I have a breeding problem

[jamous91]

i have common whiptail catfish and clown plecs ready to breed the female whiptail is huge and there is deffo one huge clown plec which shall i breed also i have already bred the common whiptail catfish but only got four fry to survive

 

[bigbird]

Hello,

Like your enthusiasm.
Firstly give us size of tank etc and size of fish and how long you have had them for. Secondly, just because they look gravid, it does not mean success . Ls and whips will breed when ready and conditions are good.
The fact that you have manged to raise 4fry is success itself. I compare this to fishing in a weird way. Looks simple but darn hard. Some Ls do not breed for years if at all and others go crazy. It is a waiting game and trying to mimic and stimulate the Ls to breed. Give us more details of your tansk etc ?
cheers jk :thumbup:

 

[jamous91]

Hello,

Like your enthusiasm.
Firstly give us size of tank etc and size of fish and how long you have had them for. Secondly, just because they look gravid, it does not mean success . Ls and whips will breed when ready and conditions are good.
The fact that you have manged to raise 4fry is success itself. I compare this to fishing in a weird way. Looks simple but darn hard. Some Ls do not breed for years if at all and others go crazy. It is a waiting game and trying to mimic and stimulate the Ls to breed. Give us more details of your tansk etc ?
cheers jk :thumbup:

i have a 63L which i keep all my fish in untill they are ready to give birth well that is the normal way but i do have the clown plecs in the 45 liter where all my fish go to give birth then i remove the parents - i have had the whiptails for as long as i remember ( 2 years ) and they bred for me as soon as i got them well within 2 months and the clown plecs i have had for five months at a push

 

[bigbird]

ok thanks for that, then I can recommend water changes more frequent and feeding, this tends to stimulate the Ls and whips....cheers jk :thumbup:

 

[jamous91]

ok thanks for that, then I can recommend water changes more frequent and feeding, this tends to stimulate the Ls and whips....cheers jk :thumbup:

my problem was not breeding them it was which one to choose to breed as i have only got room to raise one set of fry

 

[bigbird]

OK, then one small step at the time. Sell the fry and from your gains buy another tank etc and slowly build. You would propably get more for your Ls, however they do not breed that prolific. So stay on the peps and bns and start from there. hopethis helps cheers jk :thumbup:

 

[scatz]

it depends on wether you want to go for a challenge or not.
if you want the joys of breeding and getting some practice of raising fry, stick with the whiptails.
or go for the challenge of breeding the clowns.
or do what i did, get another tank and try them both lol

 

[Doug]

if you are having trouble raising the fry i find it is most often a water issue. The fry are a lot more sensitive that the parents, so even though the parents are ok, the fry wont be. I found that when i was using tap water for breeding the parents were ok but the fry would die, which would trigger an ammonia spike, dropping the water quality even more and more fry would die until the spiral had completed itself and none were left. I had to treat the hell out of the water to make it safe for fry, now i run RO so its much easier

In terms of breeding, I always suggest using proifits from breeding to upgrade. This is good for two reasons, firstly, there is no major cost, you are making money from breeding that goes into breeding, keeps my girlfriend off my back anyway the second is that you will have to wait for the funds to build up, meanwhile you are learning the ropes and perfecting your skills. once you have the $$$ to spend on some decent breeders then you will have the skill base to draw upon to get the new ones to breed.