrant coloring! If only they were like that all the time while alive.. The other two still seem to be fine, but they were showing intense coloring as well so I really don't know if it was the suspected male who died or another female. Hopefully with the shrimplets, they'll learn to grow into adults and establish a viable breeding population.

Breeding Project: Cherry Barb
Breeding Project: Cherry Shrimp
Breeding Project: Java Fern
Breeding Project: Hornwort

So the hornwort have been sitting in a small tempo. tank since I didn't have the soils to begin propagation yet. Instead of just leaving it in water, I've been feeding it the water I collect during water changes since I figured there would be plenty of minerals and whatnot thanks to the fish. Of course, hornwort being the fast grower that it is, is slowly beginning to die off since there aren't enough nutrients in the water for it.

A lovely note that shouldn't be much of a surprise, I have snails. I am not very pleased and its pretty sad that I actually contracted them. But y'know, its kinda not unexpected either since hornwort has been known for years to be a carrier of pond snail eggs and there wouldn't have been a way for me to have cleaned it without stripping the poor plant of all it's leaves. Whatever. Good thing the hornwort was planned to be in it's own propagation tank anyway. Not to mention, the snails will be able to eat the leaves that have fallen and are decaying so it'll help. I figure the snails should be self-sustaining in that aspect and shouldn't explode into a billion unless they begin eating the hornwort. I figure, I'll give it a good rinse perhaps before I "export" any of the plant, but the goldfish would probably swallow the snails whole anyway.

So I returned to the big city I call home during the weekend and of course, stopped at a Big Al's before making the migration back up to school town. I haven't been to a Big Al's in FOREVER, let alone that EXACT location either! So you can imagine how estatic I was! So many gorgeous fish of all varieties and with the utmost high quality. Picked me up a beautiful java fern, whose size is twice (if not thrice) of that of PetsMart and lower in price too! Not to mention it had a LOT of daughter plants growing on it too, so faster propagation should be available from it very shortly. Hopefully before I'm able to set up the propagation tank for the java fern so that I can plant the daughters alongside the mother plant.

With the java fern, I also purchased myself some Red Cherry Shrimp. Of course, they're not of the supremely high quality with the bright red coloration. Instead, I find they are more similar to the wild end of the spectrum as they have a low red coloration, but its still present nonetheless. I only bought 3 as they came in a bundle like that, but I was scared the 4 hour drive would stress them out too much and that they'd die. Lucky for me, they all survived the trip and the acclimatizing and are happily settled in their temporary tank!

I am thinking of moving them into the 5 gallon breeder temporarily until the propagation tanks set up and move them back in there once water parameters have stabilized. I've thrown in half of the java moss collection I have with me with the extremely few surviving pieces of najas and two small things of hornwort to help battle nutrient levels. Originally I only had the najas and java moss in there since I knew they harbored delicious morsels of food for the lil buggers. I later added some cleaned hornwort because I was scared I'd have random spikes and figured the hornwort would better stabilize and prevent that from happening inbetween water changes.

Seeing as how this is the first time I've actually owned Cherry Shrimp, I'm still quite inexperienced with them and can't sex them on sight as well yet. I know I have two females for sure, but I can't help but think the guy got me a third female when I know I pointed at a male. All these random factors are floating in my head and I think it may be a male afterall, but we'll have to see when they really settle in. I know I have two females though seeing as how they have BERRIED!!! Thus, the great anxiety I have for them since I didn't want either of the ladies to drop or die.. but they've still got their brood so I'm excited at the prospect of a booming population!

Here's to hoping that things will go well!! I've decided to close Breeding Project: Cherry Barb, however. Why? Well its quite the sad story. I knew I shouldn't have been so rushy, but sometimes I can't help myself and I work faster than I think. So I did a water change like usual, splitting the water to set up the tempo. hornwort tank and mixing fresh water into both setups. Then, feeling that Mr. Cherry would be cramped since there was quite a lot of java moss at the time, I took him out and moved him into the hornwort tank since there was a lot more room for him. I should've waited another day to do this since I'm sure doing a water change still brings on some stress for the guy let alone introducing him into a new tank!

