How do you start breeding fish??

Question

I have several tanks with great filtration.-freshwater. I would like to start breeding feeder fish for my oscars. How do I go about this and how hard is it? Also How hard is it to breed oscars?

Answer 1

First the feeder fish question. Typically people think goldfish here, but I would say you need to try a different fish. Guppies, mollies or swordtails would be my recommendations. You can stock them into one tank and remove the heavy females right before they give birth to a seperate tank with lots of cover for the babies. Return her to the main tank after and away you go. Below are some details specific to guppies, but it will work just as well for the others. If you can put kiddie swimming pools in your yard, you can use them in the warmer weather to raise tons of guppies, white clouds or small danios.

Oscars are another matter all together. They are a bit touchy to breed because of some special considerations they need. I would suggest you try checking out a few Oscar or cichlid websites to get the best info on them.

Breeding guppies really is just as simple as most people say it is but if you really want to be serious about it there are a few considerations.

Tank requirements: You need to have two tanks at least 10 gallons in size. The first one should be cycled and all settled ready for your new guppies. The second should be filled with water and have a sponge filter running. It should also gave a heater and lots of hiding places for the babies. Set up both tanks and keep the temperature in both about 74-78 F, guppies will do well in that range. pH, hardness and other water conditions are not very important to guppies. They tolerant a very wide range of parameters.

Feeding: For the adults you need to feed a good basic flake food as well as the occasional treat of frozen foods. Buy a couple of them to swap between, blood wroms, mosquito larvae, brine shrimp are all good. For the babies you need baby brine shrimo to feed for the first few days and some cruches flake to start mixing in after that. Yes, you can just crush the flake yuou use for the adults.

The Fish: Get 1 male for every 2-3 females. No need to get many, after all you expect to breed plenty! Most you find at pet stores will already be pregnant so if you are really serious about getting just the right color you will need to by from a serious breeder or be prepared to work at it a while.

The mating: Just put them together and they will do the rest.

Once the female is very gravid (pregnant) move her to the empty tank and leave her there until she has the babies. Once she has them you can more her back to the main tank. Feed the babies fairly often, 4-5 times a day isn't too often and change 40 - 50% of the tank water every 2-3 days. The larger the babies get the more often you will have to change water until the babies are adults.

Raising the babies: Feed the babies fairly often, 4-5 times a day isn't too often and change 40 - 50% of the tank water every 2-3 days. The larger the babies get the more often you will have to change water until the babies are adults. Install a tank divider in the baby tank as soon as possible and once you can tell males from females start to seperate them. Most serious breeders end up using two tanks, so you might want to plan on that in the future. Seperate them as soon as possible! Also do not give up on the water changes! They are critical for proper growth! I cannot stress this enough!

Hope this helps a little and good luck with your breeding efforts!

MM

Answer 2

You will never breed enough feeder fish for your oscars unless you've got a huge pond or a lot of tanks set-up. They are voracious. It really isn't worth the work and time. It will truly just be easier for you to purchase some feeder fish from time to time or offer them little bits of chopped meat. To breed oscars, you will need to start off with a pair. You'll notice a pair behaving differently with each other and try to prevent other fish from coming into their 'preferred' area. It'll be best at this point to get the others out of that tank. Oscars are good parents and prolific breeders if they are healthy and the water is clean (frequent water changes and good filtration).

Answer 3

You could breed guppies. The other feeder fish are not easy to raise in small tanks To breed oscars you need a 90 gallon or larger tank and of course a male and a female. Find someone who knows how to tell a male from a female and get large ones. Don't expect to be successful unless you are j ust lucky.

Answer 4

well, the pet store has breader tanks that you put inside your fish tank and then you just put the female and male fish in there and i think its like 3weeks the babies/eggs will fall through this breader tank and u keep the parents in it so they want eat the kids. I think u can buy a smaller tank for the baby fish until they get older


good luck and happy breading

Answer 5

First make sure you and the fish are in love, then take it from there, go out on dates, have dinner, dont be to pushy, have a few drinks and u might get lucky,,lol...

Answer 6

I'm no fish expert but I think you gotta get males and females first

Answer 7

absolutely no idea, but i know it is kinda hard to succseffuly breed fish

Answer 8

get guppies. they multiply like rabbits.

Answer 9

let the fish have sex all the time LOL