# List the easiest fish to breed in an Aquarium?



## SpaceLord (Feb 29, 2016)

What are the easiest fish to breed in an Aquarium? 

I have a 55 gallon planted tank with Neon Tetra and they either never breed or they eat all the babies. 

The only fish that has breed and grown are these orange Platy fish and a single black neon tetra and I think that was kind of a freak accident because I had like 30 pounds of long hair algae in my aquarium before. 

Thanks.


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## Nordic (Nov 11, 2003)

You need a sudden inflow of colder humic water, some sand from a humic river for example combined with a water change to get those neons breeding once they are conditioned and full of eggs. Not an easy task.
Most fish will spawn and eat their eggs or offspring without you noticing. The more different fish in your tank, the less chance of raising any young.

Of the fish you list, the danios , white clouds and gourami's are easier to breed. And ease of raising fry is probably also in that order.


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## thedood (May 30, 2015)

Mollies of about any sort. Guppies.


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## Nordic (Nov 11, 2003)

Mollies can be finicky. Wouldn't be my choice for a beginner.
But one doesn't really breed livebearers. It takes some dedication stopping them doing so.
The trick is to catch the babies. You do this by observing your fish, you will eventually be able to tell almost exactly when they will have babies.
Then move the mother to the birth tank with lots of rocks and things babies can hide under while they get used to being alive. This tank should also have lots of floating cover. either plants (more messy) or things like upturned plastic spawning grass patches. You can scrunch a bunch of net together on one side of the tank, with holes too small for the females to go after fry.
Another thing is, if you keep them with other fish, you will loose more fry/eggs.

Your danios are probably laying eggs every morning at daybreak.
All you need to do is put them in a tank with a large net draped in the bottom, so they can't reach the floor, cover it with and inch or two water, chuck some moss or a clump of spawning grass in the centre, the love being able to tunnel under or climb on top of the plant target. Their eggs are not sticky and will fall to the floor, by 10 or 11 the breeding should be over and you can take the net containing the adult fish out again, so they don't poop on their eggs. and you don't have to feed in there exposing the eggs to rotting food particles. Put a little methylene blue in the water and stir well. After a day or so you can use a sterile eye dropper or turkey baster to suck up spoiled eggs and faeces. This all sounds easy and exciting and it is, but it pales against the despair of not being able to care for the fry. There will be many of them, they want to eat the whole time, a fry without a swollen belly is an unlucky fry.
This leads to picking on each other etc. So malnutrition is not just a developmental issue. If you have a green pond or swimming pool (or maybe a neighbour who doesn't mind you skimming a bucket full off once in a while), the first part of the raising fish thing is easy. The food will be everywhere around them, and they need to spend no time trying to find bites to eat, or figuring out that the human says it is meal time now. Otherwise you need to start a culture of baby brine shrimp which can take 3 days for the first to hatch, or get hold of some micro worm culture (stinky). A commercial option I have used with limited success is Liquifry no1, it is basically a precursor to little water critters and yeasts that the little fish can live off.


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## jackmerius27 (Oct 23, 2015)

If your up for it, dwarf cichlids (Rams, Kribs, Apistos to name a few) are pretty fun to watch breed.


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## WaterLife (Jul 1, 2015)

Easiest fish to breed in my experience are (in no particular order) Corydoras, Aspidoras, Brochis, Guppies, Endlers, Swordtails, CPD's, Killifish, Pseudomugil rainbowfish, threadfin rainbows, Celebes rainbows, Oryzias ricefish, rasboras, German rams, flat-sucker body loaches, Stiphodon gobies, plecos, and most likely a few more I can't think of right now. Oh, and snails, crays and shrimp too 
All of these bred in my community tanks without me doing anything to trigger spawning (not even conditioning with diet), they just did so because they were happy. So in my book, if kept happily/in the right conditions, they will breed readily, which makes them "easy" fish to breed.

These are just the fish I can think of from the top of my head. No guarantee they will prove easy to breed for everyone though as everyone's tank is different .
And I am sure there are a ton more easy fish to breed, I just haven't kept them so I can't comment.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

I have white cloud mountain minnows constantly breeding in my unheated (65F) 20g long. Densely planted gives the fry/eggs a chance (but I still have low survival rate which is fine by me-takes longer to reach over stocked status) and infrosona until they're big enough for crushed flakes ad the periodic frozen bbs I toss in.
I do nothing to encourage breeding, they just have at it.


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## jaliberti (Dec 5, 2015)

Betta Plakats, Mosquito Fish, Feeder Guppies, Paradise Fish


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## jrill (Nov 20, 2013)

Guppies. Just add water.

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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

jaliberti said:


> Betta Plakats, Mosquito Fish, Feeder Guppies, Paradise Fish


Imo bettas splendens (proper breed name- plakat is a tail type within the breed) are NOT an easy fish to breed, it takes a lot more work on your part to safely and properly mate parents and raise fry. 
You cannot keep the male and female in the same tank constantly, the species is know as the Siamese fighting fish and the mean instinct is still in their genetics (even the females). They should be conditioned (lots of meaty meals-pressure cahnge outside ifs good, water change with cooler water added to simulate rainstorm) female should get full of eggs and male should have a bubble nest going. Put together and closely monitored, then the female removed once wrapping is done as the male will become extremely defensive of the nest chasing the female away and possibly killing her. Even before mating some splendens just won't get along and if left along you can end up with one or both dead.
Male tends nest (and possibly eats eggs) for several days. Once fry are free swimming breeder has the option to do father in fry rearing or take him out. you could end up with under half a dozen fry or as much as 300 fry (you're gonna need a BIG grow out tank)
Frequent water changes are a must as fry release a growth stunting hormone.. the more fry the more stunting.. the more water changes needed to dilute it.
Once fry reach 6-8 weeks the males often needs serrated in cups as they start to get aggressive, even some females end up being mean and need jarred/cupped. 
Then you need to do water changes on all these jars+ keep them heated as fry need 80-82F temp ranges to grow properly.
Fry go from eating their egg sack to infusoria/bbs, to microworms/viniger eels to white worms to grindal worms/crushed pellets then finally bs/bloodworms/regular pellets.


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