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Foxpuppet's Celestial Gathering


Foxpuppet
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AS per the request of the CPD guru, I've started a thread to keep you posted and myself to keep track of my Breeding efforts.

i have kept CPD for a long time after getting one for free from my LFS (last one they had about 4 years ago)

Over that time I've bought more than i thought i ever would, but never got a successful breeding program happening. At one point i had 40 and never saw results (although they were in a display tank and i wasn't giving breeding a real concerted effort)

Now I'm back to 6 adults I've had going for a while and recently they started spawning. i only knew after spotting some fry in the tank (200L planted community tank) a frantic search for info led me to S1l3nt's thread - Here 

i'll update this with some more backstory and history later

for now i'll add that so far i had collected 2-3 fry every few days over the course of a month until i had 18, keeping them in a cup in the water attached to the main tank as described in the thread above. then i lost few but not sure why. then a few days ago i collected 9 in one hit. so i must be at around 24/25 now.

 

ill add some pics soon.

Edited by Foxpuppet
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Good to see you start a thread finally! As for being the CPD guru that may be a little generous hehe. I just enjoy the hobby and breeding is something I love in this hobby so I put a lot of effort in, and share my experiences :) I'm not the only one doing it, you are too ! :D

Don't keep them in the cup too long else they will start to die IMO, I would normally keep them in a cup for about 2 weeks or so. Since I have breeder boxes now, I just put them straight in there once free swimming as it provides constant water flow. Once they are able to eat baby brine shrimp, they are ready to move on from the cup to a bigger tank (even a 5-10L is better than the cup). Get your sponge filters ready to go :) 

Shoot me a pm or tag me with any questions mate, feel free! 

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Bad news - seems all my fry except the biggest one have disappeared from the breeder box. Not sure if they have escaped back to the big tank or somehow been wiped out. I've been sitting at the tank and not seen a single one. Hope the big guy didn't eat the little ones.

c54bfe255bb4cc4e39fe5044bb3e0b64.jpg

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How much bigger was this surviving fry? Unfortunately fry will harass smaller fry to the point of death in my experience :( With all fish, not just CPDs.

I also had higher success rate with an empty breeder box (no moss) as long as i fed them at least twice a day with a good amount of food. This is a little uglier if its a display tank breeder box, but it was worth it for me.

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How much bigger was this surviving fry? Unfortunately fry will harass smaller fry to the point of death in my experience :( With all fish, not just CPDs.

I also had higher success rate with an empty breeder box (no moss) as long as i fed them at least twice a day with a good amount of food. This is a little uglier if its a display tank breeder box, but it was worth it for me.

Alright I might have to pull the moss and stuff out, the larger fry was about 1.5 times the size. Can't believe over lost them all... That's about 25 small fry gone :(

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4 collected today, back into the cups!

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Another 3 today

Make that 4 :)

But on a sad note, I lost one of my male adults. That leaves me with 1 male to 4 females.... It's a tough gig but someone's got to do it

8afc2e2e5eda3881950bd13f9e18a9a9.jpg

Unsure as to the cause of the death.

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4 today

I'll condense these posts weekly with a tally of each day

Helps me remember.

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That male looks like he has pop eye? Was he quite skinny? Is the tail patch from other fish eating him or just a loss of colour? Hard to tell for sure via the pic. 

Good to see you collecting again, mine have gone on a pause due to lack of tank maintenance (increase in nitrates will stop them spawning all together). Try not to keep fry that are more then 1-2 weeks apart together. They grow a bit slower in the first 2 weeks os the other fry can harass them if too much larger.

Also yep, i suggest removing the moss from your breeder box. Through in some floating plants if you want, but thats as far as i'd go (mine are completely bare). Text me tomorrow and I'll send you a pic of my box, you'll be shocked :D

P.s. - I got a couple of males for you if you want them? I would take a female if you want to spare one and give you say 3 of mine? I'd like use the female for breeding to mix up my lines further :)

Edited by s1l3nt
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That male looks like he has pop eye? Was he quite skinny? Is the tail patch from other fish eating him or just a loss of colour? Hard to tell for sure via the pic. 

