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.
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.