

Bio For Speakers


Get Ready for Rainbowfish Eggs! By Gary Lange
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.