Any update?

This thread has been great! Thanks for the info. I keep SRBD, red shiners and northern hogsuckers. I see what appears to be courtship with the SRBD.

If there was any mention of temperature, water level, etc. being employed to simulate spring I missed it. How did you "bring spring" to the tank Mike.

Spring came with a water change and addition of a heater which raised the water temp from ~60 - 65 F to 72 F.
The babies are getting big. I'll try and get some pics and update the thread.

Hope nobody objects to me resurrecting this old thread.
I promised to follow up and finally I will.

I had great luck raising the SRBD fry in a bare 55 feeding flake and frozen with some wild food. I gave away a bunch, including some I kinda knew were doomed but I had to make room. Anybody from the forum that got some I'd be pleased to know if they were kicking around still.
Not long after began a period of domestic turmoil which led to much neglect and eventually to me being cut off from servicing my tanks altogether.
So now I have regained most of my most prized fish but all have been downsized to much smaller tanks, at least for now.
When I saw how well the dace did under no real care, I decided I should reward them by carrying on their genes at least one more generation.
I have a dozen left, mixed between two generations which I can no longer tell apart. As you can see they are phat but they lost all red when I moved them from 55 to 20 gallons.
I also dropped the temp 10 F to 50-55 F and put the tank in an unheated closet with big north facing window, natural light only. [Not that these guys need the extra measures, but I've got the cold closet and no hurry so nature gets the nod].



The back glass is exposed to the north facing window. The ugly strip of green paper gives them a little shelter under their tree root.




Popular lady!

Even since I shot these red has begun and the females are getting lots of attention. Need new batteries for the next update. Stay tuned.....

Very nice! They look really good! Thanks for the update!

Brian

Mike - Glad you resurrected this old thread, or many of us would never have seen it. Nice photos and descriptions. To anyone breeding gravel-spawners this way, be sure to flush out whatever crud settles in the dish frequently. Decaying food and crap under the gravel can lower the O2 and kill eggs or cause deformed larvae.

Mike - Glad you resurrected this old thread, or many of us would never have seen it. Nice photos and descriptions. To anyone breeding gravel-spawners this way, be sure to flush out whatever crud settles in the dish frequently. Decaying food and crap under the gravel can lower the O2 and kill eggs or cause deformed larvae.

My pie plate chub nest had a bunch of snails that got in among the stones. There was very little mulm but good amounts of snail dung.
Believe it or not, I plan to use the same pie plate full of stones. It's still sitting on the cellar floor where I put it 2 years ago.

Nice looking brood! You raised them well! You can rear those guys on dry food alone, but you have to be sure it's fresh and has the full complement of vitamins and other nutrients. I used to grind various dry foods in a mortar and pestle to feed fry. It's great to keep a line of captive bred fish going. Next you can select for traits you like and develop your own strain. Name it after yourself These guys also like to graze algal film. Give them lots of light in the day time to help grow it.

Nice looking brood! You raised them well! You can rear those guys on dry food alone, but you have to be sure it's fresh and has the full complement of vitamins and other nutrients. I used to grind various dry foods in a mortar and pestle to feed fry. It's great to keep a line of captive bred fish going. Next you can select for traits you like and develop your own strain. Name it after yourself These guys also like to graze algal film. Give them lots of light in the day time to help grow it.

I used alot of flake and freeze dried powdered and sifted but tried to give lots of baby brine and wild copepods etc. I always did the same with tropicals tradonally raised on flake and felt it improved health, color, longvity and productivity. Longer life spans in particular. Flake doesn't cut it long term.
I've already selected for traits which reflect my own - they thrive under adversity and neglect.
I can't name the strain after myself. I'm pretty sure that means my wife would own 50% of it.
I agree these guys LOVE to graze the algae and diatoms from rocks and glass. Lucky for me I've been perfecting the art of growing green and brown slime for years. I'm an expert.