Breeding Tropical's???

Just wundering in your eye's what would be the easiest tropical's to breed???
And one's that would guarantee a good sucess and survival rate...
Guppies platty's molly's and swordtail's are easy to breed but they can eat there young whne your not looking...

Is there a good fish to keep that wont eat there young and will protect them???other than the bristlenose...

Cheers CuRbY..

I always had great success with Tanganyikan and Malawi cichlids, being mouthbrooders they always look afer their young, only the young experienced females sometimes eat them but after a couple of goes go full term. If your'e thinking of something to keep with bristlenose without conflict I have had Otopharynx Lithobates breed in with my L333's, L199 and bristlenose pair, once I had 3 females with mouthfuls at the same time, they are peaceful for malawis and never looked twice at any of my plecs.Cytocara Moorii are also pretty good and i have kept young frontosa with a breeding pair of bristlenose with no ill effect, though i dont know if i'd trust fully grown fronties!.At the moment i have my Geophagus Aereos in with my L's and bristlenose and never had any worries, I'm hoping the geos are going to breed and as soon as i spot the signs will watch them very carefully.The only time i had a problem was when i looked into keeping members of the Julidochromis and shelldwelling families, being bottom dwellers and territorial they hammered a small clown plec i had until i moved it, i think anything that is primarily a bottom dweller may see L's and bristlenose as competition for food and spawning sites.Then of course theres always dwarf cichlids, most of the Apistos, mikrogeos, nannocara etc are pretty peaceful and really only ever present a worry when looking to breed, even then they're not like some of the central americans who attempt to destroy everything in sight.
As you can tell i'm a little bit biased towards cichlids but after keeping loads of different species in my opinion they are not as bad as people think.

Cheers for that info ken
I wnet to my LFS yesterday and fell in love with a nice pair of Oscar Astronotus ocellatus, one black one albino....

Iam keeping them in a seperate tank as ive been told they are quite aggresvie??
Also iam not sure what sex they are but they are getting on very well with them sticking side by side all the time...

Do you no much about these ken??

Hi Curby

Never kept Oscars as i've never had the tank space, a friend of mine had them and he loved them, he said they were very intelligent and knew the difference between him and his wife, if he sat near the tank they would come over and have a look expecting a treat, but if his wife sat near the tank they would stay at the back sulking!(obviously had good taste, sorry mate!). You may not believe this but when i first started keeping tropicals I joined Wyke show society and used to show some of my fish and consequently travelled to other towns, i used to look out for the LFS to see if they had anything different in and remember once going into an aquarist shop in sheffield that had an Oscar in a tank near the door, when people came in he would get excited and pull on a chain attached to a bell!, the shopkeeper said it was his way of lettting him know someone had come into the shop.They say they are very intelligent and become almost dog like in loyalty.

KenG wrote:

Hi Curby

Never kept Oscars as i've never had the tank space, a friend of mine had them and he loved them, he said they were very intelligent and knew the difference between him and his wife, if he sat near the tank they would come over and have a look expecting a treat, but if his wife sat near the tank they would stay at the back sulking!(obviously had good taste, sorry mate!). You may not believe this but when i first started keeping tropicals I joined Wyke show society and used to show some of my fish and consequently travelled to other towns, i used to look out for the LFS to see if they had anything different in and remember once going into an aquarist shop in sheffield that had an Oscar in a tank near the door, when people came in he would get excited and pull on a chain attached to a bell!, the shopkeeper said it was his way of lettting him know someone had come into the shop.They say they are very intelligent and become almost dog like in loyalty.

i agree with all this ken, i have read quite alot today about them...they are very very clever...
I also realised they are to be kept on there own as they are predator without teeth..you only have to type in Oscar's on youtube
to see this...they will eat anything even large goldfish although i wont feed them fish...but they grow to 12"+..so i may have to move them to my large tank very soon..
Anywayz thanks for your input ken its valued mate..

Nice to see someone getting along with africans KenG, never really thought about the shellies
being bottom dwellers and nasty (as far as tiny fish go) but what you said makes sense . Funny as
stories about the oscars . Back to the point
Breeding tropicals : american "Blue eye cichlids"- if you get a pair they will breed no worries
(much like convict cichlids). But as KenG has mentioned american cichlids are quite mean so you
will have to take any thing fragile or getting smashed out of the tank when they spawn, but they will spawn,
none stop, they are great parents, only thing in oz they r not worth a great deal , not sure about the UK.
Cheers J
This what they look like


and about 1week old fry

Cheers J

Not kept Spilurums Kurosaki J, but they look pretty good and come to think of it i have'nt seen any in the LFS for a long while.
It seems everybody here is rift valley cichlid mad at the moment and the local ads are full of people selling them, thats one reason why i moved away from them and into Geophagus and dwarf, its not that i breed for profit, fishkeeping is my hobby and breeding is more of a bonus as it means i have everything set up right , but selling the fry does help pay for food,new tankmates,etc. Moving to Geos and dwarfs also gives me the chance try try and replicate a different biotope, the water around here is very hard and perfect for rift but I needed a different approach when setting up for my Geophagus, it also gives me the perfect reason to look at all those lovely plecs!.

great shots mate