Egg layers colony breeding

Well...will common egg laying fishes colony breed? I was thinking that if they did, that would both spare me a lot of the effort of breeding fish and produce more manageable numbers of fry than a controlled breeding attempt. If this helps, I was going to use a 10 gallon set up like a pond, with lots of water lettuce and hornwort. Thanks

 

I dont see why not, would be better if u put a mesh about 2" above the substrate with moss and leaf litter under it

 

What do you call "common egg laying"?

 

What do you call "common egg laying"?

Things like white cloud minnows, the easier non-annual killies, Celestial pearl danios, maybe small tetras (I particularly like green fire tetras)...

 

Group-breeding works great for egglayers. I wouldn't call killies a group fish, but I get what you mean. You basically keep them happy and healthy and leave them alone.

Do you intend to remove the group after breeding or do you hope that fry will survive in the same setting? Removing parents and leave the tank to the new generation works best in group breeding. If you are setting up a tank for the sole purpose of breeding, then you might want to try pairs or trios for better yield befor etrying a group.

The efficacy of using a mesh vs rooted plants vs floating plants would depend on the nature of their breeding (surface spawners vs scatterers and sticking vs non-sticking eggs), but probably best have some of all.