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What to breed in a 2ft tank?


Bettarazzi

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OK so I was flicking through the Aquarium Society of Victoria handbook the other day and I was reminded that both ASV and EDAS have these breeder badges that you can get once you have bred a certain number of species. I want one. I will probably lose interest after getting the first badge but I reckon I could get that first one within a reasonable period of time and without compromising my betta breeder program. Simply, in order to get the first breeder badge I have to breed (and prove it) 10 species of fish. Unfortunately I only have two species of fish in my fishroom at the moment – bettas and guppies (the guppies that bear an incredibly striking resemblance to endlers don't count *lol* ). The no-brainer selections I came up with are mollies and swordtails. That will take me up to 4 species so still need another 6. This is where I need your suggestions.

Here are the parameters that I have to work within:

- I’m only allocating one standard 2 foot tank (60 x 30 x 30 cm, 55 ltr/15 gal) to this project

- so I can only breed one species at a time: breed them, grow the fry (in the same tank), get rid of the lot

- the species would ideally be reasonably available to buy and easy to get a pair

- parents and offspring have to be able to live in the same tank for the whole time

- only simple breeding setups eg. a few floating plants, maybe some java fern or anubias, a flat rock, cave, little bit of gravel, that sort of thing

- no special water requirements, must be able to breed in Melbourne tap water

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I should add that the fish should be reasonably good looking seeing that I'm surrounded by pretty halfmoon bettas. The firetail gudgeons would get zero attention. *lol* The convicts will be a problem in terms of getting a pair. I'd have to get a small colony and pair them up and then get rid of the others. I suppose that would be ok if the LFS is likely to take them back.

I forgot about platies, so I guess that makes 5.

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Another vote for cories, very easy.

We have a breeding pair of convicts at work, I just collected about 50-100 fry earlier today lol..

Occies

(Dwarf) Gouramis

Apistogrammas

Neo. Brichardi

Do different species of bettas count?

Super bonus points for Clownfish or Bangaii Cardinals LOL

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Angels would be too big for a two foot, wouldn't they? And the parents won't always cooperate with raising the fry so if I had to move the fry or the parents I'd have to take up one of my betta tanks. I have bred angels before in a 2 foot but I had 4 tanks at my disposal so I could separate parents from fry, split the fry and actually had to split up the parents as they got a be aggressive towards each other. Plus I'd have to buy six or so then wait for them to pair up, then get rid of the others. I suppose it's still worth considering.

I had thought of cories but wasn't sure about the tank size. There are breeding colonies of cories for sale here in Melbourne. But I thought I'd need a 4 footer to house and breed them. And I've never bred them before. Also had a disaster a couple of years ago with a batch of panda cories that kept dying on me. So a little bit wary.

The dwarf cichlids are worth considering. Apart from kribs, what other ones can you get pairs relatively easily ie. from shops? Last time I looked at a tank of German rams, I couldn't tell sexes apart.

I've bred a fair number of killies before but I'm really not organised enough to stuff around with the annuals and changing peat over etc. I'm much more interested in the non-annuals and they're sooooooo hard to get a hold of that I've kinda given up trying.

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I've bred Cories in a 40lt tank, bronze seem to be the absolute dead easy ones but albinos aren't far behind. Peppered are my favourite larger cories though.

A 2ft is fine for a breeding pair of angels as long as they're good parents and don't need to separate the fry.

It can be hard to tell the Rams apart unless you know what you're actually looking at. There's so many hybrids (ballons x normal, blue ram x gold ram, long fin x short fin) so unless they're true germans it's not easy. Size/maturity has to do with it, too. Females should have a prominent vent/ovi spot similar to female bettas but much further back. Also a pinker belly. Males should be displaying to each other. Or just get a trio and leave them to their own devices. You can get gold rams, neon blue rams, blue rams, long fins (rare), short fins and balloon rams as far as I know. There may be more varieties out there.

