# Good Starter Fish for Breeding



## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

I'm looking for small fish that is easy to breed with good parenting skills. I prefer a live bearer (other than Guppys, Mollys or Platys) but an egg layer would be ok.

The tank is a 20G long, PH 6.5-7.0 and KH 3-5.

_So what fish would you recommend_?... Keeping the above criteria in mind.


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## gnatster (Mar 6, 2004)

Banggai cardinal fish


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## SnakeIce (May 9, 2005)

I don't usually think of good parenting skills when livebearers are being considered. Here are some I know of that I have seen available from time to time on aquabid or other places.

Livebearers:

Endlers
Ameca splendens, max length 8-12 cm so a little on the larger side
Heterandria formosa, males 1.5-2 cm and females 2.5-3 cm, tiny fish
Xiphophorus variatus is a platy but not the same species as the usual. The males take up to a year or more to develop full color.
Halfbeaks are another seldom seen livebearer.

Cherry barbs are known to reproduce in a planted aquarium without to much extra done for them.

If you want parenting skills though, a dwarf cichlid is the way to go.


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## yoink (Aug 31, 2005)

I recommend endlers. They are small, peaceful, nicely colored(males), and usually won't eat their fry. I've seen a large endler eat newborn fry, but they are usually too small to fit in the mother's mouth.


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## Burks (May 25, 2006)

SnakeIce said:


> Cherry barbs are known to reproduce in a planted aquarium without to much extra done for them.
> 
> If you want parenting skills though, a dwarf cichlid is the way to go.


I'll second the dwarf cichlids. From what I've read, they are good parents.

Question about the Cherry Barbs, what ratio is best for breeding them? I have 2 males and 1 female (had more but lost a few), 76-78 degree water, pH steady 7.2. Good water quality.


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## lildark185 (Jul 7, 2006)

Maybe you could try some kribensis since they're very easy to breed and they're cichlids, which tend to be good parents. They grow up to 3 or 4" if you're worried about size.


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## Raul-7 (Feb 4, 2004)

Blue Rams. They're are fairly easy to care for and your water conditions are ideal for breeding. I have a pair and they breed every single week after every water change. The key is to wait a week, change 50% of the water with cool tap water and after a couple hours you should find a clutch. One way to know if the male is ready to breed is by this little clasper he develops when he wants to breed.

But a word of warning, be very careful of fungus. If one egg develops fungus, the whole clutch might become infected if you don't act fast. I'm not exactly what to use, but I use StressGaurd and spray it all over the clutch using a syringe and it does the trick.

Another problem is that once they spawn you must keep water changes to a minimum or do them very gradually because the female usually ends up eating the clutch if she feels like spawning again. I've seen it happen everytime as of yet.

And beware of Asian-bred Rams, they are vastly they inbred and as a result they've lost their parenting skills over the generations.

Here's a male I managed to get from a breeder in Florida, IMVHO, the perfect-looking male Ram (finnage extensions, color, shape). Ignore the hidious quality (eggs in the background):


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## SnakeIce (May 9, 2005)

Burks said:


> Question about the Cherry Barbs, what ratio is best for breeding them? I have 2 males and 1 female (had more but lost a few), 76-78 degree water, pH steady 7.2. Good water quality.


I would think a male to two females, with the best bet being 2 males and 4 or more females.

If you just want to practice raiseing egglayer's fry, danios are prolific and thus offer lots of practice potential. I've forgotten the hatch time but you can even gravel vac syphon the fry out of the comunity tank on or just befor the day of hatch. Just do a thorough vacume clean befor the spawn so the young come out with as little junk as possible.


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## dodgefreak8 (Jul 26, 2006)

the absolute easiest fish to breed is convicts!!! way easier than guppies even


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## joemomma (Apr 7, 2006)

I'll second the convicts....every pair I've had has bred multiple times, and they are very good parents. They will attack anything (including you) that comes close to the eggs. I think you'll find that most of the cichlids are very good parents, I've even had some hybrids that showed up in the tank after a couple of odd ones got together. These guys were infertile though, I guess due to the cross-breeding.


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## aquariageek (May 27, 2006)

The "Peacock Gudgeon",Tateurndina ocellicauda is a small goby from the Australasian region. They are VERY colorful- and unlike many fish- both male and female are very vibrantly coloured. They are easy to breed as well.

A good article on breeding: http://members.aol.com/WnyZman/gudgeon.html


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## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

If you're after good parenting skills, most of the smaller South American chiclids are pretty easy and undemanding. Better still, it isn't too hard to provide food for the fry and they grow fairly quickly. Discus are of course the exception to "easy" but they probably have some of the most highly developed parenting instincts of all fish. Angels are easy too, but they aren't exactly small.


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## Script404 (Jun 30, 2006)

I'd go with dwarf cichilids, all cichilids I've had experience with tend to be good parents, but dwarfs are a more manageable size, and won't cause to much havoc in a tank with other fish.
You'll actually see a young pair of cichlids learn and get better a parenting, the first few batches tend to not hatch, or if in a community tank get quickly eaten, but the fish soon learn to look after them.
Just one thig about Kribs I've found, they are almost to easy to breed, I had to get rid of a pair that kept succesfully raising fry in a tank that included two big plecs, two big synodontis, and large angels, unless you can get rid of them easily enough, (a lot of my lfs wouldn't take them becuase they are so prolific and common), you'll end up with a lot of kribs.  Similair species P. Teanatus are nice though just as easy to breed but easier to get rid of.


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## Chris S (Feb 27, 2006)

I would sugggest something that you LFS is willing to buy off of you later. Ask them what they think you should breed that u can work out a deal with them afterwards. The rarer the better. That is what i wish I had done with my fish. I bred alot of species but none of them where really in demand and I had wished that i had tried more wanted species to begin with. 
But, if you breed what types of fish you like. Then I think that is all that matters.


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

Thanks for all the suggestions... I ended up getting some Endler's from John N., he had a deal that could not be passed up. I've had males only in the pass, but now have at least one female. So soon I should have little ones!


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## standoyo (Aug 25, 2005)

Endlers are nice.

In future future :lol: try Apisto's. A smale defendable cave and flat rock surface and leave them alone. So easy i didn't do anything till i noticed 6 baby apistos about a cm long coming out to feed together with my boraras uropthalmoides.
I think they're either macmasteri or hongsloi.


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