For most of us, our first experience of fish breeding comes quite by accident, and leads to panic. As renowned breeder Gabor Horvath explains, there’s no need to fluster.
NOTHING PROVES BETTER that you are doing things well as a fish keeper than seeing your protegees becoming pregnant or laying eggs. It’s always exciting to have ‘newborns’ suddenly arrive in your fishy family, but—as opposed to having a real baby—in this case you can’t really count on your relatives’ advice and help to successfully raise them.
That’s why I’ve collated some guidelines for you, based on many years of breeding experience. Please note that the advice below is post-birth only. These aren’t tips on how to breed your fish, but rather about how to keep your fry alive after a surprise spawning.
And, as we know that not everyone is a professional breeder with a thick wallet three potential solutions will be offered for almost every point: a professional (P), a recommended (R) and a budget (B) option.
I see wrigglers!
The first thing is: don’t panic, especially if it’s a livebearer that has given birth (like a platy, molly, guppy or swordtail). Think through what you already have to hand. If you are keeping small-mouthed fish (guppies or platys say, with a few Corydoras catfish) in a well-planted tank then you don’t need to do much. You can add some floating plants to improve survival rates, but otherwise your task is limited to providing suitable food for the newborns.
If you have slightly larger or hungrier fishes than your livebearers in the same aquarium as the fry, then the chances are that the babies will be eaten if left in situ. The best way to ensure survival is separating out pregnant mothers before they give birth.
The ideal solution would be setting up a separate breeding tank (more of that later), but if you have no extra room or your significant other/mother doesn’t support the extension, a Ziss breeding box (P), a breeding net (R) or a floating breeder tub (B) can be the solution.
Put some fine-leaved plants/moss (or alternatively a few threads of polyester knitting yarn) into one of the above and hang/float the equipment in your tank, but only move the expectant mother in when she is close to giving birth.
It takes some practice to determine the right time when a livebearer is about to release young, but if you learn to notice the signs—the belly gets an angular look, the eyes of the fry are v
