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Going to make a breeding rack and need some ideas if this is good

12K views 17 replies 2 participants last post by  Thoth 
#1 ·
I am going to build a rack in which I am going to try and breed angelfish. For the breeding pairs I will have 15 gallons each and for rearing I will have 30 gallon. The rack that I was thinking of will be closed with something like styrofoam or something similar so that it does not loose too much heat in winter. Do you know something different or better?

This is the rack that i was thinking of




1. From the bottom aquarium to floor I will have about 10". Is this good?
2. Between the aquarium and the upper stand I will have 7" of working space. Is this good?
3. For lightning I am going to use LED's or some cheap energy savers.
4. Filters I am going to use sponge filters.
5. I will use individual heater in every tank.
6. I will use an air pump with air stone in every aquarium.
7. I will do about 15-25% WC weekly.

Tank Dimensions will be
30 Gallon
Length - 14.5"
Width - 20"
Height - 24"


15 Gallon
Length - 11"
Width - 20"
Height - 16"

Will these be good? I will make them myself. I am doing these because I do not want the rack to be long.

Any comments or ideas are more then welcome.

Thanks :)
 
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#2 · (Edited)
I have never breed angels but I currently breed cory catfish. I have looked into a similar shelving unit for my tanks but decided against it due space issues and aesthetics. If I had a garage, I would have several shelves. Here is some feed back from my research and experience. You may have already considers many of my comments but here they go. :razz:

1. From the bottom aquarium to floor I will have about 10". Is this good?
How are you doing your water changes? You will want to make sure that the inlet of the siphon inside the tank is well above the outlet or you will not have enough power to remove waste from bottom of the tank. It will only be a problem on the bottom shelf. The shelf 10" off the ground should be enough but if you are siphoning into a slightly raise object off the floor like a trash can on wheels, you may not have enough power to effectively remove waste.

2. Between the aquarium and the upper stand I will have 7" of working space. Is this good?
Personally, I would increase this to at least 10". 7" does not seem wide enough to easily work in the tank.

4. Filters I am going to use sponge filters.
Look into using larger air pumps with splitters to reduce the amount of plugs. you are already at 17 plugs for the heaters.

7. I will do about 15-25% WC weekly.
may not be enough of a WC in the grow out tanks. It will depend on the fish load. Do some water tests to get a WC cycle that works for your fish load.

-Just the water is going to weigh over 2000 pounds and all the weight is going to be focused on the legs of the stand. Is the shelf going on a slab? A slab would have no problem supporting the weight but a non ground floor or a floor with a crawl space may not support the weight. You may want to look into this.

-More than half of the weight (~60%) will be on the bottom shelf. Make sure that this will support the (5) 30 gallon tanks or what ever tank you use as your grow outs. Baby angels are not going to need to be in 24" of depth of water. I would go with larger surface area tanks like (2) 40 breeders on the bottom shelf; you can always partition the 40 breeders to keep like sized fish together. Switching to 40 breeders will reduced the weight of the water on the bottom shelf, making it easier to support, and increase the gas exchange surface.
 
#3 ·
Thanks for your reply :)

In the meantime I changed a bit my plan because breeding pair needs 20 gallon to be good.

20 Gallons x6 which will host small fry and pairs on top

Lenght - 12"
Width - 24"
Height - 16" or 18" to have 22.5 Gallons

45 Gallons x3 which will host larger fry in bottom

Lenght - 24"
Width - 24"
Height - 18"

From the 20-22.5 gallon tank when the fry are free swimming I will remove the pair to another aquarium.
 
#4 ·
Is it really any cheaper to make the tanks your self? 20 High tanks seem to be a good size to breed angels in 24"x12"x16" deep(?).

Tanks typically sell for $1 to $2 per gallon and the smaller tanks are usually closer to the $1 range.
 
#6 ·
I would stay away from anything that is less than 20" in length if you are going to make them but it sounds like you will do well.

My wife has tried/is still trying to breed angels but she cant get them to survive more than a month.
We use the same water, which angels should do well in, and the same weekly cleaning regiments. In my 3 tanks, I have not lost a single fish in 2 years and she has lost maybe 14 angels in the past two months; She has had 1 survive. I think it is tainted stock from our LFS.

Good luck with them and I wish you success.
 
#8 ·
I have been breeding pepper corys for the past couple months. Once a month the 3 females lay around 100 eggs, which I have been increasing the numbers that have been hatching each batch. I have (11) 2 month old corys and (45+) 1 month olds; 6 to 60 in two months with one breading group. They are very easy and I think the only reason that they don't breed for people is that they don't have enough of them.

I have been trying to get my hands on 6 to 8 Corydoras similis for 3 months now with out having to pay $100 for them. My local area is dominated by large box stores and the LFS are reluctant in helping me get them. The LFS either dont do special orders or dont have the volume to be on the suppliers priority list.
 
#9 ·
oh ic i have some cory's but never bred them because i do not know how to and do not know how to distinguish male from female :(

I have sterbai, albino and bronze.

If you would explain to me of give me a good link I would be grateful :p

Also what about tanks and water parameters?
 
#10 · (Edited)
A quick and dirty run down:

Sexing:
Adult females will be much longer and broader in the pelvic fin region; I like to think of it as birthing hips and It is easier to see when you are looking at them from above. If you cant sex them, it will become clear once they reach the breeding age, I have read that it takes 8 or 9 months, they will begin a fattening up period which last about a month. The females will look obese and full of eggs even after 24 hours of not feeding.

