Looks like your raising lots of fish successfully! Since you have so many babies, I suggest you grow algae on 200mm x 20mm x 20mm lengths of hardwood stakes instead of plates. (Most garden suppliers sell stakes). I drill a hole at one end and use coat hanger wire to hook onto tank sides and algae ta...

Hi Viktor, I believe I can assist with a few of your queries here. You have the unfortunate situation of being too large for a typical hobbyist but too small for a commercial setup. Being creative and resourceful as you are becoming is necessary. I have used artificial turf in tanks extensively with...

I wasn't suggesting you reproduce on a large scale, as use of glass tanks and your room are much to small. If your interest in fish remains or grows, you should plan ahead for adding more tanks. Either by rack design, airline supply and plumbing sizes. I use rainwater tanks too. If the water level i...

If it's only the larger size eggs not hatching, I would look at dissolved oxygen. Have a look at how vigorous the male fans the clutch especially towards end of hatching. You could "boil" the hatching tank with aeration elsewhere if you don't have an oxygen cylinder. If you do have oxygen,...

If you would like advice from someone who has kept fish rooms large and small for over forty years; I would get rid of all your existing tanks and stands so you can design with a clean slate. I would cover your window with 20mm polystyrene sheet which allows light in but insulates so you can rack ta...

If the adult fish are successfully hatching their eggs naturally, it's not a water chemistry issue.

Unfortunately it's all human technique error/ignorance but that's how we improve. Insufficient dissolved oxygen and mechanical abrasion would be my starting points to eliminate.

I'm bright glowing red. I shudder to think how much energy is used producing glass, welding steel racks, maintaining tropical temperatures, pouring concrete for a fish room, buying boxes and boxes of filters, pumps, sponges, heaters, tubing, valves, themometers, lights, nets, ripping gravel out of r...

A net breeder box is far too rough. Try a deep ceramic or glass bowl. Or perhaps a large rounded bottom wine glass if egg mass is small, completely underwater to contain eggs with a clothes peg to secure an airstone slightly above the egg mass. You don't want these eggs moving about. The open top al...

I occasionally get a larger size fish egg embryo - like arowana or frontosa - sticking to outer membrane if not rotated often enough (much like a bird egg needs to be turned at least once per day) but yours are sticky adhesive eggs that don't require rotation. Too rough rotation will also bruise egg...

What incubator are you using and how vigorous are you tumbling? The photo is too grainy to see what's happening. I suspect there is damage to membrane so you need to tumble slower - more gently. If the egg cluster is free from substrate, a simpler pipe with mesh each end and airlift to pull water th...

Once you have a microworm culture, be sure to put a portion aside, let it completely dry out (black and rock hard is fine) to provide a back up source in the future. The worms have internal eggs at all different stages of development and some will be ready at the time you dry the culture out. Just a...

Sad day when you have to leave your obsession. I'm sure you have your reasons but what is life without pleasure?

I understand the fish obsession. I moved to Japan for 8 years to keep nice fish. One fish room was small. Fish tank sizes always too limiting.

If your unable to distinguish gender from physical differences including venting then some other suggestions would be: * Choose the biggest and smallest fish from the group. * Try hand stripping for milt, keeping in mind that some species have clear sperm. No milt expressed does not necessarily mean...

I used to raise large numbers of hard mouth pleco species in HDPE - 1000 litre IBC cage containers - (Industrial Bulk Chemical) the white translucent liquid storage boxes in cage frames on pallets. Large enough production numbers that I was selling fish by live weight. About 50 of these containers w...

Glad you have found homes for your fish.

For what it'd worth, it's fairly straightforward to spawn dead fish. Extract gametes as soon as possible after unfortunate death and dry fertilise. Most fish have eggs in a range of readiness so some fry will eventuate.

If your contemplating breeding
I would buy at least ten fish at once especially if your unsure what species/variant it is.

Hello Viktor, Fantastic news that your open by appointment! What a milestone to celebrate. If someone wanted to visit, what is the process? How much notice is required? What amount of donation is encouraged? What to bring, how much time to allow? Would it be okay to bring a comfy chair, packed lunch...

If the eggs are fertilized but simply stop developing at a certain stage, boost your dissolved oxygen level.

Well done! I've noticed I get a better egg hatch rate when eggs are prevented from touching each other. I use the fine mesh under egg crate concept with one individual egg in each compartment, stacked several layers high with gentle down flow. Boost the dissolved oxygen with an airstone in a corner,...

Hatching approx 24 hours but not free swimming or ready for food for a few days. If you have a high powered loupe (30X ~ 60X) or basic microscope, you will see cell division within an hour. A practical method is to place several eggs into a container kept in the hatching tank. These eggs are easily ...

I don't understand your first question about days - eggs - babies ? You will need to elaborate. Fish development is temperature related. The second question is easier to answer. I keep fish strictly for fun but I used to own aquarium shops and used to breed a lot of fish. I still have several hundre...

I've been breeding chain and other loaches (khuli, clown, modesta etc) for a while. I generally use hormones and then let them spawn by themselves but not always. Sometimes artificially hand strip, sometimes purely natural spawns. Hormones allows me to schedule live food production, obtain bigger ba...

Hello, I spawn with hormones which seems/seemed tabboo despite it requiring a lot of fish keeping experience. I'm posting because an interesting aspect is my broodstock adapt. Nowadays, if I induce one female and return it to the tank for maturation, several other females (not injected) will also ri...

Nice story, thank you for sharing. Shows he was a kind thoughtful gentleman and a lovely way to honour and remember him.

No need to complicate a simple concept but here are some additional details relevant to me for anyone interested.... Diaphragm air pumps are much quieter than air blowers or mechanical piston pumps. The Medo linear (piston) pump range is a solid reliable compromise though. Many air pump brands tend ...

Hello, sorry I did not see your query (I turn off all forum notifications). I use metric units but I suspect your 3 degree F shift is too small. However, it's a great place to start experimenting. Turn up the tank aeration as much as possible too. This will assist cooling and boost dissolved oxygen ...

I would be interested in the full text article for this but I don't have an account. Is anyone able to assist?

Thank you

So are you saying there are two distinct populations?

With one area that contains both populations?

If you put two big air pumps onto the same central airline ring, you can have one sponge filter per tank with the same or better redundancy as two sponges per tank. You will notice a distinct drop in air volume (and bubble noise) when one air pump fails while all sponges will continue working. I use...

You could use a 6cm thick sheet of sponge sheet covering the tank bottom with airlift or powerhead driven piping. Essentially an undergravel filter without gravel.