If that wasn't enough, I placed it on my desk and left for school the next day. Now, my room has one giant window which faces west - meaning when the sun begins to set, I get a surplus of very strong lighting. It often raises the temperature of my room by a couple degrees thanks to the mighty power of the sun's rays. Strong lighting in a fresh tank, I'm sure these factors weren't kind to stressed Mr. Cherry. He succumbed to a type of fungal rot I think, or it could have been a form of velvet. I was kinda sad when he made the passing, so I'll be leaving the Cherry Barbs for now even though I saw a sale at Big Al's for a pair being quite cheap, but naw.

On a better note, the three successors are growing nice and strong. I am almost sure now that I have 2 boys and 1 girl thanks to coloring as well as behaviour. Lots of fin flaring, trailing of the suspected sister, and brotherly chasing all are telltale signs that I believe I have what I have. If that's the case, it may still work though since I can always pick up a lone female (afterall, I was planning on doing that in the first place with the father) and breed her with either of the two brothers. That way, I can grow a school of them and perhaps put them in the 20 gallon with a corral of Cherry Shrimp too. :)

Nothing like a school of Cherry Barbs and an army of Cherry Shrimp to dominate a tank of greens! Hopefully it'll produce a stunning color contrast as I'm planning on using a black gravel substrate! Oh, and I picked up the necessary soils I require to begin the propagation tanks! I believe tank set-ups and changes will be made accordingly over the span of this week.

Breeding Project: Hornwort
Breeding Project: Cherry Barb

Okay! So its been 9 months exactly (freaky! I didn't even plan for it like this!) since I've last posted. Some major updates: my female Cherry Barb has gone, presumedly from high stress levels or breeding pressures by the male, actually I don't really remember. The male Blue Ram ended up developing pop eye unfortunately and the female passed the day after I returned home from school. Guess the move was too much for her, poor gal!

Now if you're an aquarist, you would probably know that Hornwort is a plant and therefore, wouldn't technically qualify under a "breeding project" because not many people try to flower their plants so that they could pollenate and seed. Plant "breeding" is called propagation, but I don't really want to call it a "propagation project" so it'll just have to be a breeding project! Now, Hornwort is an incredibly easy plant to grow let alone trying to propagate it. However, I've selected this plant as a tester to test out a new method I've discovered on plant growing.

The Hornwort also serves a double purpose; my aunt has a pair of goldfish that she regularly feeds live plants to. Something about them having a better shine.. so anyway, I used to give her my Najas clippings but then I left for school and my parents decided to give her some without my consent. Well, they gave her a bit too much and not just as a clipping... now my Najas stock has seriously been damaged and quality has run amuck! This is where the Hornwort propagation comes in. She used to buy Hornwort after I exploded in fury after discovering an ugly Endler tank but it gets quite expensive after a while with the constant purchases. I figure, since she's such an awesome aunt and the Najas thing was so long ago, to grow hordes of Hornwort and gift it to her!

Now, I've bought the Hornwort but have yet to assemble the rest of the propagation tank. Here's to hoping that all becomes successful! I hope so as I now have a brand-spankingly new 20 gallon that will need to be filled with lush and gorgeous plants! So far, I'm thinking about adding Java Ferns as the main plant with a small thing of Java Moss and perhaps a small collection of Najas.. if the Hornwort grow beautifully, I might consider adding them to the tank as well! May be the ugliest tank in the world, but I'm no aquascaper!

So an update for the Cherry Barbs! Thanks to a busy school life, hectic exam schedule, funeral trip, moving stress, and summer neglect (well not 100% neglect!) I'm left with 3 surviving younglings. I know its my fault for not being able to be a better aquarist and keeping the mortality rate low.. but the three survivors are about 2-2.5 cm long and are developing very well! They have a similar bronzey coloring like that of their mother, however, two of them seem to be different than the one. Somehow, they almost give me the impression that they will mature into boys. Something about a slight darker coloration, especially in the tail fin.. but I suppose we'll have to see with time! Maybe I'll take some updated pictures and post them!

