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Bio For Speakers

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Get Ready for Rainbowfish Eggs! By Gary Lange

​

Hello JRAS. I’m looking forward to seeing you and speaking at your meeting on

Saturday March 15th. I will be bringing several of my rainbowfish egg kits to the meeting

which will be auctioned off RIGHT AFTER MY TALK. An egg kit consists of 40-80 eggs

(depending on the fish’s friskiness that week) along with first fry food and detailed

instructions on how to raise the fry. I can’t tell you at this moment which fish eggs I will

be bringing. I will certainly be bringing some stuff that you’ve never seen before in the

stores, I can guarantee that! No crossed wholesaler’s garbage with these rainbowfish!

We’ll just have to wait and see which fish are breeding to see what will be in the egg kits.

Don’t worry about knowing the names because as each kit is auctioned off I’ll put up the

photo on the projector so you’ll know what it looks like and I’ll give a brief description of

the fish.

​

What you can do to get ready is to set up clean 5.5 or 10 gallon bare tanks for hatching

the egg kits. You’ll need a SEPARATE tank for each group of eggs that you decide to

buy as they grow at different rates so you might end up with only one type because the

others might get eaten! I usually don’t recommend 2.5 gallon tanks anymore as more

often than not the water quality issues will cause you to lose the fish. Get it set up so

that it will be at 80-82 degrees and get a sponge filter going in it. You’ll definitely need a

heater as you won’t get a very good hatch rate or survival rate at cooler temperatures.

You’ll also need a small tray for each species that you buy to hatch out the eggs. A 6x6

sandwich type tray works fine to hatch the eggs. You can float that tray in the

raising tank to keep the eggs incubating at 80-82 for optimal hatch. You’ll be changing

the water in that tray every day for about 5-8 days while the fry hatch out. If you can add

a little aeration to each tray that would be helpful but not totally necessary. The

instructions will get you to feeding them live baby brine shrimp, usually 3-10 days after

hatching depending on the species. It’s not very hard and hobbyists all over the country

have been very successful in hatching and raising my eggs for over 30 years. It’s a

pretty neat way to get some very nice rainbowfish that you really can’t buy at the stores.

So often, rainbowfish that you do happen to see at the stores, really don’t look like they

are supposed to anymore anyway. See you soon!

Hatching Rainbowfish Eggs - By Gary Lange

The goal of these egg kits are to make available to hobbyists wonderful and

often exotic rainbowfish that can’t be found in your local pet store and maybe

not even among your fellow club members. It’s not rocket science but it is

different than your normal raising of livebearers or cichlids. Please take the time

to read this so that you can have the best possible results. I love coming back

to a club 3-4 years later and hearing that my eggs and now their offspring are

being traded amongst club members! I want you to enjoy them as much as I do!

Rainbowfish eggs are easy to hatch and the fry aren't too difficult to raise if

you.

​

Know the right tricks. Buying a mop or a vial of eggs at an auction is an easy

way to obtain a whole aquarium full of these amazing fish. There's nothing

more beautiful than a tank full of lacustris or boesemani rainbows. Before you

get started… if you have obtained multiple vials of eggs. Hatch them

separately and raise the fry separately. Different species grow at different

rates and the big ones will eat the small ones! Make sure you write down the

name of the species on the tank AND in your log somewhere in case you lose

the label. There are lots of blue rainbows and yellow rainbows so asking me to

ID that yellow rainbow I brought to your club two years ago will not get you

anywhere! This is a method for hatching small amounts of eggs in shallow

trays. You'll need a small shallow tray that holds about two to three cups of

water. If your water is soft (< ~ 70 ppm) you'll need a little bit of crushed shell or

coral to add to the hatching tray and perhaps a pinch of aquarium salt. Do not

use acriflavine in the water. Add 1-2 cups of warm (80-82 degrees F) freshly

dechlorinated water. Don't use aged tank water as it contains lots of bacteria

and fungi, which can destroy your eggs. A higher hatching temperature

promotes fungus & lower temperatures end up losing eggs. Carefully add the

eggs to the tray, taking a few minutes to acclimate them, especially if the

temperatures or water conditions are very different. (My water is 125 ppm GH

and 2 degrees KH). Separate them as much as possible with an

eyedropper, toothpicks or fine point tweezers if they are clumped

together. If one egg funguses, remove it before it spreads to another.

