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10K views 6 replies 4 participants last post by  Shimagoma 
#1 ·
My sister decided she didn't want her cherry barbs any more, so I took them from her and about two weeks later noticed that one of the females was huge, almost box-shaped. I decided on a whim to have a go at it. My spare was a two gallon tank that is not a Marineland Eclipse, but is set up exactly like one, without any kind of light. I put an aged sponge on the intake, stuck an aged filter cartridge in the tank, filled it with water, and stuffed it with water sprite, anacharis, and moss.

I moved the fish in there (the eggy female and one male), they spawned, I removed them right after, and the eggs hatched two days later. It's been a week now and several of the 30-some odd fry are free-swimming, with the remainder still on the bottom, occasionally "twitching." I can't see any fry that seem to be actually dead, they're all moving in some way or another. Right now the fry are ranging in size from 1/4-1/2", and are really skinny, like shards of glass with little eyes.

I have a desk lamp behind the tank for the plants (13W 6500K) and an airstone in the tank. I've been changing 50% of the water every day, and feed them three drops of green water five times a day (I tried to culture infusoria, but the only vegetable I had was zucchini and it didn't work. I'm trying again with lettuce now).

Does this setup sound okay? Would cherry barb fry even eat phytoplankton, and how big should they be before I try to start feeding baby brine shrimp? This is my first attempt at trying to breed anything, so I'm kind of playing it by ear.



 
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#2 ·
I think you should do fine with your set up. Just stay up with you W/C and offer small amt of food 2-3Xs a day.

I 've had a colony of Cherry Barbs that I kept in my 40B and they spent last summer (2012) outside in a 1/2 whiskey barrel pond. I currently have representatives from 6 spawns in one tank from 1/4 fry to young adults.

I find cherry barbs to be a very hardy fish. I do nothing at all to breed/raise my fish other than routine maintenance. I have 2-3 fry survive each spawn in a moderately heavily planted tank. I have a large clump/area of Subwassertang and Taiwan Moss that they spawn in. I'm sure that's why some do survive due to the protection of the plants.
 
#4 ·
I had mine breed in the qt tank. I did nothing to help the frys along till they where a bit bigger. I've got 15 half inch babies right now. They feed off the plants until they where big enough to take small crushed flake.

What I did was crush it into a fine power, mix it with water and use a small pipit to feed them with once they got a bit bigger, then slowly moved onto dry crushed flakes.
 
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