peppermints have bred

Hi guys, my pepps have finally bred after all the fussing about i just left them and went back to weekly water changes and told them if u havent bred by xmas yr all gone. And it worked, they have bred 2 or 3 times already and i can see females always trying to get in the males cave. From my last count there is about 50 and probably another batch on the way.I think i have 1 male and 4 females im not sure bout 1 of them.
So im setting up a 2 foot tank to grow them out, if i 1/2 fill it with their tank water and put some of the filter media in the new filter how long should i wait to transfer the babies?
Is 4 females to many? i dont want to disturb the tank trying to catch out 1 or 2 females.

Congrats on the spawns. It's a tricky one with peppermints. As Doug put it to me. They will only breed once they feel completely secure and all their needs are met. So it sounds like you done the trick. Mine did exactly the same as yours in that they bred whilst being left alone.

Regarding the fry: I've found moving young ones before they reach 1.5cm roughly will result in death most of the time. If the tank is large enough to house parents and fry then just do a 10-15% every second day to keep it clean and all should be good.


Please correct me if I've written bad advise :p

Hi Whiskey,

I think the best is 2 F per male. If there are too many ladies around, the male might get exhausted.
As for moving fry, I am not sure. If you do that carefully, no problem. At least I have never faced any difficulty and loss.
In the first month of their lives I always do WC daily (10%), and from the 5th week do it twice a week (50%).

Wish you good luck with your peps.

Best regards,
Mary

Thanx for the replies. I'll be moving them to tank I will set up with their tank water and filter medium and some gravel from breeding tank in a filter bag to keep same bacterier. My concern is to many females will I disrupt the breeding if I remove 1 or should I take out 2. I don't want to tire out the male.

First up congrats on the spawn

Secondly I hope you have a big grow out tank coz 4 females will produce a lot

Third if it was me I'd move the male and cave while he's on eggs into the growout tank. That way you don't have to catch and move the fry. Also instead of getting rid of the females you could just leave the male and cave in with the fry for a week or so to give him a rest.

And finally it would be a good idea to cycle the growout tank for a couple weeks before introducing fry. Pep fry (from my experience) aren't as hardy as commons

with kfenk leaving the male with the fry for a week or two will give him a rest and let him get back into good condition.

If you can, some photos would be great and any info on tank set-up and water parameters will also be appreciated.

MOVED

WELDONE ON YOUR SPAWN

I thought if i set up a new tank with water and filter from the breeding tank it would be ok to put them straight in the new tank.
Tank set up standard 3 footer lots of wood, 3 caves male has taken up the smallest one, temp is 26 deg. Ph is 7- 7.2 amonia, nitrate and nitrite are 0.I dont test for anything else, was doing water change once a week roughly 30 litres of cold water and feeding zucchini and a few wafers. I plan to remove 2 females as i dont have tank space for too many babies.

Just make sure you track the levels of ammonia carefully over the first few days. I have set tanks up and stocked them straight away but its all about making sure the filters can deal with the spike in amonia that WILL come