Siamese Algae Eater
Crossocheilus siamensis, 'courting behaviour'
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White Cloud Mountain Minnows
breeding white clouds for pets or as feeder fish:
Young fish gather at the water surface, close to but not in, floating plants, making them easy to catch and transfer. Wait 'till they're about 2 weeks old and less fragile. If you don't chase them, clouds often come to the net to check it out. Use a soft, shallow net for this. Alternatively, use a small plastic container instead of a net. Lower a part of the rim below the rim and fry will be pulled into the container by the rush of water.
*If you want large numbers of young, your set-up should be meter or more long (3 to 4 feet). I use a low 44 gallon and a four-foot 35g.
*A twenty gallon would suffice if you just want to breed 'a few'. They will breed in a ten gallon, but clouds are active fish and don't belong in small tanks.
*Side mount your filter out-put if possible (rather than from the back) to give the males a long display run. They display and court most vigorously in the outflow. White clouds breed best in cooler aquariums with good water flow - they're river fish.
*If you're unable to side mount, position the out-flow midway along the back and leave a wide clear area in front of the flow.
*The aquarium should include a mass of floating plants, such as riccia, elodea, hornwort or naja grass. The spawning pairs with go into the plant mass to lay their eggs. Which ever plants you use, the mass should be dense. Hair algae and moss work as well. The use of floating plants will encourage springtails, an excellent white cloud food.
*Choice of substrate isn't critical. I have sand in the 44, and the 35 is bare-bottom. Rooted plants are nice but also not critical.
*Clouds will also use plastic plants or mops for spawning.
*Feeding the babies: a mature tanks with plants and driftwood will host a lot of aufwuchs and microorganisms, ideal 1st food for the minuscule babies. You'll get better survival rates and stronger babies simply by going natural.
*When you notice free swimming fry, supplement with small amounts of microworm, finely powdered fry food and krill fines. I also feed frozen rotifers (when available), frozen baby brine shrimp and live young daphnia and copepods.
*The grow-out tank should also be mature and feature plants and wood. Raising the temp in the grow out tank to 23C -24C will increase the growth rate.
*Feeding the adults: yes, I know they're just feeders to most people (too bad, really, as clouds are awesome community fish), but the garbage in/garbage out principle applies. Look after your breeding colony as carefully as your trophy fish and you'll get better food fish. Feed a good staple flake food, supplemented with micro worms, live and frozen daphnia, live midge larvae, frozen blood worms/larvae, frozen brine shrimp etc.
*Don't over crowd your breeding colony. It stresses the fish and will increase the pollutants in the water. If your feeders are infected with bacteria and other pathogens, your trophy fish will eventually get sick, too.
Clouds are vigorous, active, loosely schooling fish that display frequently and get along with most other aquarium inhabitants. You can even breed shrimp with clouds in the tank. Non fishkeeping friends who see them for the first time often comment that the clouds remind them of salmon.
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Indian Dwarf Puffers (Pea Puffers)
Breeding dwarf puffers
My puffers have been kind enough to breed for me on a few occaisions. This is how it worked for me:
20 gallon tank, temperture 26 - 28C; pH about 7.6, 2 teaspoons of salt to every 5 gallons of new water. The substrate is sand, covered in snail shells. (They have also spawned when the pH was only 7, so I don't think it's particularly critical as long as things are a little hard, and warm.)
Plants are critical. Boys play rough, and it's good to have a densley overgrown environment for females and fry to disappear into. Go for a 'Dutch-style' planting, even if you just use guppy grass and hornwort. Plants also foster the growth of rotifers, paramecia, copepods etc. - which babies enjoy munching on.
Spawning has always occurred in a raised clump of moss or hair algae. The male chases the female, then synchronizes his movements with hers, hanging beside her and a quarter body-length back. He butts her ventral region with his head, repeatedly. This goes on for a while until they slide into the moss, her first, then him, for a number of passes.
Diet (live): snails, copepods, daphnia, small scuds, new-born shrimp and fish larvae. Some will even take bites out of small fish. (frozen): foods such as bloodworm and brine shrimp. Puffers are lazy eaters. Feed them large snails and they'll just take a couple of bites and wander off. If the snails don't move, the puffs lose interest. That causes two problems: a lot of rotting snail carcass, and bad beaks. Feed really small snails, so that the whole thing gets eaten, shell included. This also helps to keep the beaks trimmed.
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