# CPD Breeding Project (Spawn 2/26/2016)



## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

Project:

I am going to Breed Celestial Pearl Danios and Dwarf Emeralds. 



The CPDs will be bred in a 20 Long with egg traps to catch the eggs. For now I will feed them a mix of frozen bloodworms and hikari micro wafers. When I get eggs I will put them into plastic cups until they hatch at which time I'll put them into a 10 gal fry tank. I will feed the fry microworms and may feed golden pearls as well. When the fry are 1 cm I will move them in with the adults.



The Dwarf Emeralds will be bred in a 10 Gallon tank with only one egg trap. They will also be fed a mix of frozen bloodworms and hikari micro wafers. When I get eggs I will put them into plastic cups until they hatch at which time I'll put them into a 5 gal fry tank. I will feed the fry microworms and may feed golden pearls as well. When the fry are 1 cm I will move them in with the adults.



4/5/2015:



I went to my LFS today and got all of their CPDs (10) and Dwarf Emeralds (8) because they were only $3.99 each! I also got a bunch of Willow Moss. 



6:00 PM:

I just got done putting all the fish in their tanks and making all the egg traps. (My egg traps are just plastic containers covered with mesh that I use a rubberband to keep on and willow moss on top) When I added the egg traps it clouded the water in the 20 Long because I disturbed some dirt 



7:00 PM: 

The water is starting to clear up and the CPDs seem to be settling in well. They are swimming around the tank and are starting to regain their color. I fed them bloodworms and I saw a couple of them eating. 



I have only seen two Dwarf Emeralds since adding them to the tank. It makes sense that they aren't settling in as well as the CPDs because I've read that they are much more shy. I have not yet attempted to feed the Dwarf Emeralds yet.



8:00 PM:

The 20 Long is completely clear now and all of the CPDs are out and about.



Five of the Emerald dwarfs are swimming around (2 M, 3 F) and the rest seem to be hiding



9:00 PM:

Just turned light out in the 20 Long and the CPDs are very active



Just turned light out in the 10 gal and they are all swimming around.



Will make another update in the morning when I turn the lights on


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## Coralbandit (Feb 25, 2013)

Can't wait to see the progress!


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## heuk21 (Feb 24, 2010)

nice, i just let my cpd group in a 20G Long alone. Started with 7 wild caught adults and currently have around 13 juvies swimming around with the parents. i lost the first 2-3 batch of frys due to not being able to feed them from being on vacation. Mainly they can be left alone to breed if you are not looking to breed tons of them.


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

4/6/2015:

7:00 AM:
Just turned lights on in 20 Long and fish weren't scared by the lights coming on however I have noticed that they seem to scared of me because they are less active when I'm close to the tank. I hope they spawn this morning but I doubt they will. Either way I'll check the egg traps in a few hours. I fed the CPDs because it looked like they had eaten all of the bloodworms I fed last night and was comically surprised to see the smallest CPD I have carrying a blood worm that was longer than him. I will start to chop up the bloodworms and will feed reduced amounts of bloodworms and hikari micro wafers.

Just turned lights on in the 10 gal and they Dwarf Emeralds all went and hid under the sponge filter. I fed a few bloodworms just so I could find out if they're ready to eat. I have hope that they will spawn but I highly doubt that they will. I will check their egg trap in a few hours and update you with the results.


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## Veritas (Aug 9, 2013)

is that 10g bare?


might wanna add some moss and floaters to it to make them a little less skittish


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

Veritas said:


> is that 10g bare?
> 
> 
> might wanna add some moss and floaters to it to make them a little less skittish


There are no fish in the 10 gal. Thats where I'm going to put the fry.

4/6/2015:

9:00 AM:
I have some good news and some confusing news..... The good news is that I checked the egg traps and found 3 CPD eggs!!! The confusing news is that when I put them in a jar all three floated. I know they're not bubbles because I've poked them with a eye dropper several times and they haven't popped. I'm confused. First of all, if the eggs floated then how'd they drop into the egg trap? Also, all the pictures I've looked at of eggs they were all on the bottom of the container they were in. What's going on here?

I checked the egg trap in the 10 gal and there were no Dwarf Emerald eggs.

10:00 AM: 
I was looking around the sides of the 20 Long and I found about 50 more eggs floating on the surface. They range in all sizes from pinheads to much larger. I have found no similar eggs in the 10 gal so I still hold hope that these are CPD eggs. I didn't think CPD eggs floated though... I'm very confused does anyone know what is happening?

Here are some pictures of the eggs


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## garfieldnfish (Sep 25, 2010)

That does not look like CPD eggs. All CPD eggs are the same size. How large are the holes in your mesh? They look a bit too small for any CPDs eggs to fall through. I use craft canvas sold at Walmart for like 50 cent a piece.


