# Wanted!



## BettaGirl290 (Jul 29, 2010)

I need an interesting fish that i could breed, must be able to fit 20 gal. and 5 gal. :-D Whattdya recommend?


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## thekoimaiden (Oct 19, 2011)

If those are your only two tanks, you are not going to be able to breed much. You're going to need the 20 gallon as a grow-out tank, so that leaves species you can house in a 5 gal. The list is small to begin with, and most of the fish are rather sensitive. Guppies wouldn't work as they need more room. You're going to be looking at the small, schooling, egg-scattering fish. 

I think you should read this and give it some serious though: http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/fish-breeding/before-you-breed-11025/ I don't mean to dash your hopes, but breeding any animal is a time-consuming and expensive task. It's only profitable on a commercial scale. 

I'm not saying this because of your age (MrVampire181 is in his teens and breeds beautiful betta), but because you don't seem to have the tanks for it. I really think you should hold off on breeding until you can get a better setup and at least keep the fish you want to breed for a while before you try to purposefully breed it. Many times aquarists who keep fish in ideal settings get accidental spawns simply because the fish are so happy with their home. Practice keeping the fish you want to breed alive before you try to keep fry alive.


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## Bombalurina (Oct 10, 2011)

It also depends on how good you want to be at breeding. You could easily breed guppies in your 5 gal and use the 20 as a grow-out, but how would you prevent the babies making merry with each other, and the adults from constantly mating? I've considered this so many times in a similar situation, and I had to come to the same conclusion as KoiMaiden. I have to wait.


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## BeckyFish97 (Apr 9, 2012)

The first thing I will say is you need more space, so before you think about breeding you need to think about the costs and how much space you have to fit another 20 gallon tank in!I have recently ordered a 145 litre (30gal) storage container from this:
http://www.solentplastics.co.uk/really-useful-clear-plastic-storage-boxes/
website as a new grow out tank because my old one is as I said...old lol
Once you have your grow out tank then you can think about what is easy to breed, then after that what is fun to breed, and then finally what would be a great challange for yourself.
Also you need to have a place to take the fry when they're all grown up, or you need to look into online selling and shipping.
Check with your lfs to see if they would either buy them off of you or trade them for another fish, or any sort of arrangement like that, because if you dont have any places for them to go, you're going to have a LOOOOOT of fish on your hands!


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## Mo (Mar 15, 2012)

Breeding another type of fish for experience will be completely fine as long as you can provide the optimal homes for them.

I would recommend breeding an easy beginner fish for starters and raise the fry similar to how you would raise bettas.......

are great beginner breeder fish as they are profilic breeders and there fry are relatively hardy, I currently have a Guppy fry tank outside aswell as a male guppy tank, I am planning on having a successful breeding colony after I raise the fry to adulthood. 

Guppies are relatively easy to breed as they are livebearers and have been known to multiply without any sort of assistance for breeding and preserving the fry. Males and females will naturally breed when plac in the same tank and for minimal stress, along with best results, you ideally should have 1 male and 3 females. The gestation period for these fish are short and you should have babies after about 28 days. Only of fertilization occurs

Guppies require little or no maintenance to get the fish to breed yet I would treat them as you would when breeding bettas if you are planning to get ready, if you were to breed guppies as they are usually bred, you would gain little experience from this so ideally you would want the below materials

With a twenty gallon and a 5 gallon you are very limited to the amount of fry that can be successfully produced and the amount of fish that you can breed. I would use the 5 galon as a spawning tank and the twenty as the grow out. In this case 

I wouldn't use 3 females either as the amount of fry they have the potential to produce is tremendous coming in a a whopping number of 100. I wouldn't recommend using a twenty gallon grow out tank for that amount of fry. My general rule of thumb is to have about 10 fry to every five gallons until they are about 1-2 months old. At this stage, they are able to breed and have exhibited there full colors. They may have reached full adult size but if you fed them flakes as a staple diet I wouldn't expect there adult size. Using live foods will promote tremendously fast growth. 

Feeding ad cleaning grow out tanks should be fairly easy. Baby Brine ashrimpm are the most prefered fish by this specific species and are fairly easy to raise with minimal requirements. I would recommend feeding them before the get 12-24 hours old as they have the most nutritional value during this stage, because they still have there egg sac. That feeds them for this period of time. 

