Bosemani Rainbowfish Breeding - First time!

[Cybersooze]

Hi All

This is my first post in the forum so please be gentle with me

I have successfully (so far) bred some Bosemani Rainbowfish. I have about 40 fry ranging from 4-5 weeks old. I was feeding them Sera Micron fry food, but started on live baby brine shrimp about a week ago. I have found that hatching the brine shrimp is by far the hardest part of the process right now. (I live in South Australia and heading into Autumn the temperatures are quite warm during the day but cold at night so I am keeping them warm at night with a heat lamp but still have quite alot that dont hatch.)

I have a couple of questions that hopefully you can help me with:

1. How long will they need to feed solely on baby brine shrimp and what food should I feed them next and when?
2. The tank temperature is still 79F. At what age should I start to lower this?
3. Do you recommend a clean up crew? I don't have any yet. Currently I have a bare bottom tank and doing water changes every couple of days. The tank is 65L

Thanks for your help

 

[Flyfisha]

Hi Cybersooze ,
Welcome to fishlore
I am in NSW and have no experience with Bosemani but have raised a few batches of praecoz Rainbowfish.

I hatch bb daily. Are you sure it’s not the egg cases you are seeing when you see what looks like unhatched eggs? Depending on the brand some egg shells / egg case will sink and with some brands they will float.

Separating the egg shells requires a sieve and a bit of practice. Removing the air supply and waiting 5 minutes you the cases to settle.

I would suggest you continue mixing a little dry dust into the water with the bb.
New live spectrum sell a fry food that is like talcum powder. That is probably the same as the Sera Micron ?
Using a mortar and pestle or similar it’s possible to make dry food the size of sand from any quality adult dry food . I would add that to the brine shrimp as often as is convenient for you. The last thing you want is fish that only eat food that moves. As strange as it may seem it is possible to raise juveniles that have never learnt to eat dry food. Even guppies.

No need for a clean up crew . Unless you already have pest snails and pest numbers of cherry shrimp.
Juvenile rainbow will eat cherry shrimp.

Question 2
Sorry I don’t have any idea why you have the fry at a special temperature. Or at a temperature different to the adults.I can’t answer that.

Should you become overloaded with eggs or spawning mops you can raise this fish in just green water. If you have old tank water outside in SA sunshine you will soon have an inexhaustible supply of green water. It is the micro creatures and plants that can be a food supply for the first 6 weeks without you doing anything other than adding more green water as you do water changes.
I know it will seem hard to believe but 100% green water is a legitimate way of raising fry. Reusing dirty old waste tank water again seems hard to believe but that has worked for me.

in short
Start the fry on dry foods now.

 

[Cybersooze]

Thank you so much I really appreciate your help. I feed NLS to the fish in my display tank so o might try to crush that and see what happens

 

[86 ssinit]

I’ve been growing out bosemani for a few years now. I originally started with the bbs but since found they’ll eat anything. So what I give them now is just crushed flakes. They do great with that. I’ve got them growing out in 2 shrimp tanks than when they get to about an inch I move them into a 50g. They are slow growers.

 

[Cybersooze]

I’ve been growing out bosemani for a few years now. I originally started with the bbs but since found they’ll eat anything. So what I give them now is just crushed flakes. They do great with that. I’ve got them growing out in 2 shrimp tanks than when they get to about an inch I move them into a 50g. They are slow growers.

Thank you!

 

[SparkyJones]

Just my opinion but I've found with angelfish fry if they will take the small micron food or you can grind up flake or pellet fine enough, it's a lot easier but the growth rate is a bit slower overall. If you aren't in a hurry to grow out and the fish will eat dry foods without needing to chase something to trigger feeding, it's just a lot easier overall than hatching bbs. But yeah the downside is growth is slower and takes longer.
If you are going to sell them or keep them you'd likely need to get them on a basic easy food at some point.

 

[Cybersooze]

Just my opinion but I've found with angelfish fry if they will take the small micron food or you can grind up flake or pellet fine enough, it's a lot easier but the growth rate is a bit slower overall. If you aren't in a hurry to grow out and the fish will eat dry foods without needing to chase something to trigger feeding, it's just a lot easier overall than hatching bbs. But yeah the downside is growth is slower and takes longer.
If you are going to sell them or keep them you'd likely need to get them on a basic easy food at some point.

Thanks for the advice. I only started them on baby brine shrimp because everyone on YouTube pretty much said that's all they will eat! You're right though - feeding a dry food is so much easier and they will be eating this eventually anyway. I think I'll try to persevere with the baby brine shrimp as an alternative (until I run out of eggs) and start to mainly feed the crushed dry food.

Do you have any idea of what temperature I should be running for them and when to start dialing it back? I still have them at the temp the parents had to spawn. 79F

 

[86 ssinit]

Bosemani can take the heat. Mine are in the 80s with my Discus for as long as I’ve had them. Starting pair are at least 8yrs old.

 

[Flyfisha]

As you live in the driest state on the driest inhabited continent in a country that gets HOT real hot I suggest you leave the heater set at 26 centigrade/ 79F . Even though summer is almost over in Australia we still have some hot days ahead?

Ask the guys on 237 anzac highway ( Seaview Aquarium) Adelaide what temperature they run their tanks as I am sure they also suffer from temperature issues?

I have no Bosemani but 26 c / 79f is a normal tropical fish tank temperature.

 

[SparkyJones]

I don't have Bosemani. I do raise most fry at 82F from eggs to about 1 month. It speeds up hatching and their metabolism. in my opinion they will eat and process more food and grow a bit quicker, kind of a trade off for me not feeding live foods, and it gets me over the first 30 days where they are tiny and most vulnerable. I gradually lower the temp after that to whatever room temp water is. 77-78-79 and go off the heater after that when they are small juveniles figuring again, that's how they'd need to be for most people anyways. But after my first 30 days they go to regular Temps and slower growth.

I'm not in a hurry to grow out, I've never made enough money for it to be like a real income and don't have a large operation or anything to where it could be profitable. A few bucks here or there to cover food off some sales, and give some away to friends and stuff, so no reason for me to rush, but I hate that tender first 30 days period of growth where fry are dying from failure to thrive and try to get them past that to bigger, stronger and eating bigger foods faster.

I think that's the main reason everyone recommends the bbs. It does give the fastest growth in that first 30 from other foods. The breeders will all want to maximize how many they can get to size as fast as they can.

I think BBS will get you 10-15% larger by day 130 than if feeding dry preparations the whole time, higher temp to speed metabolism and more feedings (4-8 a day) can get you 5-10% larger in that time. Either way or both ways, you gotta do 8x mass gain for 2x size gain.
As long as they are eating really whichever works to get them to put on weight it will go to growth at the early fry stages into juvenile. And slow down at some point from juvenile to maturity, different for each species when that happens but breeder will usually have a "sell size" set where the fish are a hardy size, but continuing to feed them to make them bigger would eat into the money they could make.

 

[Cybersooze]

As you live in the driest state on the driest inhabited continent in a country that gets HOT real hot I suggest you leave the heater set at 26 centigrade/ 79F . Even though summer is almost over in Australia we still have some hot days ahead?

Ask the guys on 237 anzac highway ( Seaview Aquarium) Adelaide what temperature they run their tanks as I am sure they also suffer from temperature issues?

I have no Bosemani but 26 c / 79f is a normal tropical fish tank temperature.

OK thank you for your help. My main tank is usually around 77-79 all year round anyway. Yes it can get to 100-107 for days on end here in the heart of summer but thankfully we have good air-conditioning so it hasn't been a problem!