Fish about to lay eggs??!!?!!

Hi, im really sorry, i know this isnt a forum specifically made for fish.. 2 weeks ago i bought 5 white cloud mountain minnows (2 males 3 females) to add in my axolotl tank bacause i heard their the best company fish for axolotls.. Anyways i found 2 of my minnows appeared to look really fat and its anal bit is like orangy yellow im not really sure what to do... Is their a member that has experience with minnow breeding that could help me?

Just make sure you have lots of real or fake plants for the babies to hide in or the adults will eat them all. The females will breed like crazy and you will soon have many.

Dr0gr1n said:

Just make sure you have lots of real or fake plants for the babies to hide in or the adults will eat them all. The females will breed like crazy and you will soon have many.

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Far as I understand it, White Cloud Mountain Minnows don't normally eat their young; I know that my five original WCCMs' first 'batch' of offspring resulted in at least 20 to 30 that survived fryhood and are still alive (except, of course, those that were subsequently eaten by the Doctor).

Don't worry about it. The babies are real good at surviving, and you'll end up with some more axolotl snacks. The parents aren't likely to eat the young, but that doesn't matter anyway, since I assume your minnows are for snacking in the first place. Just leave it be.

I threw in about twenty minnows for my axolotls and had a nice breeding population for a while. I never worried about a thing, and never fed them. I believe the fry ate the little cyclops and other tank invaders I had, since they did well. It's not something that you need to take action on. They'll get eaten sooner or later.

Having used a dozen white clouds to cycle my tank, I was wondering how long it would take for them to spawn.

Gues what happened the morning after I got my axolotls! Now 4 of my white clods are 'missing' so I may have missed my window of opportunity to establish a colony.

miguelmannao29 said:

Hi, im really sorry, i know this isnt a forum specifically made for fish.. 2 weeks ago i bought 5 white cloud mountain minnows (2 males 3 females) to add in my axolotl tank bacause i heard their the best company fish for axolotls.. Anyways i found 2 of my minnows appeared to look really fat and its anal bit is like orangy yellow im not really sure what to do... Is their a member that has experience with minnow breeding that could help me?

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Also , There is a forum on the site for FISH under the LIVE FOOD section

I'm not sure of the rules about posting addresses for other sites in the forum, but there are several fish keepers forums for people who keep livefish out there on the web. PM me if you like

Jumbuck said:

Having used a dozen white clouds to cycle my tank, I was wondering how long it would take for them to spawn.

Gues what happened the morning after I got my axolotls! Now 4 of my white clods are 'missing' so I may have missed my window of opportunity to establish a colony.

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I've had 11 axolotls go through 120 young white clouds within a week. You just need to get a lot of adults that are ready to breed. Starting them out in another tank (necessary for quarantine anyway) makes it easier to get breeding. After a month or two with maybe 20 fish you should get some fry. I don't know the actual breeding times, but it's not an exact science. They just need to last long enough and they'll breed as soon as they're ready. I tend not to worry about how many I put in initially, because my guys would get them fast.

It helps to make sure they're full adults. I'd say next time you want to establish a colony, you should go for something like 10 times as many as you have axolotls. With my two andersoni they were unable to eat thirty adults in time, especially with consistent smaller feeder ones and lots of worms. It can work, it just takes a lot of them and a lot of places for them to hide, like piles of moss. It's worth it, though. Axolotls are very bad hunters, and when they try to chase the fish it just looks ridiculous.

Rofl

I think my white clouds are going through that invulnerable teenage stage, daring each other to swim over and touch the axolotls. No hunting required other than sitting around and pretending not to care.........UNTIL IT'S TO LATE!!!!

In the bad news, my 8 remaing white couds now number 7.
In the good news, I have just seen 2 little specs swimming around. Also, at least 4 of the dozen shrimp I added early in the week were seen de-algae-ing one of the plants this morning. (I have a dedicated cherry red shrimpery next to the axie tank, and another at my son's kinder, to top up the numbers down the track)

I've never been able to establish a shrimpery. I'm just bad with shrimp. My advice would be to add a few more adult white clouds, or more than a few. That will keep the population stable to establish some breeding before they're all snacked on. You'd be surprised at how quickly they go. You're probably seeing issues with the white clouds keeping to their schools. If they're going off on their own, you really ought to get a few more. You'll lose them very quickly once they stop schooling. Also, if you'd like to sex them to make sure you get enough of each gender, males have larger and brighter fins.

I thought I should also mention that if you plan on wintering your axolotls, the white clouds go down into the 40s easily. And will still breed. Very convenient.

Woohoo! Cloud numbers are back to a dozen. 5 tiny little darting specs have been spotted over the last two days.

The clouds were mainly for cycling the tank. While I don't consider any animal as 'disposable' I was not going to be unhappy if they became an enrichment activity to stop the axies getting bored. A stable population would be better, though. I was considering throwing in another 10, but I'll wait a bit and see how the fry go. The size difference between the 2 specks I spotted on. Thursday and the 3 new specks that appeared last night is phenomenal - at least 200%, possibly 300%. Fast growing is an understatement.


Neither shrimpers has caused me much stress. 50 red cherries from a local breeder and 50 glass shrimp (same species as cherries in oz, not the brackish carnivores elsewhere) which were probably intended as feeders. Weirdly, the large tank I have at home and which I am carefully aquascaping and tending is moving quite slowly. The old tank at kinder with gravel from my Goldie tank , an ornament i aged with the goldies a month, a handful of java mess, and pretty much ignored except for the teacher over feeding them, is going gangbusters. The walls are green with algae, and the shrimp are so numerous I took a few home to blister my big tank and try a dozen to snack on a bit of muck with the axies. (as of this morning we know at least 4 are still in there).
My shrimpery suggestion would be benign neglect - heater at 22-25*C, dirty gravel from fishies, a handful of java moss or equivalent for them to breed, and a bit of food until algae gets a good hold. Expect to lose a few from stress in the move. And only use a bubble filter or they'll get sucked up by the impeller and mulched. I had a potted plant with the goldies that was starting to look a bit urky. Put it in the shrimps at breakfast time. 2 hours later I couldn't, see green for the shrimps. By dinner it was spotless and ready to go back.

ANd this afternoon, teams of 3-4 clouds were buzzing between my lazylotls. We might have come to an agreement over when to feed, how much, and how.

And please tell the clouds that earthworms the lotls are ignoring are not interchangeable with their frozen bloodworms. There is NO WAY you are going to slurp up an earthworm no matter how many times you try

Thanks for all the replies! unfortunately the 2 minnows still havent spawned yet since my last post.. But ill keep an eye on them and update you guys.. Thanks again