Good to see you collecting again, mine have gone on a pause due to lack of tank maintenance (increase in nitrates will stop them spawning all together). Try not to keep fry that are more then 1-2 weeks apart together. They grow a bit slower in the first 2 weeks os the other fry can harass them if too much larger.

Also yep, i suggest removing the moss from your breeder box. Through in some floating plants if you want, but thats as far as i'd go (mine are completely bare). Text me tomorrow and I'll send you a pic of my box, you'll be shocked :D

P.s. - I got a couple of males for you if you want them? I would take a female if you want to spare one and give you say 3 of mine? I'd like use the female for breeding to mix up my lines further :)

Bummer I didn't see this reply. Just picked up another trio this morning with a nice male.

But in response, I'd be happy to trade a female for one of your males once I see some of this fry through to adulthood.

In regards to the popeye, I'm not sure how long it had been dead, plenty of shrimp, cories & an Otto were grazing on his body but his color was still very bright.

I've collected no new fry since last week.

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I thought I'd take stock this afternoon and make sure all my remaining adults..... Are remaining. All 5 accounted for :)

They are so elusive in heavily planted tank, but damn do I love these little fish!

dc014c74f840c72b42d50186ee5e0a9f.jpg

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Checking on new trio, looking happy but a bit under colored after acclimatizing

8481545baba20e065575102b32e840a0.jpg

Happily collected 2 new fry in tank which is welcome after not seeing any for 5 days.

I've got a old 35L being prepped to move the fry into. And a 60L next to it to hopefully shift the adults into soon.

Planning to get 4-5 nano tanks to use as spawning tanks shifting adults in & out every 4-5 days.

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1 more fry collected yesterday. New/old tank is almost ready for fry transfer.

The biggest fry (only one that's older than the rest) is in a External breeder box along with the new trio, they seem to be mingling happily, so I'm wondering if it's ready to go back in the big tank with all the other adults, thoughts?

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If he is too big to fit in their mouth, he will be fine. They will school together fine in my experience, and do not bully the smaller "odd one out". Personally I think that anything over 10mm (~4 weeks old?) could happily stay with parents, at this point they are starting to "round" the body and get colour too so they will quickly start to blend in with the rest anyway :)

Let me know when you would like to a trade :) I'm always looking to add new blood to my lines. Happy to trade a few fry for a few fry to mix up lines for us both. Or an adult or two :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

dc9197254f4730c795c18d83c90ca43a.jpg

Here fishy fishy fishy

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  • 2 weeks later...

Trying out a new home

b93288986360d20f11946b516e6e1777.jpg

ed921f37d6194b223a108c76125751fa.jpg

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Have not seen any new fry since 14/3 but today I spotted one, looks to be about 2-3 weeks old judging by its size.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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Hi guys, I also breed CPDs. I run 3 dedicated breeding tanks of 30L with egg collectors. 3 X 10L fry tanks and 4 40L growout tanks. I have approx 300 in grow out atm. I usually stock approx 100 eggs /week when wanting to start a new batch. Feel free to ask questions

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Hi guys, I also breed CPDs. I run 3 dedicated breeding tanks of 30L with egg collectors. 3 X 10L fry tanks and 4 40L growout tanks. I have approx 300 in grow out atm. I usually stock approx 100 eggs /week when wanting to start a new batch. Feel free to ask questions

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Would love to see a pic of your setup/egg collectors! Are you breeding commercially?

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Image1460621388.520799.jpg.bdc9b161ef3d4

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Image1460621452.136545.jpg.62b131fc4ba6e

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Sorry old photos, I don't use spawning mops, only miss!

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Moss

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No, not commercially but aim to make cpd available in shops Perth

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Image1460621388.520799.jpg

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Image1460621452.136545.jpg

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sorry old photos, I don't use spawning mops, only miss!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Moss

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No, not commercially but aim to make cpd available in shops Perth

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Lovely looking setup.

What's your fry feeding regime?

Care to explain your egg catching methods and filtration etc?

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Filtration: sponge filters

Broodstock food: Artemia, grindal worms and flake.

