I concure with Adrian, live baby brine shrimp (enriched= better) really help
the adults in spawning. Small daphnia in abundance does the trick too.
Keep as a species only tank. The best hatch and raise I had with werneri
was when I "accidentally" got cyclops in the hatching tank. I was sure that
after reading all of those "german horror stories" :-) about cyclops eating
fry that all was lost. The particular species that happened to get in my
tank though was quite small and they produced even smaller babies which I
expect the fry ate. I like to add a bit of light to the parents tank for my
enjoyment though. When the adult males snap their dorsal and anal fins
together like castanets it's a real show!
gary lange
>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
>