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Breeding setup for gambusia?

Started by Guest_jase_* , Mar 10 2008 09:31 PM

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34 replies to this topic

#21 Guest_jase_*

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Posted 05 June 2008 - 03:14 PM

Mine will drop their babies at temps into the high 60's if given a 15-16 hour photoperiod. Of course, mine were collected from a creek that stays under 75F even during the hot summer months down here. Yours may have been collected from a pond or lake, which easily gets into the eighties during our hot GA summer.

Thanks for the info, Steve. I just asked the original collector what the conditions were where he got them. I'll update when I hear back.

#22 Guest_Gambusia_*

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Posted 12 June 2008 - 03:46 PM

I have kept mosquitofish for a few years and never had them drop indoors.

Still have some and they won't drop.

Of course I had them tightly packed into a java moss choked less than 70 degrees 10 gallon aquarium with flag fish. bluefin killies and wild guppies.

I've since moved my few mosquitofish to my 20 gallon high and I will be putting all my java moss in there.

It sits in the window and gets lots of sunlight (too much really)

I also have a few fathead minnows in there.

Previous batches of mosquitofish I have had including some giant females never dropped either.

I get my fish from a local power plant lake where the fish breed 24/7 365

However with gas prices it is no longer economical to go over there and catch some when I need it

#23 Guest_jase_*

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Posted 12 June 2008 - 05:06 PM

Here's what I got back from the guy I got my fish from. He collected them last July or August. They were all pretty tiny when he shipped them to me -- 30+ in a largish breather bag.

The ones I sent came out of the pond in front of my house and I live in S.Georgia ( Emanuel county ). They swam in the weedy shallows and the pond is about an acre and a half, but they exist in just about any standing water you find. They really don't discriminate as long as there is an inch of water.

The water mine came from gets extremely hot in the summer and sometimes very poorly oxygenated. There is little water movement in the shallow areas and it gets full sun and the water is always brown from tanis or mud, so the heat really builds up. This is all especially true for the seasonal water holes when the creeks go dry every summer. They definitely congregate in the stagnant or slow moving waters over moving water.

#24 Guest_jase_*

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Posted 12 June 2008 - 05:08 PM

I have kept mosquitofish for a few years and never had them drop indoors. [...] Still have some and they won't drop. [...] Previous batches of mosquitofish I have had including some giant females never dropped either.

Same experience I had. Putting them in a guppy breeder which isolated them from other fish made the difference. I had a bit of java moss in there for cover, but the breeding pens are clear plastic and they can certainly *see* other fish. They just seem to know somehow that other fish aren't going to eat up their babies the second they drop them.

As I said, mine appeared pregnant for *months* and wouldn't drop until the temperature was right and they were isolated from other fish.

#25 Guest_PoBoy_*

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Posted 12 June 2008 - 05:59 PM

Very interesting reading here. I collected some Gambusia on 5/25/08. alot of the females appeared to be pregnant, but no fry! I was wondering if it was just me, but I see it's not.

#26 Guest_Gambusia_*

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Posted 12 June 2008 - 09:13 PM

What temperature are you getting yours to drop at?

I have a guppy breeder I might try

#27 Guest_jase_*

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Posted 13 June 2008 - 09:53 AM

So... seems like in order to get a drop, I need:
Temperature above 80 degrees F
Gravid female isolated in a breeding trap

#28 Guest_Gambusia_*

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Posted 13 June 2008 - 10:32 AM

Thanks

My tank is around 70 right now

#29 Guest_lampeye_*

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Posted 23 June 2008 - 04:04 PM

Huh. I just got some for the first time and I've had two females drop already. When they start to look large, I move them to a 2 gallon plastic aquarium packed with hornwort.

#30 Guest_tiagoag_*

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Posted 24 June 2008 - 02:45 PM

I've a pregnant gambusia for almost 10 months, but live in Europe, and it is just in middle of summer that my tank would reach that temperature...
I'm thinking about buying some heater device... 80ºF its too much for my country... We can have 110ºF, but just in July/august and its rare...
Good luck with the breeding...

#31 Guest_jase_*

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Posted 24 June 2008 - 05:07 PM

I've a pregnant gambusia for almost 10 months, but live in Europe, and it is just in middle of summer that my tank would reach that temperature.

Good to hear from you, tiagoag. Glad to hear I'm not the *only* one who couldn't get babies from my Gambusia! I was starting to feel like a failure.

#32 Guest_joe_*

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Posted 05 July 2008 - 02:32 PM

Hi everyone...I have been keeping and breeding gambusia for the past few months just as a pet project started after netting a melanistic male holbrooki from the canal behind my South Florida home. I must say their reputation for being so easy to breed only applies if certain requirements are met. The most important one of these is temperature. In my experience these fish are most comfortable in pretty warm water into the high 80s even. Also these are possibly the most cannibalistic animals in the world. I have had a large female eat two of her five week old fry which I thought were large enough to be reintroduced into the main tank. These fry were already sexually mature! I actually had a small female give birth this morning to two fry. I went to feed them and noticed the tail end of a baby hanging out of her as she tried to escape the other members of the school who were trying to eat the fry as it was being delivered! This probably explains why you never actually saw any fry in your setup. All I can say is that the only way you can hope to get any fry consistantly is to constantly seperate females as they become ready to drop. Live food is also a very good addition to their diet. I have found that variety in their diet is key to success with these little terrors.

#33 Guest_CATfishTONY_*

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Posted 25 June 2009 - 06:23 PM

i realize this is a old thread.
but how is your breeding efert working long term?
were you able to keep a feeder program going from the original 30 fish?

#34 Guest_jchampagne_*

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Posted 27 June 2009 - 07:34 PM

Maybe it is the duration of lighting you are using? Check out this video. It isn't an instructional video on raising Gambusia, but it does gives some clues as to how this professional did it.

video

Edited by jchampagne, 27 June 2009 - 07:35 PM.

#35 Guest_jase_*

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Posted 11 January 2010 - 05:49 PM

i realize this is a old thread.
but how is your breeding efert working long term?
were you able to keep a feeder program going from the original 30 fish?

Other things took priority soon after I posted this, and my population has endured quite a bit of neglect over the past 1-1/2 years. At the moment, I'm down to something like 6 males and 2 females. I did a major re-build on the 2 tanks I use for them over the weekend, and am hoping to build the population back up again -- although unfortunately with a significant bottleneck event that will reduce genetic variability in the population.

Most of the population has been in a 45(?) gallon corner tank with the entire bottom covered in java moss about 12" thick and kept at room temperature (about 68). Despite virtually unlimited hiding places for fry, I've never seen a single fry in there even though there have always been visibly gravid females. This weekend I took one of the females and put her alone in a 10g at about 82 degrees, and got fry within a day. (Unfortunately, the fry were obviously slightly underdeveloped with yolk sacs still prominent, and none survived.) Again, in my experience with this particular population, I get no drops without high temps and isolation of a single gravid female.

Maybe it is the duration of lighting you are using? Check out this video. It isn't an instructional video on raising Gambusia, but it does gives some clues as to how this professional did it.

In the past 2-1/2 years I've kept these on light regimes ranging from fully lit all the time to very dim ambient light all the time and lots in between, and have never seen a drop. I don't doubt that light is a factor, but in my experience temperature and isolation are required -- no light regime alone will do it.

I'm curious exactly what's going on in the breeding tanks shown in that YouTube video. It's obvious that the fish are divided into a number of separate floating pens within the big circular tank. I'm guessing maybe breeders are in those and fry pass through some netting into the main tank?