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

garfieldnfish said:


> That does not look like CPD eggs. All CPD eggs are the same size.


What do you think they are?


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## garfieldnfish (Sep 25, 2010)

Did you wash the containers in your dishwasher? It's looks a lot like soap bubbles to me.


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## SR52012 (Nov 3, 2013)

How do you tell the sex of ur CPDs? I just got some and they are loving my tank!


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

garfieldnfish said:


> Did you wash the containers in your dishwasher? It's looks a lot like soap bubbles to me.


No, and they wont pop so they arent bubbles


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

SR52012 said:


> How do you tell the sex of ur CPDs? I just got some and they are loving my tank!


Only 100% way is that Females have a black spot by their anus and Males don't. Also males tend to have more colorful fins but this isn't always the case.


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

4/6/2015

9:00 PM:
Finally I saw all of my CPDs out at once and I discovered that I have 9 females and only 1 male. Will this be a problem? Will 1 male be able to spawn every night?

4/7/2015

7:00 AM:
Just turned on lights in 20 Long. I hope to find eggs today. Will tell you as soon as I know.

Surprisingly the Dwarf Emeralds are out right after I turned on their light. Its hard to feed them because whenever I'm near the tank they all go and hide. Will check their egg trap as well and update you soon.

9:00 AM:
Checked egg traps in 20 Long. No eggs. I think I'll head down to my LFS and pick up a couple males if they still have CPDs.

Checked egg trap in the 10 Gal. No eggs either.


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

4/8/2015

7:00 AM:
Just turned on lights in 20 Long. Will check for eggs in a couple hours and update you on the how it goes.

Just turned on lights in 10 Gal. Will check for eggs in a couple hours and update you on how it goes.

9:00 AM:
Just checked egg traps in 20 Long. No eggs. Will try to get to the LFS soon to get a couple more males.

Just checked egg trap in 10 Gal. No eggs. They're still pretty shy, I expect they'll spawn when they settle in.


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

4/9/2015

700 AM:
Just turned on lights in 20 Long will check egg traps and update you in a few hours.

Just turned on lights in 10 Gal will check egg traps and update you in a few hours.

12:00 PM: 
Checked egg traps and no eggs in 20 Long but I picked up a few male CPDs at the LFS so hopefully they'll spawn and I'll have eggs tomorrow.

Checked egg trap in 10 gal and no eggs.


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

4/10/2015

7:00 AM:
Just turned on lights in 20 Long. I hope the new males will spawn and I will find eggs when I check in a few hours.

Just turned on lights in 10 gal. I doubt the Dwarf Emeralds will spawn but I will check for eggs in a few hours.

10:00 AM:
Checked egg traps in 20 Long. No eggs.

Checked egg traps in 10 Gal. No eggs.


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## Preeths (Jan 29, 2008)

Hi Andrew,

The daily checking of egg traps for eggs will scare and stress the fish. You will not find any eggs this way. you need to condition the fish with live food and let them to do their thing. check the egg traps once you actually see some spawning behavior.


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## Veritas (Aug 9, 2013)

I still maintain that you don't have the appropriate setup for them to spawn.

Between checking them every day, and not having adequate cover for them to hide/feel safe in - I will be HIGHLY shocked if this works


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

Preeths said:


> Hi Andrew,
> 
> The daily checking of egg traps for eggs will scare and stress the fish. You will not find any eggs this way. you need to condition the fish with live food and let them to do their thing. check the egg traps once you actually see some spawning behavior.


I was told checking egg traps daily wouldn't stress the fish by Garfieldnfish. I have been feeding mostly frozen bloodworms so far. I ordered a microworm culture to feed the fry. Will the microworms be too small for the adults? I was watching earlier today and saw what looks like spawning activity going on. I will take a video if i see it again.

it looked like in this video except i didnt see the male wrap around the female like in the end of this video 
http://youtu.be/frjgi7By1CM


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

4/11/2015

7:00 AM:
Turned on lights in 20 Long. When I check the egg traps in a few hours I hope to find eggs. 

Turned on lights in 10 gal. I sat and watched them for a while and after about 15 min of me not moving they started swimming around and I saw two males circling each other like I've heard that CPDs do. I will check egg traps in a few hours and hope to find eggs.

9:00 AM:
Checked egg traps in 20 Long. No eggs.

Checked egg traps in 10 gal. No eggs.


