RETURN OF THE CARDINAL BREEDING DIARY!!

[plymbloke]

Hello all, I have had to leave the cardinal breeding project for the last few months due to work, and its going to be put on hold again in the new year as i have joined the Royal Air Force However i have been feeding them up and over the next 3 weeks i will be trying again just to see if i can finally crack it.

Watch This Space!!!

i have 14 fish, 6 of which are young wilds with about equal female:male ratio. its going to be ph4, soft water and 30C all the way with plenty of brineshrimp, daphnia, blood worm and granuals for a week or so, then let them get on with it!! hopefully we'll see some eggs that will actually hatch this time!!

Wish me luck!

Cheers

Chris

[Dan S]

Hello Chris,

Good to see you trying again, missed your Diary over the last few months.

Good luck.

Dan

[Tropical Haven]

Will be interesting to see if you can achieve success this time.

[bs6749]

I remember your last diary but I forget...did you try separating the males from the females and conditioning them separately and THEN putting them together after a week or so? Also, see what you can get as far as live foods goes. You do have some sort of moss in the tank or some sort of spawning mop don't you? You probably already know this information but if you didn't I hope it helped.

P.S. I'd also do a large water change dropping the tank's temp 4 degrees when a low pressure front moves through your area.

[plymbloke]

Cheers everyone,

At the moment i am conditioning them all together, since writing the first post in this new diary they have been fed with live daphnia and bloodworm and are all feeding well.

bs6749 - thanks for that, i have tried conditioning them separtely on previous attempts but the only way i found to be successful (in so much as i had regular spawnings of unfertilised eggs) was to keep them all together. the setup now is much the same as before ( had a sand bottom with java moss) but now instead of sand there is a thin layer of peat, and over the top of this i have placed a spawning grid - about half an inch over, and on top of this there is the java moss.

all being well i hope to turn out all lighting at the end of this coming week, ill keep you all posted!
Cheers

Chris
I have tried doing the larger water change and dropping the temperature but on the advice of Heiko earlier in the year i raised the temperature to 32 from 30 (i think - long time ago lol) and that worked well.

[bs6749]

Also, the eggs are light sensitive in most tetras aren't they? I'm sure you know that since you are turning off the lights but if you didn't, maybe you should keep the tank covered with a black trash bag or something for a week or so and see what happens. Good luck and keep us posted please!

[plymbloke]

yes thats right, they are very photosensitive, so i only check the tank at night with a torch and the tank does indeed get covered - i use a towel, so 90% of the light is blocked out but not all - makes things a bit more natural, as obviously in the wild the fish arent left in 100% darkness for a couple of days, they do get light.

This time around i want to get up early and try and watch them spawn - i intend to set up a low watage lamp near them to simulate the dawn so i can sit and watch for any spawning behaviour. as soon as i see that they will be removed and the tank will remain completely dark and covered for 5 days.

They have just had their 3rd feed today, started with granuals in the morning, daphnia for lunch and now they have had brineshrimp. Tomorows menu includes bloodworm and more brineshrimp. A couple of the females are starting to fatten up.

[plymbloke]

if anyone is interested - this is a link to the previous diary i did earlier in the year: http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?t=62205

[Eddie]

Hey Chris,

I read the past diary and it was very interesting. I will definitely be following.

Goodluck,
Eddie

[plymbloke]

Thanks Eddie - fingers crossed for this attempt!

[bs6749]

I'm not sure how true this is but I've heard that fish, or certain fish can't see red wavelengths. With that in mind (if it's true) you might want to use a red light to observe the cardinals so you won't disturb them and they won't be able to see you. Either that or dress up like Santa!

[plymbloke]

really? that is an interesting point and deffinately something i'll look into! Can anyone 'verify' this?

It really would be nice to watch them - i hardly have any contact with their tank, only to feed, so they are still very skittish when im around - which is good i think as it keeps some of their natural state (indeed 6 of the 'breeding' fish were in a 100litre tub in my garden over the summer, living completely wild - at the start of the summer i put in 11 cardinals, and at the end of the summer i took 10 out - the 11th only died because of a heater failure one night, so they hopefully are still wild enough to want to spawn more readily given the correct conditions)

At the moment i have a bucket of rainwater heating up to 30C to do a nice water change tomorow evening just before they have the evening daphnia.

Now... Wheres my white beard gone.....

[plymbloke]

just a quick update - there are 3 clear females in the group that are filling out nicely, these will be the ones i use - along with 4 of the best males. at the moment the temperature is at 27, when the females are bigger still i will up this to 30/31, coinciding with a 30% water change of fresh acid water.

[Eddie]

Sounds promising, keep up with the progress! Best of luck


Eddie

[plymbloke]

right well like last time they havnt been willing to spawn straight away this time, and as i join the Royal Air Force on Tuesday, i'm not going to try again - i wont be able to look after the fry anyway. When ive finished training i'll be moving my tanks and no doubt i wll try again, but until then, Happy New Year all and i'll message again when I can.

Cheers!

Chris