Introduction

If you have an aquarium you may sometime in the future want to raise some little fishes called fry. You need to look at your current occupants to see if you will need a breeder tank or if the species you plan to breed need certain conditions. If you have other fish or even if the potential mommy and daddy will eat the eggs or fry then you will definitely need a breeder tank.

There are other conditions other than carnivorous fish that will eat the eggs or fry that may require a breeding tank. Other conditions that may require a breeding tank are such things as your aquarium water may not have the right environment or the flow from your filter may be too much.

Egg Eaters

Once you have a breeding tank and you put your spawning pair in, you have eliminated the chance of the eggs or fry being eaten by other fish.

But you may have to save the eggs from their parents. Aquarium fish species that eat their own are mainly egg-scatterers. If this is the case with your fish then you can do one of two things to keep them from eating their eggs.

The first is to separate the fish from the eggs as soon as they are laid. This may require you to be ever vigilant to observe when they do lay their eggs.

The other thing you can do is to lay out the aquarium so that when the eggs are scattered, they fall out of reach of the mommy and daddy fish.

Right Environment

When you research the species of fish you are going to breed you may need to set up the same environment that the species have in their natural habitat. For example some fish will only breed during the rainy season because the rain will change the water conditions.

You can use a drip system to create the effects of rain, flash the lights off an on to simulate lightening and use music to add the effects of thunder.

In some cases it may be the food that will stimulate spawning of you fish. This is especially true of your meat eaters. This may require you to feed them live food such as worms or some sort of larvae.

Filter Flow

You may have a high filter flow rate in your main aquarium which will be to high for the eggs and fry you are trying to raise. The filter could suck the eggs and fry into the filter killing what you are trying to raise. The breeding tank should have a very low volume filter.

You also set up a breeder box that you can even place in your main aquarium to raise the fry.