> P tenellus are one such species (that breeds on its own and > tolerates fry), and P gertrudae have been know to do
> the same. Just give them a planted tank with a bit of broken cover on
> the surface. Like plants that grow all the way to the surface or a bit
> of ricca. Enough fry always seem to survive and grow up on there own
> to maintain the colony.
This thought snipped from the "first Blue-eyes and gudgeons" thread of
a couple of weeks ago keeps intriguing me. The only experiences I have
had with this is an almost perpetual cloud of small M. praecox fry in a
twenty gallon tank with a trio of adults and the few fry in a similar
sized arrangement with Bedotia geayi. The Madagascar fry amazingly
cruise along inches from the power filter intake presumably snarfing up
food! This was great because they can be simply left alone until they
put on a little growth.
In other set-ups of rainbows there would sometimes be fry along the
tank sides, raised by the surface tension, in the early AM, but they
would be gone later in the day. I'm sure that reproducing rainbows in a
"natural" set-up is partly a function of space, food for the adults,
plant cover for the youngsters, the "personality" of some species and
even water quality among other things.
Probably if I sealed and filled the living room I could set up a
natural set-up even for large cichlids. The current adminstration might
beg to differ.
What rainbows especially lend themselves to this sort of propagation?.
Which have been successfully reproduced that way? Are there any "tricks
of the trade" which rainbow people use which might differ from what
killie or livebearer people would use?
Thanks,
Scott Davis