How to Breed Red Shiners in an Aquarium?

I live in Central Texas close to a tributary to the Brazos River.  The Red Shiner (Cyprinella lutrensis) is native to this river system and I captured some out of the river to keep in my 55 gallon aquarium, because they are so beautiful. I have both males and females living in my aquarium and they are very happy.  I would like to try to see if I can successfully breed them.  I have looked online to find a guide about how to do this, but have not really found anything that I would consider authoritative on the subject.  I am hoping someone here can point me in the right direction.  Much thanks in advance.

Edited by jungleexplorer, 12 July 2018 - 05:28 PM.

Hummm...  I guess no one has ever done this before.  I have my project under way.  I am going to do my best to recreate the minnows natural environment and see if that works.  I have several pairs of Red Shinners.  The makes are in full spawn color and the females look like they are ready to spawn, but I am seeing no spawning action going on.  Something is not right.  I am wondering about salinity.  Does anyone have any idea what the proper salinity should be.  The salinity of my aquarium is currently very low.  What should it be at?  

Salinity concerns with lutrensis? I wish I could help with spawning info. I imagine less light and cooler temps for a bit, with a gradual increase is the ticket. If you are concerned about salinity, many people keep a tablespoon per five gallons with their natives. I have heard of no breeding problems with this amount of salt. I assume your available water is salty?

Salinity concerns with lutrensis? I wish I could help with spawning info. I imagine less light and cooler temps for a bit, with a gradual increase is the ticket. If you are concerned about salinity, many people keep a tablespoon per five gallons with their natives. I have heard of no breeding problems with this amount of salt. I assume your available water is salty?

Thanks for the reply.  I the water the came out of was 82 degrees.  I have my aquarium set to 76 degrees,  which is they right temp for spawning from the little information I have been able to find.  As far as my water source, I am on a well with exceptional hard water (960 PPM Calcium) so I use RO water from my OR system.  I have a water softener on my house that takes a lot of the calcium out, but I am not sure if you can use softened water in an aquarium.  So I would say my salinity is very low with the RO water.  It is super dry (West Texas desert) here and I lose about 2 gallons a day to evaporation, that I replace with RO water.

Goldstein with Harper and Edwards, in "American Aquarium Fishes", has a description of captive breeding. There's been some criticism of this book for inaccuracies, but it has a focus on captive breeding approaches that other reference books on US native fish (of which I'm aware) just don't have.

I hesitate to copy big blocks, but the authors comment: "This plasticity in spawning site acceptance, the catholic feeding habits, and and great tolerance of water conditions (turbid to clear, fast or slow, warm to cold), account in part for its wide distribution." I think of them as being the moral equivalents of creek chubs, but with more charm and looks, but I have never actually kept any myself. Yet .... I think I should get some. There are some nice photos on the www.

If you do a Google search for "african fire barb lutrensis" you'll find the Goldstein material. (I'm surprised, but that finesses my copying problem.  ) 

HTH

Bait farms raise them in mass quantities (often sold as "red horse minnow") - so they must be pretty easy.  They are crevice-spawners.  A stack of flat rocks, tiles, clay flowerpot pieces, etc with spacers to hold them slightly apart should work.  Goldstein also used pleated canister filter cartridges as spawning sites.