Hippoherder

Awesome! I've always wanted to be a bad influence. My cherries are now the cleanup crew in my fry/hatch out tank. The hornwart is so think the only time I see them is when they come to the curface to chow down on the golden pearl I give to the fry....actually they have been going very red on te GP. Anyways, if your yellows start having lots of babies please put me on the list to trade for or buy 3 or 4:)

I have been breeding 2 different types of Rainbows P. Gertrudes and M. Praecox. They are both in the same tank. Up until now the eggs I have been picking off the mops have all been clear. Recently, I have been picking some yellow eggs off. They seem viable. Could it be the gerttrude eggs? Up until 2 weeks ago they were in a planted tank and i was just seeing a few hatchout fry everyday. They were relocated to the same tank with the Praecox a couple weeks ago- no plants, just spawning mops. Could it be a water condition thing? Any ideas?

Nice tanks! What are the fish swimming on top of the tank in the last pic?

I am just starting to get into rainbows and one of the things I couldn't find consistent info on was if ramshorn snails, trumpet snails, and cherry shrimp would eat the eggs laid on the mops. After doing some of my own experimentation I can tell you definately not. I have had snails and shrimp crawling all through my spawning mops as well as had the confined in the breeder net that I toss eggs into and they are left untouched. This is in a tank thick with cherries and snails. The snails and shrimp go mental for golden pearl fry food though. It makes a better snail trap than zucchini. A minute or two after I sprinkle it all the snails are at the waterline and floating across the top to eat it.

Currently breeding Neolamprologus multifasciatus and apple snails

Woo Hoo! A quick and easy solution. Thanks for the help!

I sent away for daphnia eggs, to get a live culture going, a while ago. In the interim I have been feeding frozen Daphnia. Little did I realize that there would be enough eggs in the frozen to get a nice little population going in my fish tank. Anyways, I have a wack of eggs now and would like to get an independent culture going. However, I need Green Water to feed them. I have read some ways to do it on the net but they seem to take a long while. Can anyone reccomend a relatively quick way to get a Green Water culture going? (please don't say go to a random pond and scoop water - I'm not putting an unkown quantity of anything in my tanks) Thanks

I have been picking eggs from the spawning mops by hand and tossing them into a fry net in another tank. I stopped seeing them and thought they just disappeared. Over the past two days I've noticed a bunch of black specs all across the bottom of the net. I took one out and it looks like an eyed up egg. So I guess they didn't turn to dust but I just couldn't see a clear, tiny egg on a white background lol. Shrimp must not eat eggs because one climbed into the net and is just eating some golden pearl I toss in there for the fry...which snails are mental for as well.

That is exactly what I've got - some plum/purple ones and a couple super dark red - almost black. Personally I like the variety.

Possible rainbow shrimp. A couple of mine were bluish. I was told they get blue as they get older but mine went dark red. If it is a rainbow it can cross breed with the cherries.

I was a little pokey getting things rearranged. The fry lasted quite a while and a few more were added but then they were gone this morning. So they were eaten or are hiding in a sea of hornwart. I put a breeder net/cage in the tank and will scoop any future fry I see in there. I have another tank with another gertrude trio and a pair of M. Praecox "Pagai" courtesy of rainbowric. I took the eggs I got from the mops in that tank and tossed them in the spawning net in the other tank. I'll see what happens from here. I have no idea who the eggs are from as I can't guess based on the egg size. The M. Praecox "Pagai" seem to be doing a lot of engaging on the mops sunk on the bottom of the tank - more so than the floating mops. The Gertrudes seem to hover on the bottom as well. Almost all the eggs are from the bottom mops...which may be do to the filter flow being so high (I turned it low today). The flow might also explain why I am only finding bottom eggs. I'm having fun figuring things out. hhmmm... Gertrudes are doing it on the floating mop as I type this...weird, I thought they were the bottom spawners and the M. Praecox "Pagai" were the floating mop spawners. Oh well - guess there is no law saying they can't go wherever. I would personally pull the parents as there are likely more eggs where those fry came from. The eggs take around 2 weeks to hatch out, so the idea is when you see your first few fry, yank the parents and over the next couple weeks more and more fry will hatch out. Those parent will polish off the babies as they hatch.