Speaking of the younglings, I am planning on doing another Cherry Barb breeding, but this year with a higher yield of young. I am not too happy with the way things turned out, albeit the first time and all. I would just rather a much higher survival rate, just to boost that breeder's profile. Nothing says success as the results of your breeding attempts! I would like to set things up as soon as possible, but its very dependent on when I can finish setting up the desk I have here so that I'll have room to set up the breeding tank.

I've been debating about setting up marbles on the bottom or just supplying a plethora of flora to decrease egg predation. Guess I still have a little while before I make my decision.. I'll purchase a female when the tanks are set up so that I don't stress her out by not knowing where to place her! I figure I would be able to stick the school of Cherry Barbs in the 20 gallon 'social tank' (as I call it) when they grow up.

I suppose that's all I have to say for now.. hopefully this blog isn't so darn long! I have such a terrible tendency to produce long, boring blogs. Talk about verbal diarrhea! I think I'll make adjustments where I see fit - or if I have any suggestive inputs (which will probably never happen seeing as how nobody reads this thing anyway! :D)

Breeding Project: German Blue Ram

Oops! Forgot to make a log entry the other day that is very crucial to the breeding project. On the same day that I made the log entry of the peculiar behaviour, on December 4th, a medium-sized batch of eggs was noted on the heavily cleaned area of the two. It was very exciting and quite surprising to see the fish being able to spawn without a lengthy conditioning period.

It was quite exciting to see the pair react the way they did, however, interesting behaviours were noted. Although it was my first time witnessing the egg-laying and fertilization of this species, there were still some things they did that caught my attention. First off, the female didn't seem to want the male to fertilize her eggs. A lot of harsh pecking was noted when the male went in every-so-often to release his sperm to fertilize the eggs with when she went in and out of the spawning site.

Already I had questions about the fertilization of the entire spawn of eggs. After a lengthy session of egg-laying and furious pecking at the male, the female began to wander the tank more and more often with the male following closely behind her (speculating that he would guard her from any other males who would want to mate with her). Once she had finished her job of egg-laying, she would periodically dart about, sometimes causing a wave of water to dislodge and brush out a couple of the eggs. She did not do a very good job at retrieval and re-placing the eggs within the spawning site.

The father, however, showed some promise as I observed him a couple times grabbing the eggs that had dislodged and placing them back within the nesting site. He began fanning overtop the eggs to allow for good aeration of the eggs and became quite protective of the spawn, slowly beginning to peck at and chase off the female from the area. I decided he might have wanted her to patrol the area more than to take parental duties of the young.

The next day, I observed a lot of pecking from the male, forcing the female to hide behind the bubble filter to avoid being seen and pecked at. I decided for her health and safety to remove her, so I placed her in a temporary 1.2 gallon desktop tank. He seemed to have concentrated more upon guarding the eggs now and showed strong aggressive guarding behaviours as demonstrated by his attacks to objects moving in close to the nesting site - such as my camera or finger on the other side of the tank.

A worrisome thought occurred to me that made me rechange my initial impression that he may become a great father. Although it is common for a few if not a couple eggs to turn white because they are infertile, German Blue Rams will often remove these from the nest as to prevent fungus which may spread to the healthy eggs. When he did not perform this function, I began to worry a bit but shrugged it off in the hopes that he would remove them at a later time.

I had been gone all day the next day, and when I returned in the evening, found the devastation to the spawn. 95% of the eggs that had originally been laid were gone, presumably consumed by the father. The remaining eggs that weren't eaten yet had fungused up. This didn't last long as the father soon made short work of them after I had returned home. It was quite disappointing to see this potentially great spawn turn to naught. However, I understand that many first-time parents are not the best at it and often eat the entire spawn so I am hoping for more spawns to occur through (hopefully with a 10 gallon by then!).

Other methods I am going to try is to see how much longer I can leave the female in the tank for. Maybe they will learn to work together and if he doesn't eat the fungused eggs, that she could possibly do so. Another method to try would be to remove the male (after the female) once I notice he is not doing his job as well and then remove any of the fungused eggs manually myself. Either way, I hope to someday see them become the great parents that I know they are.