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

5/4/2015
Sorry for the delay between postings but I will try to do better. The egg traps were unsuccessful. I think I didn't have enough cover for them to be comfortable. I have given up on the Dwarf Emerald Rasboras because they still don't come out of their hiding spots. As for the CPDs, after I took out the egg traps I covered the bottom of their tank with spawning mops. After one week they weren't very active and I needed a tank to put my White Clouds in so I put them in with the CPDs. Within minutes of adding the White Clouds my CPDs were all out schooling with them. It seems that the activity of the White Clouds makes the CPDs think it's safe to come out and swim. I'm still trying to spawn the CPDs but I'm now taking a different approach. My current plan is to condition all the adults together and to take out my best colored male and fattest female and to put them in a bare bottom 5 gal that has spawning mops on the bottom. I will remove the adults and shake out the spawning mops. I will then siphon out all fry and eggs into cups to hatch. When they hatch I will put them into a 100 gallon pond I have outside where they will growout to full size over the summer. On Thursday (4/30) I did this and the pair is still in the 5 gal. How long should I leave them in there? The female still looks pretty fat. Does this mean they haven't spawned?


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## Mr. Krabs (Mar 25, 2014)

Andrew. said:


> 5/4/2015
> When they hatch I will put them into a 100 gallon pond I have outside where they will growout to full size over the summer.


I know nothing about breeding, but this sounds like a terrible idea, especially after going through all of this trouble to get them to breed in the first place. Sounds like you're going to be feeding the local wildlife.


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## Veritas (Aug 9, 2013)

Any interest in selling the Emeralds?


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## TekWarren (Oct 6, 2013)

CPD will spawn smaller amounts of eggs on a regular basis. I would collect mine at most once per week. The eggs are very tiny and hard to see...so are fry for that matter. Think eyelash, but smaller.


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

*Eggs!!!*

I took the adults out of the 5 gal and scoured the bottom of the tank and found eggs! At first I didn't think there were any eggs but I drained it to about 2 inches left of water and I found a few eggs that were almost too small to see I have about 3 eggs. They're so small that it's hard to distinguish small pieces of random stuff on the bottom from eggs. I know I have at least 3 but maybe more. When I was satisfied that I had gotten all the eggs refilled the tank and put the sponge filter and spawning mops back in. I put a trio in the tank. (same male two different females) I hope to get more eggs this time. This time when I remove the adults I'll shake off the spawning mops and remove any eggs I see. I'll wait for any eggs I missed to hatch and will remove the fry then. I'm planning on moving the male between the 5 and 10 gallon and changing out females each time I remove the adults. I would change out males as well but I only have 2 or 3 Males. One I'm unsure about because it has long fins but they aren't the dark orange color of my other two males (his are light orange like all of my females) and it won't stay still long enough for me to see if it has a dark spot by its anus. The other male is still skinny from when I got him even though I've seen him eating bloodworms. He looks perfectly healthy except that the bottom of his body is flat. All my other CPDs have more of a rounded belly. Even my other male. Perhaps he just has an odd body shape. He's the most tame CPD in the tank. He swims right up to the net every time I put it in the tank to net fish out. It's as if he knows that the fish are going to be spawned.


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## stephd23 (Sep 10, 2013)

Hey, great thread. What are the best water parameters for getting CPD's to spawn?


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

stephd23 said:


> Hey, great thread. What are the best water parameters for getting CPD's to spawn?


I have my tanks at room temp which for me swings between 66 F and 72 F on most days sometimes getting hotter when its hot outside. I dont think Ph matters as long as its not crazy high or low. I would say ph between 6.5 and 7.8 with like 7.2 being ideal. My water is about 7.6 so i dont think its that big a deal.

I've only gotten three eggs so I'm far from an expert. If you want more reliable info you should pm Garfieldnfish he's been breeding them for a while.


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## Adrand (Feb 13, 2012)

Andrew. said:


> I have my tanks at room temp which for me swings between 66 F and 72 F on most days sometimes getting hotter when its hot outside. I dont think Ph matters as long as its not crazy high or low. I would say ph between 6.5 and 7.8 with like 7.2 being ideal. My water is about 7.6 so i dont think its that big a deal.
> 
> I've only gotten three eggs so I'm far from an expert. If you want more reliable info you should pm Garfieldnfish he's been breeding them for a while.


+1 on garfieldnfish. The advice he provided me on breeding cpd in another thread has been spot on thus far. I have my first batch of non-accidental CPD fry hatched this morning. 

Loving this thread btw.


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

Adrand said:


> +1 on garfieldnfish. The advice he provided me on breeding cpd in another thread has been spot on thus far. I have my first batch of non-accidental CPD fry hatched this morning.
> 
> Loving this thread btw.


Thank you. when i made this thread i hoped people would enjoy it and be able to use it as a template for how to breed cpds


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

5/6/2015: 
All three of the eggs fungused over in the glass i put them in 
I put a pair in an unfiltered 10 gal. I will remove them in a day or two.