Protect the tray from strong light. Make sure you keep it warm though, 80-

82 F. You can float the tray in the aquarium that you are going to use for the

hatched fry or place it in a warm spot in your fish room. A freshly prepared bare

5 or 10 gallon tank makes for a good raising tank. Just add a seasoned sponge

filter to the tank and you’re set. Change the water in the tray at least once

every other day. A little aeration in the tray is helpful but not necessary if you

can’t do it easily. After 3-4 days change the unhatched eggs to a new container

or clean out the one they were incubating. We want to avoid the biofilm that is

growing on the bottom of the tray. If it grows over the eggs they won’t hatch.

Large rainbowfish eggs take from 7-11 days to hatch from when they were laid.

Pseudomugils can take as long as 18 days. As fry hatch use an eyedropper or

small cup to transfer them. Then acclimate them to the fry-raising tank. Start

feeding the fry small amounts of their first food immediately, they don’t have

much of an egg yolk sac so if you wait, they will die! I like to use 2.5-5 gallon

tanks for 12-50 fry. Be careful with the 2.5 gallon tank it is easy to lose water

quality in a small aquarium. If you have a lot of fry go to the 5-gallon size or

even a 10-gallon. A ten is what I most often use if I'm hatching a large mop of

eggs. It is important that the temperature of this fry-raising tank be at least 80

degrees F, preferably 82 degrees F. Water cooler than 78 degrees will result

in a loss of most of the fry in a few days at least in my hands. Add a few snails

and an established sponge filter to the fry tank. Bubble the sponge filter

VERY SLOWLY! Rainbowfish fry live at the top 1/2-inch of the water for their

first few days and they will soon “drown in the surf" that you produce by heavy

aeration. For a first food you can use green water or vinegar eels. Banana

worms are very useful WITH guppy grass to hold the worms near the surface.

However, there is a fry food by called Golden Pearls, 5-50 micron size that is

perfect for rainbows. I include this with every kit. Sprinkle a little on the surface;

don't mix it in the water. Feed twice a day, if possible more often. You can

get it at Brine Shrimp Direct www.brineshrimpdirect.com. In three to seven days

they will be ready to eat newly hatched brine shrimp. Your goal is to get them to

eat LIVE baby brine shrimp as soon as possible so they will thrive. Keep

Golden Pearls in a tightly sealed container in your freezer, just a bit in the fish

room as it does go bad, as it contains HUFAs, Highly Unsaturated Fatty Acids.

Go easy on the feedings but the snails should clean up the excess. If you

feed too much, siphon off the bottom debris. Change 10-20% of water every

other day especially if you overfeed. *** Make sure the water your add back is

the same temperature as the fry are very temperature sensitive. Once they

get about 6 weeks old I increase the percentage of water changes to 30%

especially with a large hatch. For non-rainbows I would most likely be

performing weekly 50% water changes. If you can remember to do smaller

frequent water changes your bows will reward you with good growth. Rainbows

certainly grow slower than most tropical fish but if you keep doing your water

changes and keep them warm they will be producing their own eggs in 6-8

months. For hatching eggs in a mop I do basically the same thing except I

add the mop directly to the rearing tank with fresh dechlorinated water. A

slight amount of bubbling to avoid surface scum is all that is needed until they

are hatched, and then you can add a sponge filter. Once the young juveniles

reach about 1 to 1.25 inches in length I start backing off of the temperature.

Somewhere between 74 and 78 is fairly ideal for juveniles and most adults.

Many of your adult rainbows will actually do better at even lower temperatures

but most can thrive in temperatures anywhere between 70 and 80 degrees.

​

With just a little work up front you can have an aquarium full of constantly

moving color. There are still SO many new species of rainbowfish that haven’t

even been discovered yet! So by all means do a little practicing so you can

have a whole school of these magnificent creatures. There's always a new one

just around the corner that will tickle your fancy.

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