If you are a passionate fish hobbyist, you have beautiful pairs of fish in your aquarium, and you want to breed your own choice so that you can have the beautiful offspring to gift to your friend on the New Year. Then what are you waiting for? Though it seems to be a difficult task for you, especially if you are a beginner in this pleasurable habit of fish-keeping. But it’s not impossible either. You can do it at your home with your aquarium fish all by yourself. Yes! You can surely do this.
All you need to do is to perform some careful preparation and monitoring steps, and you can have the desired offspring of your favorite species at your place. Is there any better feeling of accomplishment to have in this congenial aquarium hobby? As a reward, you may be blessed with some newly born little captivating fish to offer to your friends. Wow! Let’s begin with this.
What are the Steps for Breeding Fish?
For ensuring proper mating between the chosen species of fish, you need to carefully follow the following steps:
Select the Parent Fish to Breed
To breed the chosen fish, your first step is to determine their biological sex. Unlike other animals, the fish are a little bit tricky. In the marine and freshwater organisms, the biological differences between species fluctuate to a degree. There are a few common distinctions that may help you out to distinguish between the sex of the species. Female Cichlids, for instance, have rounded bodies and less pronounced vents, while males usually have more sparkling color patterns on their bodies, followed by a small round hump on their heads.
Make sure to make the breeding done of the same species. In case you don’t, you can still have the offspring, but that would be infertile or sterile. Do select the fish that are best in physical health, as the sick one or injured one can make it difficult to breed. In case if you’re not able to differentiate the sex of your fish, take them to an aquatic veterinarian or breeding specialist to have them examined by an expert.
The Spawning Tank: The Place Where Breeding Takes Place
The tank in which you want to do breeding of the two fish is usually called a “spawning tank.” Isolating the parent fish in a spawning tank reduce the over-crowding, giving both of them enough space to breed well. Usually, you will require a spawning tank with a capacity of at least 5–10 gallons (19–38 liters). It’s crucial to maintain the aquatic conditions of the spawning tank and their older aquarium equivalent so that they may adjust and acclimate quickly to this new tank.
The Optimum Condition for Breeding
The food needed for the parent fish while breeding is very obligatory, and you can’t neglect it. You need to seriously take it into account. You can’t compromise on the food in this complete process. Make sure to incorporate a nutrient-rich, high protein diet while you’re encouraging them to mate. The proper diet and nutrients will boost up their energy and thus their fertility strength making them breed.
The Research you Need to do Before Breeding the Chosen Fish
Research the Mating Habits of the Fish
Before you want to place both the fish for mating, you need to carefully go through the research on their mating habits in quite detail. The factor will let you know about the maintenance conditions and arrangements necessary for the mating purposes. Search it out what are the things or requirements that the species needs for mating, how they lay an egg, how much time do they need to mate, what are the required conditions. You may search for all the required information on a fish encyclopedia. You may also search for some available latest issued books and manuals that elaborate in detail the complete life cycle and the reproduction cycle of different marine and freshwater organisms.
Simulate Mating Season
The rainy season is when most of the fish mate mostly and successfully. But the question that arises here is that how can you create artificial rain in your aquarium? There’s no big deal in this! If you are planning to produce fish offspring in your aquarium, you can create artificial rain into your aquarium as well. For that purpose, you may use some artificial showering instruments like the baby shower to execute the rain. This will work as the mirage for your fish. The surface of the aquarium will resemble an ocean. Changing the water level by draining the tank halfway and slowly refilling it can also trick fish into thinking that it is the ideal time to fertilize and lay eggs.
Incorporate Familiar Physical Features
Make sure you place the mandatory aquarium elements like stones, plants, and artificial tunnel structures to the tank to provide the natural environment of seas or oceans that provokes the fish to mate easily. A more natural yet feasible environment will make them mate easily and fast.
Once the Fish has Laid Eggs or Have Offspring?
- Shift the parent fish from the spawning tank to the aquarium.
Once the female has laid her eggs or given birth, you need to quickly return both parents to their original aquarium, where they will acclimate to their previous environmental conditions. This step will protect the eggs from any atrocity or stress and provide them enough time and space to hatch under normal conditions.
- Reduce the amount of light that enters the tank.
You need to limit the light to the tank. For this, cover the tank by 1/3rd, allowing the light to enter the aquarium from one side only. Eggs and newly-hatched fish are sensitive to light as too much light can alter their development or even kill them at all.
You need to change the tank water daily by usually 25-50% and replacing it with fresh water. Make sure to perform this task at the same time of the day every day. Clean water will make the fry to breathe easily as the fry is sensitive at this stage.
- Feed the young fish several times a day.
When the fry first hatch, they are born with some quantity of a large yellow egg sac that provides enough food for a few days. Once this egg sac is finished, you’ll need to feed them on your own. For that case, you may use liquid egg yolks, crushed fish flakes, plankton, and algae to nourish the new-born fry.
Which Time of the Year is Most Favorable for Breeding Fish?
Usually, the feasible and realistic time for the fish species to breed and produce offspring is spring. The reason for this is that during the springs, the temperature of the water usually elevates a bit and the intensity of natural daylight also increases. You can also artificially construct this period anytime in your home aquarium by just having some adjustments like water changing, increasing the temperature of the aquarium, and gradually increasing the length of time the lights are on.
If you are successful in setting up an environment that is identical to that of natural marine or freshwater environment, by providing the required amount of protein-rich diets, by controlling the other temperature conditions, you are able to make the partners mate for perfect mating and you may have the best possible offspring. The way a fish lays eggs varies from one species to another. So as a result, there come several aquarium setups, plant types, breeding surfaces, and foods that are best to stimulate spawning for various fish species.
Which Species of Fish are the Best When it Comes to Breeding?
If you want to breed the fish for selling purposes, you need to keep in mind that customers usually buy fish that are available and are low in cost. So for that purpose, you may breed the species that can produce offspring in less time and more in numbers. Look at the following examples for knowing the best species of fish for the breeding purpose:
- Platys
- Mollies
- Guppies