Water:
It depends on the species but the easy to breed corys (~150 described cory species with pepper and bronze being reported as the easiest to breed) will be successful with a pH 6.5 to 7.5 and in either soft or hard water. Temperatures range is wide as well but 75 to 77 degrees is recommended.

Tank mates:
I keep my corys with Neon Tetras and have had no problems other than the 5 or so eggs they may eat. The Tetras do not seem that interested in the eggs or the food sitting on the bottom to cause a problem.

Breeding prep:
Once the corys reach the appropriate age, you will need to make sure you are feeding them well. I use an assortment of sinking wafers, micro pellets and frozen foods (blood worms and brine shrimp). They are slow eaters and you will need to make sure they get enough food without polluting the water. Keep in mind that aggressive feeders like guppies will likely cause them to not get enough food to prepare for breeding (fattening period).

Prompting breeding:
Once the female/females are fattened, which can take about 3 or 4 weeks, you can promote them to begin spawning by doing a significant water change and adding cooler water. I do a weekly 50% water change and when trying to promote breeding, I add water that is about 5 degrees. Usually, some time the next morning (12 or 15 hours later) the fish will begin to breed. Eggs are laid on the glass, plants and filter.

Egg care and hatching:
Ideal care would be to move eggs ( carefully with a razor) to a small container like a tip and pour (the plastic cup some pet stores use to hold fish while netting). Hang it over the side of the tank but with it inside of the water. This will keep the water inside the proper temperature. Use water from the tank where the breeding occurred as it is said to contain hormones that improve egg hatching. Clean the Tip and Pour daily and refill with breeding tank water. Keep an airstone inside of the tip and pour until the eggs hatch which will take 5 or 6 days. It is highly advisable to use an egg fungicide like Maroxy but make sure that it is completely removed form the tip and pour prior to hatching and not to contaminate the tank that the tip and pour is inside. Once they have hatched they will not need to be feed for 2 to 4 days as they will feed on their egg sac and can be moved to a cycled tank of there own. Once they become free swimming, no longer weighed down by an egg sac, you will need to feed them either finely crushed micro pellets or Hikari first bites or similar small foods.



Im sure planetcatfish.com has some well writing articles if you are looking for more information. I would suggest at least 5 of the same species and the biologist in me would also like to recommend not hybridizing corys. ;-)
 
#11 ·
hehe thanks for the write up. Not so easy to breed :s I read that they are easy to breed. Unlike other species like angelfish, ancistrus, kribensis I think that these are more easy to breed then corydoras.

I have 2x Albino, 1x Bronze and 15-20 sterbai but they are in a 120 gallon tank and to catch them since it is planted it si IMPOSSIBLE hehe.

Will try to buy some more bronze or albinos or peppered and try to fix them an aquarium. About PH my tap water is 8. Do you think that they could breed in it?

About current stock that I have I will try to take a picture of them and see if someone could sex them. Will post them later.

Thanks mate
 
#12 ·
The high pH is beyond me. I think I have read that the easy ones can be done at high pH but dont know about 8. Peppers or bronze would be the best bet. If you have 5+ sexing is not that important, they breed in a schooling manner. It is said that 3 males and 2 females is the best ratio. I have 3 females and 2 males and it still works well. I have very few unfertilized eggs.

24 hours after being laid the eggs that are unfertilized will turn bright white and you will want to remove them if you can. They will grow fungus easily and can spread to health eggs. As the fertilized eggs age, they move from a light white to a gray/tan color.

Steribi are on my list of wanting to breed and if I cant find some violet corys soon I will try them.

get an plastic 12 oz water bottle, cut the top 3 inches off, flip it around inside the rest of the water bottle and you have a catfish trap. Fill it with food and place it in the tank. Fish go in and have a hard time getting out. Its better to understand with a picture. Link...
Homemade Fish Trap

The albinos are not an individual species. They are likely albino bronze corys but many species come as albinos.
 
#13 ·
Hi mate,

I finally got some photos of my corydoras stock :)

Can you help me sex them?

This sterbai Cory seems to be a male for me


Bronze on the left seems to be a female, albino bottom male and albino upper seems to be a female


Final photo all together but difficult to sex for me hehe same ones of the above. left albino female, right albino male, sterbai male and bronze female



It could be great if you can tell me the sexes and tell me where i went wrong :)
Thanks in advance.
 
#14 ·
If the catfish are the same age, there is usually a size (length) difference between male and female but the difference varies per species. I was able to ID my group with 80% accuracy.


Did you buy all of the fish when they were full grown? If you buy full grown corys (~2 inches long) and select the largest fish, it is possible that all of the corys will be female. When I selected my breeding group, I picked 5 corys that were a little bigger than an inch, clearly not full grown. It looks like most of the fish are female.

Photo 1: *Sterbai is female
Photo 2: *Bronze is female, bottom albino is female and dont know the top albino but could be male.
Photo 3: *Sterbai and Bronze are female. Left albino could be male and the right female


*Confident in sexing
 
#15 ·
Well I bought them at the same age more or less and about 1 - 2 months apart. Also by now they should be adults because I bought them 9 months ago.

When I picked them they were not adults.

Thank you for sexing. Some people told me that they are all males do not know why.
 
#16 ·
I tried to get you a picture of my catfish close up so that you can see the difference in size. No luck so far but I will continue to try, the males are very timid. My canon rebel, which would make for an easy shot, has a damaged lens so Im using an inexpensive pocket digital with a not so nice zoom.

The yellow fins on the sterbai are just amazing. Love it
 
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