Fry feed: paramecium, vinegar eels, dry feed (sera micron) Artemia

Egg collection: Pyrex dish with plastic lid from Coles, cut top of lid out and put in 2 mm plastic mesh. Xmas moss sits on top. Fish spawn in moss every few days and eggs sink into Pyrex dish where adults can't get to them. Check with a torch daily to see eggs. Pull out whole dish count eggs out using pipette and transfer directly to 10L tank. Eggs hatch in 3 days, fry feed in another 3. Too easy

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Try to keep temp of broodstock around 23-24. Stop spawning at 25!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Help my fish is sick! My nicest and oldest male has started looking very lethargic, then I spotted him upside down tonight at the bottom of the tank.

Here's some video and pics, anyone know what might be wrong?

Looks like bleeding on his belly.

Also quite fat too. Bloat maybe?

87b85da1f36666a7b18ee6c7f57016ad.jpg

f2cee691678b1a24cb07047725924f36.jpg

https://vimeo.com/166619465

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    • s1l3nt
      By s1l3nt
      Breeding Celestial Pearl Danios (Also known as Galaxy Rasboras)

      Firstly I will start by saying that these are a fantastic little fish that show no aggression to any other species nor within their own species. Males will spar with each other sometimes and often display to females, no damage is ever done. They are shrimp friendly, but will take down shrimplets if they get hungry. So they can be added to a mature and established shrimp community tank to ensure maximum shrimp numbers surviving also.

      These fish prefer a nice planted tank with a dark substrate, this helps reduce skittishness and bring out their colour even better, it also gives refuge for fry that will pop up in the display tank!

      Feeding
      Celestial Pearl Danios will need to be fed small foods, due to their small mouth size. Though they are always excited to see live black worms (2-3 of these will make them VERY fat). Mine love grindal worms so they get this often, as well as baby brine shrimp and cyclops regularly. They will readily take dry foods of small size, I have had great success with Sera Vipagran Baby. To keep them in shape for breeding on a regular basis, I feed them twice a day with baby brine shrimp and a higher protein food like grindal worms, black worms, and so on. I find live high protein foods keep them in better shape and increase egg numbers.

      Sexing CPD
      Celestial Pearl Danios are fairly easy to sex, especially when they are of mature/breeding age. Females will have a much rounder body shape, when they are younger they will also have a taller body (older/more mature males develop this also, usually 6+ months old). Females also have a prominent black spot in front of the anal fin, the difference becomes more obvious as they mature more. Males are more slender in the body but will have much better colour in the body and fins, they develop a nice blue to purple colour to the body with nice orange fins and often the under belly too (the under belly colour can also be the case in females though, so isn’t a guarantee).
      In the below photos you will see the younger male has a slender body and orange under belly, as well as better colour than the female. However, as you can see in the older pair, the male has developed the deep body also and the female has a light orange hue to her under belly. The male in the second photo is a prime candidate for breeding as he is quite nicely coloured and has developed good body/fin shape and colour.
      Young Pair – Male on the bottom right and female on top left:

      Older/More Mature Pair – Male on top and female on bottom:


      Breeding
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      Spawning is induced by males, where they will hover over a specific area they like (moss, spawning mop, etc) and when a female is nearby they will begin to shake their bodies and flare their fins in hopes of attracting the female. They will do their dance and display, but the spawning comes when the male has his head pointed down and shakes, following the female behind closely.
      These fish will often spawn in a display tank and you will get fry popping up now and then in a well planted and mature tank. However, celestial pearl danios will readily eat their eggs and fry in my experience so this method will result in minimal fry numbers.
      There is another option which can work well if you have spare tanks, or enough room to rotate breeders. This method is basically using a bare tank with some java moss and keeping a trio in here for a 5 to 7 days, then moving them to another tank while the eggs hatch in the first tank. Then you keep repeating this process until you have enough fry or forever if you have the space… I have not tried this method myself, but have heard of others using this method with success. I personally don’t have the tank space for this method.
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      Eggs take about 3-4 days to hatch on average, and the fry will now be wrigglers which cannot really swim yet and are not ready to be fed. This wriggler stage will take about 3-5 days before they are free swimming. They will often be holding onto the side of the cup, or laying on the base. This is nothing to worry about.

