Has anyone spawned rosy red feeders/fathead minnows recently? I'm finally getting around to spawning them, after many years of thinking about it. Mine look like they're right at the prespawn stage, but aren't progressing. I'm thinking the temperature--about 72 might be a little too cool. Does anyone who spawned them happen to recall the tank temperature when they spawned?

Thanks.

This site and this site have some good information on breeding them.


Fathead and rosy red minnows are probably one of the easiest egglayers to spawn of all aquarium fishes. I own a 10 gallon tank which contains five of them. Four are the rosy reds, and one is the normal kind. They spawn literally nonstop. The large alpha male has claimed the space beneath a big flat rock leaning up against another. The three females regularly visit and leave eggs underneath. "Big Red" is nearly always tending 100+ eggs at a time (would be more but the other male frequently sneaks in and gobbles them up when Big Red is eating other foods.) He diligently guards, aerates, and rubs his anti-fungal secretion on them, but any fry that hatch are quickly eaten by the other minnows and ghost shrimp. Still, a smart juvenile has made it to half an inch and appears to be doing well (hiding in the plants). All that the minnows get foodwise is two different flake foods, two different pellet foods, freeze dried bloodworms (every other day), and shelled peas (once a week).

Something strange I've noticed on Big Red is that he has a hot pink / light red stripe running down his lateral line on both sides. Many places say that rosy reds are more yellow/orange in color than rosy but this guy is quite neat. I think that the color is where the black stripe would be on a normally pigmented minnow. It will be interesting to see if the same happens in yours.

This topic made me happy, it's something I can discuss with a little bit of experience. I hope you have fun breeding your Pimephales promelas, they have really interesting personalities.

Edit: Oof, tank temperature, I typed this entire post without considering your main question, sorry. I don't think you need to worry about your temperature being too cool, my tank is heaterless and the temperatures range from 63-67 degrees on a night/day schedule. Good luck!

Edited by Orangespotted, 01 February 2011 - 04:34 PM.

Thanks. they keep looking like they're going to spawn, but don't, so I was thinking it was temperature related. Thanks.

This site and this site have some good information on breeding them.


Fathead and rosy red minnows are probably one of the easiest egglayers to spawn of all aquarium fishes. I own a 10 gallon tank which contains five of them. Four are the rosy reds, and one is the normal kind. They spawn literally nonstop. The large alpha male has claimed the space beneath a big flat rock leaning up against another. The three females regularly visit and leave eggs underneath. "Big Red" is nearly always tending 100+ eggs at a time (would be more but the other male frequently sneaks in and gobbles them up when Big Red is eating other foods.) He diligently guards, aerates, and rubs his anti-fungal secretion on them, but any fry that hatch are quickly eaten by the other minnows and ghost shrimp. Still, a smart juvenile has made it to half an inch and appears to be doing well (hiding in the plants). All that the minnows get foodwise is two different flake foods, two different pellet foods, freeze dried bloodworms (every other day), and shelled peas (once a week).

Something strange I've noticed on Big Red is that he has a hot pink / light red stripe running down his lateral line on both sides. Many places say that rosy reds are more yellow/orange in color than rosy but this guy is quite neat. I think that the color is where the black stripe would be on a normally pigmented minnow. It will be interesting to see if the same happens in yours.

This topic made me happy, it's something I can discuss with a little bit of experience. I hope you have fun breeding your Pimephales promelas, they have really interesting personalities.

Edit: Oof, tank temperature, I typed this entire post without considering your main question, sorry. I don't think you need to worry about your temperature being too cool, my tank is heaterless and the temperatures range from 63-67 degrees on a night/day schedule. Good luck!

Fatheads need the right day length to induce them to spawn. From memory, folks used to have 16 hours of daylight, but I think that anything over 12 is probably going to work. Temp probably plays some role too, but I think they'd like to be slightly warmer.

A quick google search of "spawning fathead minnows" should get you more specifics.

Cheers
Peter

Hello, young feller.

I found a pdf of somebody's old master's thesis online, actually. He got the best results form 14 hour daylengths. But what he didn't list is the temperature. I bumped mine up from the low sixties to about 80 (because that's what the heater is stuck at). The male is still guarding his pvc pipe, the females are still fat, but nothing has happened.

Back to Google.

Fatheads need the right day length to induce them to spawn. From memory, folks used to have 16 hours of daylight, but I think that anything over 12 is probably going to work. Temp probably plays some role too, but I think they'd like to be slightly warmer.

A quick google search of "spawning fathead minnows" should get you more specifics.

Cheers
Peter

Thanks. Robyn says hers bred at 75. I'll try that.

Thanks. they keep looking like they're going to spawn, but don't, so I was thinking it was temperature related. Thanks.

Hey old fella, 80 sounds about right from the time that I was breeding them. They will spawn over a range of temps, but I think around 80 was good.

When your male goes black with the white bars then you'll know that action isn't far away. They will often spawn with a second female too while they already have eggs.

Cheers
Peter

So, have you finally graduated?

I think I saw a few eggs inside the pvc tube last night. That would match what I'd read, that the clutches increase in size as the season progresses. Just to make sure they're getting enough light, it replaced the 60 watt cfl over their tank with a 100 watt cfl I turned their light on at 0-Dark Hundred before I left the house this A.M. and will turn it off around 10:00 p.m. when I get home.

I haven't seen the black and white bars yet, but his back has thickened up and he's got tubercles on his face.

Hey old fella, 80 sounds about right from the time that I was breeding them. They will spawn over a range of temps, but I think around 80 was good.

When your male goes black with the white bars then you'll know that action isn't far away. They will often spawn with a second female too while they already have eggs.

Cheers
Peter

For fathead fry, can you get away with powdering flake food, or do you need rotifers,etc...? Mine are spawning at 75F.

For fathead fry, can you get away with powdering flake food, or do you need rotifers,etc...? Mine are spawning at 75F.

Probably ok with flakes, but better with frozen baby brime shrimp, live ones are of course much better again. I usually started them on bbs.

Cheers
Peter

Time to start up my shrimpery again! Thanks!