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## bugboykaufman (Mar 22, 2007)

I'm in the process of trying to some CPD's to spawn as well. Looking forward to good news!


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## Khooxo (Mar 9, 2011)

So here's how I did it when i was breeding them. I used a pyrex container with a hole cut on the lid and a plastic yarn canvas (mesh looking things you find at art supply stores in the yarn section). The holes were about 3/4cm, big enough for any egg to drop down, small enough for adults to stay the hell out. Since they were pyrex containers, I could see in them, so all I had to do to check was look... no stress on the fish. I didn't use java moss as i noticed eggs were getting stuck in them and not falling into the container. I instead used a couple strands of green latex yarn about 4 inches each, tied onto the mesh (so two strands measuring about 2 inches each), they loved it. To extract the eggs i used a medicine dropper, you can find these at Walmart for about 1-2 dollars. The hole was big enough to suck up the eggs and I did no damage to them. For hatching, I used the idea of a Cichlid egg tumbler, except i built it to scale for the CPD eggs(plastic Florescent bulb tube and panty hose). It kept them moving, prevented fungus, and provided plenty of oxygen for the eggs. When the fry hatch, I don't feed them for the first few days, until their yolks disappear, then i started with Hikari fry food and green water for about two weeks, after that onto microworms. After 4-5 weeks they were safe to go into the community tank (They can go in at 3 weeks, but I didn't want them competing for food with the adults).

Took me a lot of time and trial and error to get this method down. So i'm passing it on since I don't breed these anymore, but I was very successful doing this. Sorry for the long post.


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## Khooxo (Mar 9, 2011)

Forgot to add my tank specs:

I used a 10 gal, half way filled. Two mini sponge filters (you can find these on ebay, xy-2835, they're black, perfect for a halfway filled 10g). No heater, the CPDs bred in the morning when the water was warming up, and in the evening when the water was cooling down (doesn't get too hot or too cold in the room I kept them in).


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

I havent posted pics for a while so here u go 
This is the 5 gal breeding tank.







This is the 20 Long where I have most of the adults. I usually have more white clouds in there but I took 2 pair out to spawn







Heres a close up of the fish. I apologize for the quality of the pictures but its really sunny so the room is bright so theres a lot of glare. Also my glass is covered in algae.


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

Sorry I'm a little behind on updates. I going to update you guys last night but I was tired from a long day so I went to sleep
5/9/2015:
I took the trio of CPDs I had in the 5 gallon tank out and no eggs. I've been reading around and many people say that changing the adults between tanks doesn't work because they're too stressed. I think I've figured out why my egg traps didn't work. Before I was using 1/16 inch mesh. I've since learned that CPD eggs are about 1 mm which is barely under 1/16 inch. I think the mesh was too small for the eggs to fall through. I now have 3/16 inch mesh which I got from an old mesh bag I had. Also, before the only cover the fish had were the egg traps themselves and now I have a ton of spawning mops to make them feel safe. I also removed the White Clouds because I don't want them to eat the CPD eggs and I don't want to collect their eggs and I don't want to collect their eggs thinking their CPD eggs. I'm hopeful that this will work.
5/10/2015:
This morning I was surprised to see spawning behavior. Since I just made a lot of changes to the tank I expected it to be a few days before seeing spawning behavior. My most colorful male whom I believe to be the Alpha male has taken a section of the spawning mop as his territory and is chasing all the other males away. When a female approached the spawning mop he would allow them to swim around it and he would follow them. Several times he and a female went into the middle of the spawning mop and I saw him twitching around. I believe he was spawning. Later today I will put the mop into a 5 gallon tank and vacuum the area under it to try to get any eggs they left. I will then shake off the spawning mop and put it back. I'm hoping I find eggs.

I checked both the egg traps and the spawning mop that the alpha male claimed for himself and found no eggs. Is what I'm seeing not spawning? Is it possible that the male ate all of the eggs they made? The spawning mop is pretty thick so I doubt that happened.


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

*Fry!!!*

5/10/2015:
Since the Dwarf Emeralds were still skittish I gave up on spawning them indoors and yesterday I moved the 7 (couldn't find all 8 even though I took everything out I guess one died under the driftwood and was eaten) Dwarf Emeralds to a 28 Gallon Container Pond outside with 8 Otos. Today I was removing moss from the tank and I saw fry! I started siphoning them out and found 16 Dwarf Emerald Fry! They're about 3/16". They're all about the same size and it looks like a few may not be free swimming yet because most of them stay at the surface but a few don't move much and mostly sit on the bottom. I was positive that they hadn't spawned because it would take at least 30 minutes of me sitting still for them to come out of hiding while I was next to the tank and even then if I so much as readjusted in my chair they would dash into their hiding spots. Right now I have the fry in a barebottom 5 gallon tank with no filter. I squeezed a sponge filter into the tank to give them bacteria to feed on. I also fed them microworms and the leftover dust from a flake container.


