capekate

I posted the possibility that one of my female rainbows may be pregnant in another thread and didnt want to hijack it, so I am starting this one here.
Tom asked me if I checked the bow after feeding time and if it was with other males. I have been checking on this female for days now and have noticed that her tummy was quite big. There is a good sized male in with this group that shows great color and I believe is mature enough.
What I do not know is how do they spawn? Does the male fertilize the eggs? Or does the male and female have to 'get together'? What should I watch for? Should I separate the female from the group? Should I wait to find eggs? Do I move the eggs to another tank? How long does the whole process take?
Any information would be helpful!
Thanks,
~ kate

Dino

They are egg scatterers.
Both adults need to be in the same tank.

Watch for the fish swimming side by side and shimmying. Especially if they are doing this near plants.

Once you see that, remove the fish to another tank and let the eggs develop.

capekate

Thanks so much Dino!
I will keep an eye on the fish and see what happens. would it be possible to move the eggs and not the fish? OR would I really be damaging the eggs by taking them out of one tank and put into another?
thanks,

~ kate

Dino

Na, for as short a time as they are exposed to air they should be ok.

Sometimes I forget not everyone has tanks they can just set aside for breeding fish.

boff

Hi capekate they spawn in the morning so you might have to set your alarm for a bit earlier ,if you are going to move the eggs have you got your self a spawning mop ,or are you going to put the adults in another tank and then wait for them to spawn and then move them back .

capekate

Hi Boff,
thanks for the info. What I will most likely do, is move the four rainbows and two golden wonder killifish that are currently in the 29g over to the 55g tank. I would like to move the pregnant female over to the 29g tank with a mature male. Is this a good idea? Will the pregnant female let the mature male fertilize her eggs if I do this? Or is the female already has a male in mind for the job?
The reason I ask, is that there is a very large male in the 29g that she has not met yet, and I am wondering if she would accept this male as her mate? If she would do this I can then just move her over to the 29 with that larger male and leave the two of them in that tank.
thanks,

~ kate

boff

Hi ,yes that's the best way move the other fish out of the 29g but leave the big male ,they do pair up to spawn but they will still do it .
When you feed them just give them frozen food or live if you can get any this will give them a good source of protein ,which will make a strong egg .
Can you get any Java Moss it seems to be the best stuff for her to lay her eggs on ,all the best boff.

capekate

Thanks Boff
I appreciate the help! I will move the three rainbows and the two killifish over to the Discus tank. I will then move the female bow that is pregant from the 55g to the 29g and it will be there with the other male only. I was at the LFS today but they had no java moss. I was told that I can make a mop for the eggs? What is your take on this?
I am also going back there tomorrow to hopefully pick up four german blue rams.. finally!! I just hope the supplier has some that is supposed to come in tomorrows delivery. but thats another topic!

I will keep you posted on the bows.. thanks again!

~ kate

boff

Hi, that's a shame they don't have any java moss maybe you could get them to order some for the future because raising rainbow fry is not as easy as other fish fry .
Spawning occurs from October to December, with females producing between 100 and 200 eggs, spawning a number of times daily for several days. Eggs adhere to water plants and hatching occurs after 6-7 days.
I think you make a mop out of wool ,cut some strands tie them at the bottom weight them down with something .
Ive just got the go ahead from the Mrs to get my new tank iam looking at a 100g UK ,cant wait just got to save some money and get some more bows .

boff

Hi kate ,ive found this page about making a mop for rainbows.

http://aquafacts.net/components/com_...ng_Rainbowfish

This will help you ,it tells you what to feed them when they hatch.

Then, feed lots of live foods or frozen bloodworms and after a week pull the mop from the tank and hunt around in it. If the bows are mature, healthy, and fertile, you should be able to see eggs when you pick apart and start looking between the strands of yarn in the mop. Place one egg-laden mop into a tank of its own (a 5-10 gallon tank is probably sufficient, but I use a 15 gallon which is big enough for growing the fry out to 2 inches or so) with an air driven sponge filter and wait until you see fry swimming at the top. A temperature in the low 80's will promote faster fry growth, and make sure that you have some powdered foods available. For the first 1-1.5 weeks, the fry are too small for bbs, so you need to feed very small floating foods (I use a combination of APR, powdered spirulina, and naturose, to begin with, then add in some cyclop-eeze after a week, but I think that either the APR or powdered spirulina would be sufficient on their own until you can start feeding bbs).

capekate

Hi Boff
thanks for the info on making a mop for the eggs. Last night some plans changed, as I am hoping to go today to pick up four German Blue Rams.
I moved the new four bows to the 55g tank with the others. It was so much fun to watch them all commune together. These guys really do like to be in large social groups! The two males are funny to watch. I love how the original male ( in the 55) has colored up so much. He is gorgeous and I will try to get some photos of him today. The very large male ( the new one) and the other male actually have been hanging out together. I thought that was pretty funny, where as I thought there may be aggression for competing for the pregnant female. They swim around each other back and forth and all around the tank. In the meantime the original male tries to herd the preg female away to another side of the tank. There are now a lot of males in the group, at least 5 and about the same in females. So this should be fun to watch. Now having a total of ten bows in the tank is giving me so much enjoyment. I really do like the personality of these fish. To have so many of one species and all get along peacefully is just what I have been looking for.
Reason for moving the new bows... I want to put the 4 new GBRs in the 29 for at least a week to watch for any ick they may have brought in. After that I will have to decide who I want to keep in the 29g tank or have them all in the 55g. I really need to keep some fish in the 29g to keep that cycle living. Right now I have left the two killifish in there, it seems that they do not do too well at higher temps. So they may have to stay there. But my intent was to have the 29g always cycled for the event of either pregnant Discus fish or for fry.
I have read up on the bows (splendida) and found that the color variety is dependent on what stream or river they come from. My original 6 have more red in the tails and body.. the new ones have more yellow. Not sure if its a good idea to let the different types breed. Would they come out a mix of color?
Anyway... the weather is a factor right now on going to get the gbrs today. Its about 18* windchill -1*, snow flurries and snow still on the roads. I hate driving in lousy weather, as my tires are not the greatest on my ole clunker of a car. So will have to watch and see what the weather is like later this afternoon when the shipment comes in. OR if they will even have the GBRs today... So doing a wait and see on that right now.

~ kate