Peppermints and breeding

[Kangus]

:hi:

Hi all

well i was thinking the other day that our peps are getting close to breeding age, they are approx 20 months old and around 10-13cm, and was wondering what should i do to start conditioning them? have bred commons before but not the peps. Their diet consists of zuchinni, pumkin occasionally, and algae discs every few days.

at present they are in a 2.5ft, 80ltr tank at around 25 degree's, housed with a slate cave (thanks breamlegend) a couple of wood caves, and some wood tangles. There are 5 adults (i think 3M and 2F) and a few guppies and white clouds to add a bit of colour to the tank . Is this tank big enough?

What works best, pairs? trios? colony? any advice or tips would be great! :yes: thanks

 

[froggie]

Is the breeding age for peps approx 20 months ?
I thought it was more like a year.

To get them started, I would suggest the addition of a high protein diet.
Large (40 -50%) cooler, weekly, water changes.
Dropping the ph(<7.5) and TDS (<100) worked for me.

 

[Bigjohnnofish]

i wouldnt worry about the high protein diet... zucchinni and pumpkin are fine... thats all i ever feed mine on... they have been breeding constantly for 3 years now.... pretty much non-stop.. also get some flake once in a while.

as far as ratio goes i would stick to 1-2 males per tank and as many females as you want to put in there... but once they start breeding - thin the girls out to 3-4 per tank... too many causes chaos when they all wanna lay at the same time....

as for spawning... do a 90% waterchange... with a SLOW SLOW trickle fill back up... should take at least an hour to fill back up... sometimes they'll spawn even before the water reaches the top of the tank... other times a few days - maybe a week tops... if nothing happens feed them up again and try it all over again in a fortnight....

i must say people have different methods to spawn these fish.... but basically its the dry/wet simulation and the removal of nitrates from the water that triggers them....

good luck :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

 

[Irene0100]

yes some prawn, worms or other protein should help

 

[Kangus]

thanks for the replies i cleaned the the tank yesterday and though it was a good pic opportunity, so here's a pic of them - anyone want to have a guess at their sexes? (pic has been lightened up in photoshop)

 

[sukieblur]

Do any of them have branched bristles? I can't see from the photo. If they have branched bristles or bristles going up the snout, then they are male.

I have just had my first spawn. Two males, four females. I've been feeding a variety of food and doing the cooler water changes weekly.

 

[jason250]

My 2 pairs are about 3 yrs old. Had 2 spawns 6 months ago then it all stopped.

Been busy lately and have not done my 4-5 day water change for 2.5 weeks and when i went to do a WC today i realised male is sitting on eggs. :woohoo:

Pepps seem to be alot harder to spawn than the commons

 

[Kangus]

well, it appears i need to chase down some girls, mine appear to be all/mostly boys. Thanks all for your replies