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

5/11/2015:
I found 7 more Dwarf Emerald fry making 22 in total. I didn't check the egg traps today because I want to give them time to settle back in after the changes I made. I will check for eggs again in several days.


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## saiko (Mar 30, 2007)

can you post pic of the tank you found fry please? what moss are you using?


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

saiko said:


> can you post pic of the tank you found fry please? what moss are you using?


I was using java moss in that tank. I cant post a picture because I took everything out of the tank.


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

*CPD Eggs!!!*

5/16/2015:
I checked the egg traps this morning and found eggs and fry!!! There are about 5 eggs and 5 fry. The fry aren't free swimming yet.


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

5/17/2015:
I just checked the egg traps again and since I only found 10 eggs and fry after 5 days of not checking I expected to find 1-5 new eggs. So I was very surprised to find 32 eggs!!! I found just 4 eggs in one egg trap and 28 in the other. From what I read I was expecting 5-10 a day. Was this just a great night or is this normal?
I will try to post pics of eggs and fry tonight.


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

5/17/2015:
I just checked the egg traps again and since I only found 10 eggs and fry after 5 days of not checking I expected to find 1-5 new eggs. So I was very surprised to find 32 eggs!!! I found just 4 eggs in one egg trap and 28 in the other. From what I read I was expecting 5-10 a day. Was this just a great night or is this normal?
I will try to post pics of eggs and fry tonight.
Here are some pics of the eggs


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

5/22/2015:
I'm starting to see a drop off in breeding now that my temp is starting to regularly get up to 75 outside. This causes the tank to range from 66 at night to 76 during the day. Just like Garfieldnfish said they don't seem to breed very much in warmer weather. I'm going to try to counter this by using a portable AC unit pointed at the tank to keep it below 70F. It seems to be working so far as in 3 hours it's gotten the tank temp down from 74F to 68F. I haven't gotten any eggs in a few days so I hope I'll get quite a few today.
I moved the fry into a 5 gallon growout tank. I have no filter in the tank but it is filled with Najas (guppy grass). I don't see the fry much because they hide in the Najas but this morning I witnessed a couple of my eggs hatching. I tried to record it but my phone camera couldn't focus on them. I will start hatching them out in glass containers now that I have fry in my growout tank so if I see this again I'll be able to record it. Also, I've gotten about 60 eggs so I should have at least 50 fry in my growout tank but I almost never see them. Most of my eggs are from last week so they should've hatched already. I know I have quite a few because I'm always surprised by how quickly the microworms are gone after I feed them. I haven't witnessed them eating yet but they must be since there are never left over microworms. And the few fry that I see seem to be looking fat and healthy so I'm postive that they are.

*Update:*
After close scrutiny of the bottom of the tank I discovered that at least 30 fry were hatched but still had a little of their egg yolk left so they mostly hang out on the bottom. There are a few fry who are about 3/16" that are free swimming and oddly they appear to be a light tan color while the fry on the bottom are much thinner and look like a piece of black hair. The Air conditioning worked because today I found 14 eggs. I'm keeping these eggs in a jar until they're free swimming so I will be able to take much better pictures of them. I have confidence that the air conditioner will work for the rest of the summer because today the tank was at 66F which is exactly what I set it on. It will go down to 60 so I hope I'll be able to keep the tank under 70F on hot days.


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

Here are some pictures of the eggs I found today
These eggs are perfect and should hatch














Compared to this white egg which is fungused and won't hatch







With this fungused egg I'm now down to 13 viable eggs from today

I saw one of the freeswimming fry out today and managed to get a few pics of the CPD Fry
Here is a free swimming fry.


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

5/23/2015:
I checked the egg traps and found 5 eggs. All look to be viable so I hope to get 4 or 5 to hatch. I looked at the eggs from yesterday and only one more has fungused taking it down to 12 eggs from yesterday.

Is anyone still following this thread? It's been two weeks since last reply. I'm still going to keep the journal going but it would be nice to get some feedback from other people who breed CPDs.


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## Adrand (Feb 13, 2012)

Andrew. said:


> 5/23/2015:
> I checked the egg traps and found 5 eggs. All look to be viable so I hope to get 4 or 5 to hatch. I looked at the eggs from yesterday and only one more has fungused taking it down to 12 eggs from yesterday.
> 
> Is anyone still following this thread? It's been two weeks since last reply. I'm still going to keep the journal going but it would be nice to get some feedback from other people who breed CPDs.


Im following. Sorry wasnt sure if it was rude to jump in with my own experiences. I am going through this breeding process at same as you actually. Lost alot of eggs to the white fungus so only have about a dozen fry growing out now. That was about 3 days worth of the 1 male and 1 female in the breeding tank.


