2 pairs of Cherry Barbs have been selected for breeding project and added to the breeding tanks. They were extremely shy at first which was expected but they have become increasingly more adventurous which I’ll take as a good sign (as far as their general health at least).
Now that all 3 of the main tanks are up and running I’ve decided to try breeding cherry barbs. I’ve done some research over the past few weeks and based on the information I’ve gathered it seems they are the best fish to start with out of the fish I want to populate the 55 gallon tank with.
Although I’ve never bred barbs before I have had quite a bit of success with various types of Corys and I’m reasonably confident that I can have similar success in this endeavor.
So, on to the setup. I had two 10 gallons tanks setup in the basement that I had been using to grow extra Java Moss so I decided to use those. I stripped down the tanks, discarded the substrate and scrubbed them clean. I kept the heaters (50W Visi-Therm Stealth) and replaced the existing filters with standard sponge filters to make things more fry-friendly. The temperature in both tanks is at 76 deg. Java Moss was added to serve as a spawning media.
I visited one of our local pet stores yesterday intending to buy a few Otos because I had noticed some brown (diatom) algae growing on some of the Bacopa leaves. A few turned into six, which I didn’t see a problem with because of the size of the tank and the relatively low number of current inhabitants. As I walked further down the aisle I noticed six White Cloud Mountain Minnows darting around of one the tanks. Common sense told me to hold off for another week or so but somehow I justified bringing them all home.
In most cases I would not have added this many fish to a tank all at once, however, based on several factors (tank size, current bio-load, frequency of water changes, etc.) I am confident that it will not be a problem here. Only time will tell.
Anyways, as of right now everyone is behaving normally, the water quality has not changed; Ammonia, Nitrate, and Nitrite tests are all reading zero.
The photo above is of one of the new Otos, already hard at work.
