jprime84

I have recently decided to try to breed my Boesemani Rainbows. I regularly see them behaving in a courtship manner in the morning, but I have never seen any eggs or fry in my tank. I would assume this is due to them or their tankmates eating them.

I got a 10 gallon setup going as a nursery. I moved a female rainbow over last night. I am going to feed her well and move a male over later.

The problem is lately all my fish seem extremely stressed. I am worried that me being in the tank with the net moving fish is going to do more harm than good. My fish used to greet me at the surface for feeding, but now all the rainbows hide if I even put my hand on the lid of the tank.

This morning I checked on the female, she appeared alright, but was obviously very stressed with rapid breathing and motion....

What do I do?

MissMTS

Have you tested your water parameters lately? That would be my first step if my fish seemed stressed. Also, if they seem stressed, you shouldn't move them. That will stress them out even more. You will only get your fish to breed when they are ready to breed. Also, since when rainbowfish breed, the males actively pursue the females and can behave aggressively towards them, putting them in a 10 gallon tank for spawning might be to cramped and make things even more stressful.

Here is a wonderful library of articles on breeding rainbowfish:
http://members.optushome.com.au/chelmon/Contents.htm

However, like I said before, make sure your fish are healthy and happy first and worry about breeding second

jprime84

Well, they were happy before I tried to catch them to breed them!

I actually decided to stop moving them to breed. My plan is to change my main tank into a rainbows only tank. I will instead move my neons and corys to the 10g, and then give away the SAE. This way, there will be no scroungers hunting down the rainbow eggs!

I will probably make a yarn spawning mop, and place it in there to see if it gets any eggs in it.