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

Adrand said:


> Im following. Sorry wasnt sure if it was rude to jump in with my own experiences. I am going through this breeding process at same as you actually. Lost alot of eggs to the white fungus so only have about a dozen fry growing out now. That was about 3 days worth of the 1 male and 1 female in the breeding tank.


How have you been collecting your eggs?
Also, how many eggs have you been getting from the pair each day? I've probably been averaging about 8 eggs a day with all 11 in the same tank. I'm pondering trying a trio to see if I'll get more eggs that way.


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## ac0xr (Aug 13, 2014)

I don't breed CPD's, but I'm considering doing it in the future. If I do, this thread will be very helpful. I'm still following along, so don't stop now! 

Thanks for the effort, and keep up the good work.


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## Musubi (Mar 12, 2015)

Not bragging at all, but if any of my experience helps you with your CPD breeding quest, please read on...

My 3 CPDs ( 2 males, 1 female) spawned in my 6 gal fluval chi. Planted with Java fern, Java moss, nana-petite and glosso. I have driftwood, with black sand substrate. White sand in front for scape-looks. Water params: ph 7.0 neutral, gh-20, kh 30. Zero trites/trates. Dosing with liquid fert and carbon at 1 drop from eye dropper at each 25% weekly waterchange. Lighting is fluval chi stock light, plus natural light from large window. Occasional extra clip-on led light. 78degree temp. There are red cherry shrimp and too many snails in there. 

I feed with frozen baby brine shrimp, frozen cyclops, hikari shrimp food, hikari first bites, and pulverized high-quality flakes. 3 or 4 x a day, no more than they can eat in a minute.

Recently added 3 more CPD, but the fry must of been there earlier based on their current size.

That's it. I have a dozen or so fry. Maybe I'm just lucky.


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

ac0xr said:


> I don't breed CPD's, but I'm considering doing it in the future. If I do, this thread will be very helpful. I'm still following along, so don't stop now!
> 
> Thanks for the effort, and keep up the good work.


Thank you, its nice to know people are following the thread.


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## Adrand (Feb 13, 2012)

Andrew. said:


> How have you been collecting your eggs?
> Also, how many eggs have you been getting from the pair each day? I've probably been averaging about 8 eggs a day with all 11 in the same tank. I'm pondering trying a trio to see if I'll get more eggs that way.


I havent been collecting them, ive been removing the pair from a 20long community tank and going into a 3 gallon tank. It only has gravel and a diy egg trap with moss on top. I left them in for those few days and removed the pair. Saw eggs in the trap but didnt disturb them and just waited a bit over a week before i saw swimming fry. It looked like there was at least a couple dozen eggs in the trap (rough estimate ) but only got a dozen swimming fry. I wonder if removing them from the trap i could have gotten a better hatch rate.


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

Adrand said:


> I havent been collecting them, ive been removing the pair from a 20long community tank and going into a 3 gallon tank. It only has gravel and a diy egg trap with moss on top. I left them in for those few days and removed the pair. Saw eggs in the trap but didnt disturb them and just waited a bit over a week before i saw swimming fry. It looked like there was at least a couple dozen eggs in the trap (rough estimate ) but only got a dozen swimming fry. I wonder if removing them from the trap i could have gotten a better hatch rate.


If you remove them from the trap i think you will get a better hatch rate because water flow helps to keep them from fungusing and I think its better for the eggs to be more spread out so the fungus doesnt spread between them.


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## Moygoodness (Aug 19, 2013)

I just saw this thread for the first time ever.

I have been successful in breeding my CPDs numerous times but only in the fall season. I had a 10 gallon bare bottom tank and filled it up with java moss and a sponge filter. 80% of the tank was covered in moss. Every week I would dump in new water to try to stimulate rainfall. I started with 5 CPDs and had over 20-30 fully grown juvenile survivors in a few months. I never consistently checked with the progress and documented how many eggs or fry there were. I just let the CPDs do their thing and gave them the weekly water changes.

Check out my YouTube channel when you get the chance. The CPDs in the video are the ones I bred.

Great thread and best of luck!


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

Moygoodness said:


> I just saw this thread for the first time ever.
> 
> I have been successful in breeding my CPDs numerous times but only in the fall season. I had a 10 gallon bare bottom tank and filled it up with java moss and a sponge filter. 80% of the tank was covered in moss. Every week I would dump in new water to try to stimulate rainfall. I started with 5 CPDs and had over 20-30 fully grown juvenile survivors in a few months. I never consistently checked with the progress and documented how many eggs or fry there were. I just let the CPDs do their thing and gave them the weekly water changes.
> 
> ...


