It’s a wonder to see your favorite fish mate, produce fry, and raise the fry to maturity. It’s the circle of life and a miracle of nature. Breeding pet fish in an aquarium is a little different than it is out in the wild. It requires careful preparations and monitoring; it takes a little more care than just keeping a female and male together and hoping for the best results.
Whether you just want the feeling of accomplishment of having more fish than you started out with, or want to sell some extra fish for profit to support your hobby, these are the things you’ll need to look out for.
To start with, it’s recommended you do adequate research on the living conditions and specific mating habits of the fish you want to propagate. You need to first select a healthy parent fish for each sex and carefully engineer critical aquarium conditions such as:
- Water temperature
- Lighting
- pH levels
- surrounding flora
All these conditions influence your fish’s breeding habits and are critical to breeding success. They need to be tailored to your exact type of fish though, so we won’t discuss them in detail in this article.
Select The Fish
When breeding fish, the first step is to pick out healthy adults for each sex. Determining the biological sex of fish tends to be trickier than other animals where you just have to look for differences in their genitalia. In fish, we look at their traits in most cases, such as the shapes of their bodies, gills, and colorations.
- Ensure that you breed fish of the same species. Different species may reproduce, but the resulting hybrids can either be sterile, deformed, or feeble.
- Don’t choose fish that are injured, deformed, or appear sick because they will not be in an excellent position to produce healthy offspring.
- You can consider taking your fish to an expert (breeding specialist or aquatic veterinarian) for examination if you’re stuck in differentiating the sex of the fish.
After selection, place the parent fish in the spawning tank. A separate tank boosts the mating mood, and the fish are more likely to copulate than when in a colony of non-mating fish in an aquarium. This also allows you to change the fish tank’s conditions without affecting other fish that may be in the same environment.
However, the spawning tank conditions need to be almost the same as in the old tank. Any adjustments need to be made slowly but frequently to get the fish accustomed to their new environment.
Also, consider conditioning the fish to make them more robust. It’s essential to feed the parent fish a high protein and nutrient-rich diet while encouraging them to mate. Good nutrition increases their fertility and helps them flourish. It’s also important to remember that healthier parents produce healthy babies.
Most average-sized species prefer a live diet of brine shrimp, daphnia, or white worms. Conditioning the fish for about two weeks before they start mating is highly encouraged. Consider learning about the natural diet of the species you want to breed to know the specific foods that are best for them in each phase of breeding.
Create Favorable Conditions For Mating
Do adequate research of the fish you want to breed; their mating habits to be more specific. Learn their instinctive reproductive behaviors before you put the two fish of different sex together in a tank. When you understand what the species looks for in their mates, how they lay their eggs, and how they copulate, it allows you to mimic their ideal breeding conditions in wild environments and therefore have a better chance of success in your tanks.
The conditions of the water inside the tank need to be optimized. The species you’re planning to breed can be influenced to mate or not to mate by factors such as temperature, mineral and chemical balance of water, etc.
- You can warm the tank using a separate heating element. Some species require temperatures of 27-30 degrees with moderate or low light and a pH level of 6-7.
- Significant water adjustments inside the spawning tank need to be done carefully not to harm or agitate the parent fish. For example, you can raise or lower the temperature by 3-5 degrees in a week. Too drastic of a change will probably result in problems.
- Most species start breeding in high numbers during the rainy season. Circulating sprayers or watering cans can be used to simulate the rainy mating seasons. They create the effect of a light downpour on the water surface in the tank.
- Change the water level by draining the fish tank halfway and refill it slowly. You trick the fish into thinking that it’s now the ideal time to lay and fertilize their eggs. Dimming the room lighting and switching a flashlight on and off creates a more convincing simulation of ‘lightning’.
- Use sponge filters that are less powerful and ideal for aquarium breeding.
It’s recommended to add familiar physical features such as plants, artificial tunnel structures, and stones to simulate the natural conditions under which most fish prefer mating. Having the ideal physical environment to facilitate breeding depends on your knowledge of how the fish lays their eggs or chooses their mate. These physical structures also provide places where the females will deposit their eggs.
Protect The Fry
After the female has laid the eggs, remove the two-parent fish from the spawning tank and return them to the former tank. This move protects the eggs from interference and gives them enough time to hatch to fry (newborns). The tank’s conditions need to be kept the same, for you will use it as the nursery to rear the newborns.
- Consider limiting the amount of light that enters the tank by keeping the tank wholly covered or black-out the tank sides that receive much direct light.
- Focus on changing the water in the tank daily.
- Feed the fry several times a day with foods such as algae, planktons, egg yolks, and crushed fish flake.
Get foods and most supplements from pet stores that deal with fish supplies. However, as the fry develops over time, they tend to switch to more substantial foods like micro worms and brine shrimp.
Remember to have fun!
In conclusion, fish keeping is an exciting undertaking, and it’s fun to watch your aquatic friends thrive and multiply. Besides, breeding your fish is even a precious opportunity to get more individuals involved in this hobby. Breeding fish in an aquarium is easy provided you give the fish a good home and provide the best care.