>According to Adrian's excellent post, the water chemistry parameters aren't
>all that important - as long as the water is clean (low in nitrogen
>compounds). My plan right now is to use a 40-50 l tank, with some low light
>plants (java moss, java ferns), water around 8 dH, 20 deg C, no CO2, pH 7.5
>or so.
>Food will be a bit of a challenge, but likely a mix of daphnia, high quality
>flakes and frozen b/s. I'll use all my fish - 3m and 3f.
If you can try to feed them mostly newly hatched brine shrimp. In my
experience they really love them and it gave me my best results. You could
really notice the increase in egg numbers after they had a bellyful of live
shrimp. I don't have any scientific data to confirm this but I think this
give the fry a better start in life as well. You can see the eggs are a
different colour and they look a lot healthier. But then that just might be
my imagination :-)
Also do keep them on their own especially when trying to breed them. I
really think they should be on their own at all times because even the
smallest rainbowfishes are highly competitive and can be overly aggressive
to the smaller werneri. The breeding tank doesn't need lighting and in fact
I think they would appreciate it if they didn't have any, just make sure the
tank is not too dark. If you can see them during daylight hours without any
difficulty then that's sufficient light. When I wanted large quantities of
fry (eggs) I just used spawning mops, both floating and bottom ones. If I
wanted to just maintain the population then I use to fill the tank with Java
Moss. That way I got some young but not a lot.
>First food for the fry will be vinegar eels - my praecox did really well on
>that. (I picked 13 larvae out of my community tank and transfered them to a
>grow out tank - and all 13 survived.) Also, I'll offer very finely ground
>flake.
Try to give them a variety if possible. Raising the fry is the most
difficult part and where most people fail. You will stand a better chance of
raising them all if you can provide some infusorians?
Adrian.
Adrian R. Tappin
Brisbane, Australia.
"Home of the Rainbowfish"
http://www.ecn.net.au/~atappin/home.htm