Thank you.
Why do you think you were only successful in the fall? Did stop trying to breed them in the Winter or for some reason do they only breed for you in the fall?


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

5/24/2015:
5 more of my eggs from two days ago have fungused. This leaves me with only 7 out of the 14 eggs I collected from then. Also 1 of the eggs I collected yesterday have fungused. So I have 4 eggs from yesterday. 
I'm a little disappointed with this hatch rate. I think I'll switch to another method of getting the eggs to hatch. For CPDs I've heard of people who use metheleyne blue and people who put an airline in the hatching container. I think I've heard that you have to remove the metheleyne blue before the eggs hatch is this true? 
For those of you who who use these methods what is the hatch rate for each. Judging from how the eggs from 5/22 have fared I'm probably under a 50% hatch rate. This would explain why I don't have a ton of fry in my growout.


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## Adrand (Feb 13, 2012)

Andrew. said:


> If you remove them from the trap i think you will get a better hatch rate because water flow helps to keep them from fungusing and I think its better for the eggs to be more spread out so the fungus doesnt spread between them.


Great thought. I only use a sponge filter and im sure there wasnt much water movement down in the egg trap. Ill try that next time. What are you feeding them so far? Ive only been using grinded up flake food a couple times a day which seems to work okay. I started a microworm culture but it doesnt seem to producing any growing up the sides of the container like i read they would.


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

Adrand said:


> Great thought. I only use a sponge filter and im sure there wasnt much water movement down in the egg trap. Ill try that next time. What are you feeding them so far? Ive only been using grinded up flake food a couple times a day which seems to work okay. I started a microworm culture but it doesnt seem to producing any growing up the sides of the container like i read they would.


It took a week for mine to start reproducing and crawling up on the sides.


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## Adrand (Feb 13, 2012)

Andrew. said:


> It took a week for mine to start reproducing and crawling up on the sides.


Good to know thanks. It had only been about 5 days i think. Can you actually see the shape of worms moving around or are they so small you cant see them with the naked eye?


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

Adrand said:


> Good to know thanks. It had only been about 5 days i think. Can you actually see the shape of worms moving around or are they so small you cant see them with the naked eye?


I can see them moving in the container but I usually can't see the shape of them. On the sides they'll be so close together they'll just look like a blob on the side of the container. When Iput them in clear water I can see individual worms.


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## Moygoodness (Aug 19, 2013)

Andrew, 

I had better success in the fall because the water temperature is just easier to manage during that season, at least, in NYC.


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## saiko (Mar 30, 2007)

Any update please?


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

1/25/2016: Sorry I haven't updated the thread recently. Soon after my last post I got a job and didn't have enough time to update the thread. Then about a month later I moved and had to give away most of my fish and tanks. I gave away all but 5 of the CPDs, a 5 gallon tank, a 10 gal, and a 20 Long. The remaining 5 CPDs are all still alive in their 5 gal but I just got done battling against ich so they're skinny and not in breeding condition. The ich also killed all of the fry who had been surviving in the spawning mops. I haven't gotten around to setting up either of the other tanks. I have more time on my hands now so I'm going to start breeding them again. I also plan on using the 20 Long for Dwarf Puffers but that's not what this thread is about. 
My plan is to power feed them bloodworms and flakes to get them back into spawning condition. I hope to get them back into spawning condition in 2 weeks(a couple of them are really skinny). Then I'll take a similar approach to last time except this will be in a 5 gal. My current plan is to keep the adults in the bare-bottom 5 gal and to have two egg traps and spawning mops. I'll start checking the egg traps daily once I start seeing spawning behavior. When I find eggs I will put them in a jar with an air hose running into it. (I found that this is the most effective way to keep eggs from fungusing) When they hatch I'll transfer them to the 10 gallon growout tank where they'll stay until they reach a salable size.

BTW I love the updates to the site.


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## Rion (Dec 29, 2006)

Glad to hear you're getting back into breeding them, if you still have problems with fungous eggs get some methylene blue and put a drop or two in your egg container and that should help (along with the air stone).

If you are having problems with them being skittish in the tank put some floating plants in and make sure the room is dark while you watch for spawning.

I am also in the process of starting up CPD breeding again after a 4 year hiatus.


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## TommyLaudani (Jan 26, 2016)

ok i no this isnt the right place for this but how do i post a thred?


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

Rion said:


> Glad to hear you're getting back into breeding them, if you still have problems with fungous eggs get some methylene blue and put a drop or two in your egg container and that should help (along with the air stone).
> 
> If you are having problems with them being skittish in the tank put some floating plants in and make sure the room is dark while you watch for spawning.
> 
> I am also in the process of starting up CPD breeding again after a 4 year hiatus.