Cleaning a twenty gallon grow out tank would be fairly easy with about 25% water changes daily or about every other day. For best results I would do this daily, it should be very easy and will take a minimal amount of time daily

1 20 gallon fry grow out tank for an average spawn size of around 50. Please note though that a guppy spawn wont be nearly as large

A heavily planted 5-10 gallon spawning tank, though in this case you would want a minimum of 3 females and a male

A high a quality breeding pair with no deformities

Homes for all of the fry

Heaters

Filters

Cover for the fry


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## Olympia (Aug 25, 2011)

You need more tanks than a 5 and a 20.
Choose a fish that you like for your twenty gallon.. Get to know the species really well before breeding, learn as much as you can about your species. Become an expert in your species.
That's just my approach to breeding. I'm not one for breeding fish you have little experience with.

Then find a grow out tank + supplies, and finally attempt breeding. You can do guppies if you want but I'd find something more exciting. Personally, I think honey gourami would be a good choice.. Beautiful fish that breed easily and would be easy to sell. A lot of stores have way too many guppies and don't really want more, unless you order a nice strain online. For selling, you can post ads online, on TFK (main forum) or you can arrange to sell them to a pet shop (you have to make this agreement before bringing in the fish). You can get a male and 2 females in your 20. Or, just a male, or just two females, and introduce the opposite sex when you're prepared. And when you have something big enough you can try spawning, gourami react well to lowering the water level to about 6", and they build bubble nests like betta, they only difference is that as soon as the eggs hatch you should remove the male.

I personally think it's great that younger people are trying out raising fish, but a lot of people will surely look down on you in this hobby. That's why you want to wait until you're totally prepared, so you can prove them wrong.


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## Mo (Mar 15, 2012)

IMO you can breed guppies in a 5 and twenty gallon. five for spawning, and teh twenty for growout. then when you are done with breeding, place the pair in a 20 gallon tank long term. I am personally twelve years old and think that if you want to breed fish. and you can handle it, then go for it! I breed ramshorn snails, malaysian trumpet snails, pond snails, bladder snails, ghost shrimp, brine shrimp, bettas, guppies, and platies. all of which were fairly easy for me to breed..... ecept for the bettas...... that was kinda an accident and I got rid of the eggs....I also have 7 tanks that are all planted. 2 5 gallons, a 12 gallon, a 10 gallon, a 1 gallon, and 2 15 gallons. Honestly when I first go to a pet store, I do get looked down there but after the first time. they respect me and admit that I know what I am doing


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## BettaGirl290 (Jul 29, 2010)

I have three 5 gal. tanks and 1 20 gal, i'm probably getting a 10 gallon soon, thankls for the advice so far!


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## BettaGirl290 (Jul 29, 2010)

thekoimaiden said:


> If those are your only two tanks, you are not going to be able to breed much. You're going to need the 20 gallon as a grow-out tank, so that leaves species you can house in a 5 gal. The list is small to begin with, and most of the fish are rather sensitive. Guppies wouldn't work as they need more room. You're going to be looking at the small, schooling, egg-scattering fish.
> 
> I think you should read this and give it some serious though: http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/fish-breeding/before-you-breed-11025/ I don't mean to dash your hopes, but breeding any animal is a time-consuming and expensive task. It's only profitable on a commercial scale.
> 
> I'm not saying this because of your age (MrVampire181 is in his teens and breeds beautiful betta), but because you don't seem to have the tanks for it. I really think you should hold off on breeding until you can get a better setup and at least keep the fish you want to breed for a while before you try to purposefully breed it. Many times aquarists who keep fish in ideal settings get accidental spawns simply because the fish are so happy with their home. Practice keeping the fish you want to breed alive before you try to keep fry alive.


 I know not because of my age, ( the thing in my sig is just meaning that people at the pet stores, they dont really listen to me when i try to talk some sense into them, lol) Anyway, i've been breeding betta fish since i was 9 and i know what i am doing, plus i have more room then just a 5 gal. and a 20 gal. :-D thanks.


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## Mo (Mar 15, 2012)

could you use teh ten gallon too?


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## BettaGirl290 (Jul 29, 2010)

Mo said:


> could you use teh ten gallon too?


When i get it yes, (i plan on either going on a crazy fish spree or getting a hamster, either way im probably getting a ten-gallon)


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## Mo (Mar 15, 2012)

Okay. then the 10 gallon could be used for spawning and permanent housing, while the 20 gallon could be used for grow out


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