      Once fry are free swimming they will be quite small and very thin in body thickness. You will need very small foods to have the best success, such as paramecium, spirulina powder, fry powder foods like sera micron and so on. I find that I get a MUCH better survival and growth rate when the fry are fed live foods so I only use paramecium for feeding them. The fry will need about 10-15 days before they can readily eat baby brine shrimp, I don’t bother with foods larger than paramecium until this stage mainly because micro worms and similar are a pain to keep going and requite too much maintenance. Once the fry are on baby brine shrimp, they will grow much quicker. Around the 5-6 week mark, I start introducing sera vipagran baby or similar small sized foods. I however prefer to give them live foods more than dry foods as I find the fry grow much quicker and are healthier and develop colour earlier.
      Fry will grow fairly quickly and at the 6 week mark will be around the 15mm mark and should be showing some slight purple/blue to the body and their golden spots should be readily visible. From this point on the fry will slow down their growth as they reach their adult size but colour will come in much quicker.

      By the 12 week mark the fish should be very close to looking like full grown adults, with the deep orange colour developing quickly after this point. Fish should also be reasonably easy to sex from this point on as the body shape has already developed and the colours are coming through quickly.


      Now I hope you enjoy the photos of the fry below, which should help you gauge age and so on of your fry! As a comparison, the first two photos are of fish the same age but the first shot is of a fry fed solely dry foods like spirulina powder and similar from hatch while the second photo is a fry fed on live foods from hatching.
      Young fry (most likely female) at 12 weeks old – Fed solely on dry foods from hatching.
       

      Young Female Fry at 12 weeks old – Fed on live foods, with dry food at the later stage in life
       

      Most likely a nice young female, but could be a male.

      Young pair of CPD, approximately 7-8 weeks old.
       

      Young female, approximately 7-8 weeks old
       

       
      Thank you for reading along and I hope you find the information useful, or at least enjoyed the article!
    • s1l3nt
      By s1l3nt
      These are a fantastic little fish that show no aggression to any other species nor within their own species. Males will spar with each other and often display to females, no damage is ever done. They are shrimp friendly, but will take down shrimplets if they get hungry. 

      Breeding Celestial Pearl Danios (Also known as Galaxy Rasboras)

      Firstly I will start by saying that these are a fantastic little fish that show no aggression to any other species nor within their own species. Males will spar with each other sometimes and often display to females, no damage is ever done. They are shrimp friendly, but will take down shrimplets if they get hungry. So they can be added to a mature and established shrimp community tank to ensure maximum shrimp numbers surviving also.

      These fish prefer a nice planted tank with a dark substrate, this helps reduce skittishness and bring out their colour even better, it also gives refuge for fry that will pop up in the display tank!

      Feeding
      Celestial Pearl Danios will need to be fed small foods, due to their small mouth size. Though they are always excited to see live black worms (2-3 of these will make them VERY fat). Mine love grindal worms so they get this often, as well as baby brine shrimp and cyclops regularly. They will readily take dry foods of small size, I have had great success with Sera Vipagran Baby. To keep them in shape for breeding on a regular basis, I feed them twice a day with baby brine shrimp and a higher protein food like grindal worms, black worms, and so on. I find live high protein foods keep them in better shape and increase egg numbers.

      Sexing CPD
      Celestial Pearl Danios are fairly easy to sex, especially when they are of mature/breeding age. Females will have a much rounder body shape, when they are younger they will also have a taller body (older/more mature males develop this also, usually 6+ months old). Females also have a prominent black spot in front of the anal fin, the difference becomes more obvious as they mature more. Males are more slender in the body but will have much better colour in the body and fins, they develop a nice blue to purple colour to the body with nice orange fins and often the under belly too (the under belly colour can also be the case in females though, so isn’t a guarantee).
      In the below photos you will see the younger male has a slender body and orange under belly, as well as better colour than the female. However, as you can see in the older pair, the male has developed the deep body also and the female has a light orange hue to her under belly. The male in the second photo is a prime candidate for breeding as he is quite nicely coloured and has developed good body/fin shape and colour.
      Young Pair – Male on the bottom right and female on top left:

      Older/More Mature Pair – Male on top and female on bottom:


