Using breeding mops?

[firestorm]

I was reading up on breeding my rainbows and killifish, looks like breeding mops are the recommended breeding technique. Has anyone else ever used this technique? I was thinking of going to wal mart to find some nylon or acrylic yarn to make these mops. Any tips on making one, or using them to breed with? Any help or suggestions would be great

[geleen]

I was reading up on breeding my rainbows and killifish, looks like breeding mops are the recommended breeding technique. Has anyone else ever used this technique? I was thinking of going to wal mart to find some nylon or acrylic yarn to make these mops. Any tips on making one, or using them to breed with? Any help or suggestions would be great

Just google spawning mops for many examples. :thumbs:

Also read here: http://members.optushome.com.au/chelmon/Contents.htm

John

[firestorm]

Thanks John, that is a very interesting article. What tank size would you recommend to be the minimum for a breeding tank? I guess I am pretty much set with the ratio, I have 3 male boesemani and 2 females (from which I read it's better to have more males than females). They are almost 2" long now, and since one of the males has shown signs of wanting to breed, it should not be too difficult. What would be the success rate in breeding with using a breeding mop, compared to say using java moss? That article also stated for egg eaters, you can use a bristle brush for the egg laying site. I wonder if my pipe cleaning brushes might even do the trick.

My killifish, I had 2 males and 2 females, but removed one male last night to give them a better breeding ratio. I placed a large clump of java moss in the tank, since I read that they will spawn in this. But I was reading online that breeding mops were recommended for breeding this species as well. I guess I can wait and see what happens over the next couple of weeks with them, in the meantime I will try to get some yarn and make up some mops. I would really love to breed these guys since they are a gorgeous species of killifish, and they are getting up there in age, would love to keep some of the young and raise them as well.

[sharuq1]

I used mops with my killies with success. Just get some yarn (dark green works great), make a mop and boil it for about 10 mins before using it. This gets any leftover dye and such out and also sterilizes it. Don't use cotton, it rots. I just took a piece of cardboard, wrapped yarn around it until I had a bundle, slid it off, tied off one end, cut the bottoms and voila, instant mop. The eggs harden and you can just pick them off. Also, the killies seem to really appreciate it dark when they are breeding. I wrapped 3 sides in spare background I had lying around and also put a piece on the front about halfway so they had a dark corner to breed in. It might also help to have one floating mop on top and one sunken mop. Some pairs like the floaty ones some like the sinking ones, and some like both. Either way it gives them a place to hang out and hide. I tied my sunken mop to a small clay pot from wal-mart to make it sink.

A small tank works better for breeding killies than a large one. I used a 2.5g for my killie breeding tank and changed out half the water every day (usually with RODI because I have it anyway). I also used an AC70 on the back dialed down for filtration. Killies don't tend to like a whole lot of water movement, but they do like really clean water.

[firestorm]

Thanks, I will definitely try that with the killi's. For now until I get the mop material, I placed a bunch of java moss on the bottom, and I put some dwarf riccia in to float on the top, and it looks as though they are trying to get it on in the riccia already lol. I might not even need a mop at the rate they are going