I was showing my neice some shrimp and snails in my rainbow tank, which only has Pseudomugil gertrudae Eubenangee Swamp in it, when I saw babies/fry scoot across the top of the tank. Didn't do anything special to get them to breed but somehow they laid eggs which weren't eaten by the 100 or so snails or dozens of shrimp and they hatched up I also managed to get some eggs on a mop in my other tank. Woo Hoo!!!

Pulled a mop out today and there were some on the mop, clear as can be. Now that I've seen them they are really hard to miss. He he. They literally look like that but in water. Once you see them you will know what they are. Once you get looking it's like seeing anything small, at first you only see a few and then you know what your looking for and they are everywhere. Ric likes to hang the mop in a 5 gallon bucket of water and then transfer the fry as they hatch out. I like to pick the eggs out of the mop and put them into my jars from the get go. The viable eggs are clear (and may have "eyed up") and are very firm. Almost like little ball bearings. The bad ones will squish from the slightest touch. However, I am very new to this and although I don't seem do have killed any eggs by picking them, Ric is certainly the pro and I would recommend his method if you don't have lots and lots of eggs. It also keeps hatched eggs from dirtying up the jar. I am curious to find out who all got egg kits in Edmonton. There are a few species I'd like to get my hands on. **whoops. Ric beat me to a response^^^

try e-mailing anna at : aholt21@cogeco.ca She is from toronto (I think) and might have some available. Even with shipping it has to be way cheaper than $30. FYI, they don't breed true. but if you can get a hold of orange eyed tigers they can give you blue orange eyed tigers.

forgot to upload the file lol

found this pic on the net. I'd like to see what they look like while still in the water.

It looks like I messed the size up and can't seem to find the reference for the size of a baby fairy shrimp, but they are small enough to feed to kiilifish and betta fry.

I'm just wondering why baby brine shrimp seems to be the usual choice over fairy shrimp. I've never hatched out fairy shrimp or collected them, but from what I am reading they are fresh water, easier to hatch out than brine, easy to propagate (continuous supply). They can get quite large relative to brine shrimp but they hatch out at 3mm (which I beleive is 30 microns) and small enough for anything. Brine shrimp aren't difficult to hatch but require salt, you can't propagate them (not easily anyways) and expensive. I've got my brine shrimp but I am wanting to have food supplies that can be self sustaining ( like daphnia). Anyone have any ideas/thoughts?

I am looking for a clean up crew for a couple of tanks that house mop spawner and substrate spawning egg layers. I am pretty sure snails will eat fish eggs and can't find a consensus on dwarf shrimpo eating fish eggs. I'd like some kind of clean up crew. Can anyone reccomend anything that definately won't eat fish eggs?

Jiffy peat pellets should work fine. You can get them anywhere now with gardening season getting started. Just cut the casing off after you soak them. You shouldn't need to use the whole pellet. I just picked up 30 pellets for $5 at Superstore. Thanks. I need it for a killie spawning substrate.

Someone sells them on aquabid.com. They have always been there when I look.

Yep, zig zag is a good way to describe their movement.

I finally got my Black Tahatian Moon Sand in my tank under LED light. I transfered 3 fish from a tank over run with hornwart. The 3 fish were fast and the tank got quite a stir. I am looking in the tank and it appears that I grabbed a fry shrimp, very small and would never have seen it if not for the black sand and led lights. Just beyond that I see these tiny white specs that could fit on the head of a pin resting then darting around the bottom...what in the world could they be? The 3 fish are Pseudomugil gertrudae Eubenangee Swamp. Unless they are even smaller shrimp fry I have no idea.

Found another one... this one one was gone by the time I got back with my camera. This was a little lighter than the last...more of a plum (not a hint of red). Its tail had a white triangle on it (white outline to the tail) and 3 tiny horizontal stripes just above that. I wonder of rainbow shrimp can cross with crs? Anyways, I will try and catch a picture.

I'll keep that in mind, though the Big Al's in Edmonton is a bit out of my way. Is it a nice store? You can order it from their online store. Worth looking at if only for the moon sand. Another thing you can do is if you have another established tank, just toss some extra filter sponges in their and let the bacteria colonize them for 2-3 week. Toss them in the new setup in addition to the other suggestions until you feel the tank is established.