Blue/Neon Blue/Gold rams, Bolvian rams, African Butterfly cichlids (often dull) and Apistos are most commonly avaliable dwarf cichlids aside from kribensis (nigerian reds are amazing!).

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I would go Rams, kribs and some of the dwarf apistos all fairly easy and should be able to pick them all up at a reasonable price unless looking for imports.

Should all be easy to sell of as breeding pairs once you have finished with them.

Ray

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I would have a hard time getting rid of them

I meant emotionally difficult to part with, not that it's hard to find people to sell them to. Just wanted to clarify that for the would be wild betta keepers out there. LOL

I am leaning strongly towards the dwarf cichlids. They have been on my wish list for a while now. I did have some Bolivian butterflies about 15 years ago but never managed to get them to spawn.

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Hi Razzi

Is this badge thing becouse you wher or wernt a boy scout? LOL I was got right into the badge thing WOW there was even fights over them.

first up what apart from ten species of fish bread is in the criteria for the badge?

second is two foot a criteia or what you have

do the fish have to be inseminated in your tank or can it happen elsware

you could nock over the guppys mollies and platies all in the one tank at the same time with breeding traps and rams down below thats four in one hit which should reduce you time for that badge

Cheers

Les

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I don't have the rules in front of me but the spawn has to be verified by another member and I'm pretty sure I read that both the parents and the fry have to be present. Not sure if there needs to be more than one inspection. I'll need to check that. Apart from that there aren't any other rules. The 2 foot tank is just what I'm willing to give up out of my betta breeding setup. Actually I'm not giving up anything. I don't actually have the tank yet nor anywhere to put it LOL. But I work best under pressure and it's pretty pointless going against my nature. So I'm going to just go shopping with only a very fuzzy idea about species and wing it from there. LOL. The mixing of species is a good idea as long as the apistos aren't bothered by the livebearers and vice versa.

Yes I was a boy scout. LOL

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We frequently have Apistos breeding in 10-20lt 'community' tanks.. They can get very aggressive and chase the other fish but I don't see it being much of a problem in a 2ft. In any case, you could just use those temporary plastic dividers and keep 4 different livebearers and 4 different types of apisto in a 2ft tank.

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4 apistos at once?? OMG you people are such a bad influence!! I LOVE that about you. LOL. Okay shopping spree on Saturday. Oh wait... need to pick up the tanks I won on eBay first.

Will need to look at the ready made tank dividers. If it will keep my guppy males away from the females then I think my guppy/endler breeding program just got a significant boost.

Getting very excited!! LOL

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Just had another read of the rules and it looks like I will need to redo even my betta and guppy spawnings in order for them to inspected at the appropriate age.

Breeders Achievement Award

The parent fish and fry must be inspected within two weeks of the fry free swimming.

A second inspection must be made after 60 days from hatching.

Inspection must be made by an accredited member of any aquarium society.

I better find out what "accredited member" means. I had a guppy/endler drop just about 10 days ago. Oh well, no biggie there's a drop every month. LOL

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Does the inspection have to be in person? I am sure you've posted photos up here while your betta fry were of appropriate ages. Sure there are plenty of "accredited" members of aquarium societies on here...

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I'm assuming in person. It's not such a problem. I'm overdue for another betta spawn. The hardest part will be deciding which ones to spawn and to refrain from spawning more than I can provide decent growing conditions to. But my fishkeeping is going to go from currently a bit over-the-top to completely crazy-loony-have-you-gone-off-your-medication. *lol*

Seriously will 4 apisto species in a divided tank actually work? Won't they be bothered by their neighbours? And remembering that the fry and their parents have to stay in the same tank for 60 days, isn't it going to get a bit overcrowded in there?

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Absolutely it will work! They sometimes get bothered by their neighbours but if anything it seems to encourage spawning. Unless you somehow find mostly solid dividers fry will eventually swim through and some will be lost through getting eaten, etc. You can always cull if it gets a bit much. ;) Or just do 2-3 pairs.

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