I was planning on getting methylene blue for the eggs but I forgot to put that in the post. They haven't been skittish since about a month after I moved. As I'm typing this the dominant male is already beginning to chase the females again so if the females are ready I expect to get eggs in the next few days. The other two males were hit the worst by the ich and are still very skinny so I don't think they'll be up to spawning for a while. Now that I've seen the male chasing the females I'll add an egg trap and check for eggs tomorrow when I get home from work.


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

1/26/2016: Got home from work early today and checked for eggs... found none. The CPDs were scared when I checked for eggs but within 15 minutes they were back to normal. I'm seeing some of the behavior that accompanies spawning (males chasing females, dominant male guarding territory) but not as much as in the peak of breeding earlier. I'll check for eggs again tomorrow and will tell you as soon as I know. 

Update: Not sure that it matters but I've been vacuuming the bottom of the tank daily to remove uneaten bloodworms. I plan to do this daily and to refill the tank weekly. This should work the same as water changes. Just trying to write down everything that I do.


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## Myzri (Jan 26, 2016)

Here is a thread I made on another site. It worked very well. Haunted forest - The Celestial Pearl Danio Forum
Hope it helps, feel free to ask me any questions. It's great to see someone else breeding these beautiful fish


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

I'll try something similar to your method when i get them breeding again


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## Veritas (Aug 9, 2013)

welcome back! I enjoyed reading your posts.


Did you ever have success with the Dwarf Emeralds breeding?


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

Veritas said:


> welcome back! I enjoyed reading your posts.
> 
> 
> Did you ever have success with the Dwarf Emeralds breeding?


I had about 20 show up in the 10 gal once i moved the adults outside for the summer. I grew these out to adult size in a few months and sold them to my LFS for $2.50 each. The adults outside did well but i had to give them away when i moved. Even the fry I raised were very shy and I rarely saw them. I didn't notice any more fry from the outside setup but they were only in there for a couple weeks. 


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## Veritas (Aug 9, 2013)

Andrew. said:


> I had about 20 show up in the 10 gal once i moved the adults outside for the summer. I grew these out to adult size in a few months and sold them to my LFS for $2.50 each. The adults outside did well but i had to give them away when i moved. Even the fry I raised were very shy and I rarely saw them. I didn't notice any more fry from the outside setup but they were only in there for a couple weeks.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


hmm, interesting. I just managed to restock my tank with 24-28 of them - but being a community tank I will probably not have a good fry survival rate. I have a separate 10g i'm setting up to breed them in.


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

*CPD Breeding Project (Update 1/27/2016)*



Veritas said:


> hmm, interesting. I just managed to restock my tank with 24-28 of them - but being a community tank I will probably not have a good fry survival rate. I have a separate 10g i'm setting up to breed them in.


Good luck with breeding them in the 10 gal. I'd like to hear about how you do.



1/27/2016: Checked the egg traps and no eggs. I've continued to power feed bloodworms and I can already see one of the skinny males beginning to fatten up. I hope to find eggs tomorrow.

1/28/2016: Checked egg traps and still no eggs. Hoping for a bunch tomorrow.


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

1/30/2016: Checked egg traps and still no eggs. 


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## Sub-Mariner (Jan 25, 2016)

In case its helpful to anyone, I used a fairly simple method and had some luck:

I used a 20 gallon breeder that I set up in the cabinet under my 150. It had a current usa led+ set to a timer mounted to the underside of the cabinet. For substrate I used marbles. I placed a bunch of duckweed and java moss in it that I had trimmed out of another tank. I set up a sponge filter and squeezed off a filter sponge from my 150 inside the tank to seed it with bacteria. I didn't use a heater and my water (tap) stayed around 72 degrees. 
After the tank cycled I placed 1 male and 3 female CPD in it and shut the cabinet, then forgot about them for about two weeks, other than feeding them daily with flake and brine shrimp. Then I removed the CPDs and waited. 6 days later I had around 30 fry swimming around that I fed with golden pearl 50-100 micron. When they reached a suitable size I moved them to my 25g high tech cube and dismantled the breeder.


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## Andrew. (Dec 27, 2013)

*Finally Spawned*

2/26/2016: Sorry I haven't updated the thread lately. I've been very busy and haven't been on the forum much. I've been keeping up with my water changes and power feeding of the CPDs and have been checking the egg traps daily. I was beginning to get discouraged but today when I checked I found an egg!!! I checked both of the egg traps and only found the one egg. I'm surprised that there was only one egg but nevertheless excited. The egg looks just like the viable eggs that I posted pictures of the last time I was breeding CPDs (I think these pictures are around page 3) so I hope it will hatch. I'll take a picture and upload it later tonight.

Here is the picture of the egg (taken with my iphone 6s)


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