      Breeding
      Celestial Pearl Danios will start breeding from as young as 3 months old if fed well and have clean water throughout their short childhood. However, I find they are usually all mature by 4 months old. You will need at least one pair for breeding, however I have better experience breeding a trio as this gives females times to recover between breeding sessions as these fish are “constant” (usually daily) spawners.
      Spawning is induced by males, where they will hover over a specific area they like (moss, spawning mop, etc) and when a female is nearby they will begin to shake their bodies and flare their fins in hopes of attracting the female. They will do their dance and display, but the spawning comes when the male has his head pointed down and shakes, following the female behind closely.
      These fish will often spawn in a display tank and you will get fry popping up now and then in a well planted and mature tank. However, celestial pearl danios will readily eat their eggs and fry in my experience so this method will result in minimal fry numbers.
      There is another option which can work well if you have spare tanks, or enough room to rotate breeders. This method is basically using a bare tank with some java moss and keeping a trio in here for a 5 to 7 days, then moving them to another tank while the eggs hatch in the first tank. Then you keep repeating this process until you have enough fry or forever if you have the space… I have not tried this method myself, but have heard of others using this method with success. I personally don’t have the tank space for this method.
      The final method which has worked the best for me has been a dedicated breeding tank. In this tank all I have is a sponge filter and an acrylic yarn spawning mop (make sure it is 100% acrylic otherwise it will eventually rot in the tank). I keep a trio of my best fish in here, one male and two females. The male I use is the “older” pair from the photos above for his colour and body shape, as well as two nicely coloured and sized females. I call this the “permanent breeding factory”, because I am able to get on average 20 eggs per day with this method.

      To collect the eggs in the factory, I use a turkey baster purchased on eBay. I stop the sponge filter and after about 5 minutes or so when everything has settled down I slowly lift the spawning mop up and shake the mop, to make this easy I tied a long piece of yarn which comes out of the tank onto the lid for easy lifting without having to drop my arm into the tank. I then use a light on the front half of the tank, placing the light from the side helps in seeing the eggs easier as does a dark base (my tanks have black bottom panels). Using the turkey baster I suck the eggs up and collect them in a plastic cup for later use.
      With the eggs in the cup I then fill the cup most of the way and use an air stone on a very low bubble rate to keep circulation over the eggs to prevent fungus. Another option is to put the eggs in a fine meshed breeder box or poke some tiny holes into the cup and float it in the tank to keep fresh water circulating over the eggs.

      Eggs take about 3-4 days to hatch on average, and the fry will now be wrigglers which cannot really swim yet and are not ready to be fed. This wriggler stage will take about 3-5 days before they are free swimming. They will often be holding onto the side of the cup, or laying on the base. This is nothing to worry about.

      Once fry are free swimming they will be quite small and very thin in body thickness. You will need very small foods to have the best success, such as paramecium, spirulina powder, fry powder foods like sera micron and so on. I find that I get a MUCH better survival and growth rate when the fry are fed live foods so I only use paramecium for feeding them. The fry will need about 10-15 days before they can readily eat baby brine shrimp, I don’t bother with foods larger than paramecium until this stage mainly because micro worms and similar are a pain to keep going and requite too much maintenance. Once the fry are on baby brine shrimp, they will grow much quicker. Around the 5-6 week mark, I start introducing sera vipagran baby or similar small sized foods. I however prefer to give them live foods more than dry foods as I find the fry grow much quicker and are healthier and develop colour earlier.
      Fry will grow fairly quickly and at the 6 week mark will be around the 15mm mark and should be showing some slight purple/blue to the body and their golden spots should be readily visible. From this point on the fry will slow down their growth as they reach their adult size but colour will come in much quicker.

      By the 12 week mark the fish should be very close to looking like full grown adults, with the deep orange colour developing quickly after this point. Fish should also be reasonably easy to sex from this point on as the body shape has already developed and the colours are coming through quickly.


      Now I hope you enjoy the photos of the fry below, which should help you gauge age and so on of your fry! As a comparison, the first two photos are of fish the same age but the first shot is of a fry fed solely dry foods like spirulina powder and similar from hatch while the second photo is a fry fed on live foods from hatching.
      Young fry (most likely female) at 12 weeks old – Fed solely on dry foods from hatching.
       

      Young Female Fry at 12 weeks old – Fed on live foods, with dry food at the later stage in life
       

      Most likely a nice young female, but could be a male.

      Young pair of CPD, approximately 7-8 weeks old.
       

      Young female, approximately 7-8 weeks old
       

       
      Thank you for reading along and I hope you find the information useful, or at least enjoyed the article!

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