Post by Mark~N on Mar 25, 2017 10:32:02 GMT -6
Well ,I had an unfortunate incident with a nice group of snapper creek mellis a while back. This was to be my next breeding colony. About 7 months old here in this vid
Came home one day and they were all dead due to a heater failure. I was devastated. More so that I did not get any fry or good eggs from them yet. They were still a few months away from being well fertile and consistent producers.Now I was in a complete panic.I had no fry or young as backup.Only a couple pair or 5 older ones about 2.5 years. I think the males were about 2 years of age but females older.I had a 55 gallon tank of assorted blue-eyes I had to spend a day fishing through to find them.I figured they were well pass the breeding stage but worth a shot.Boy was I wrong.This little group was 10x better than any I was breeding or have bred close to the 1 year age.
Not sure how others keep them but they do prefer softer water with a lower ph value.I had a tank ready to go with parameters as follows
PH-6.4
GH- 6
KH-1
Temp- 78
Here is the tank.
I did not have the floating riccia.Only added a couple days ago when I noticed a dozen fry swimming at surface.Never thought to check because never was able to get fry raised with adults since keeping these.So this was a big win on it's own.It only took me a week to collect the first 35-40 eggs or so.And I was quite surprised at the near 100% fertility rate I was seeing.I will be honest here and don't hate me lol.. I did not condition them much forehand. Basically just live bbs mainly and got large amount of eggs in first week alone on that.. I did add frozen black mosquito larvae chopped frozen bloodworms after to the diet as well as daphnia.But these old guys and gals seemed they were ready to go!.
As of 3/1/2017 I have about 50 fry plus the eggs you see in above pic..And they are still pumping out eggs in large numbers.Here are some fry at almost a month.
So important to know as I have been told they can and will throw good eggs well over 3 years providing you keep them healthy and happy that long.I have seen people rush them early and personally I think it is a waste of time. You are better off waiting til the 9 -12 age to breed to build a large first shot colony.Otherwise you will frustrate yourself with low fertility,eggs that fungus fast and fry that never pop up.And only a few scattered age fry to show for it.Also,i am leaning toward if you keep your temp to low or breed them in cooler temps you will be heavy on the male side.So to conclude it is fair to say when breeding these you do have plenty of time.Providing you don't lose them! 