# CPD Breeding Journal



## VisionQuest28 (Apr 18, 2007)

From my understanding of CPD's and most danios/rasbora's...they are continual spawners. Meaning that they basically breed non stop, assuming conditions are right, and lay a small number of eggs every day. So i would think your plan sounds good, leaving them in there for 4-5 days and then moving them back to the main tank. Although, I think you wouldnt get too many fry that way, and im not exactly sure what the "grow out" stage would be, but im guessing around 2 months? So, not a very high turn out rate, which is probably ok with what you're trying to accomplish, as im guessing you're not trying to be a commercial breeder of these, are you? 

If you wanted as many fry as possible, you would want multiple 10g tanks to just continually move the breeders around in or a way to collect eggs and have a few dedicated tanks to hatch and grow out. I have seen a few different methods of this discussed, a quick internet search should give you plenty of answers.


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## Supernova26 (Jan 17, 2008)

I used 2.5 gallon tanks. Easy to take care of and work just fine. Mine usually lay the eggs after a water change. So if you change some of the water every day you are going to have more eggs. If the conditions are right they do breed like crazy.


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## Rion (Dec 29, 2006)

Yes they don't have a dedicated breeding season but they aren't continuous spawners either, from what I've been reading (http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/rbz/biblio/55/55rbz131-140.pdf page 9 of the pdf, second column). The grow out stage would require the fry to get of a size I feel comfortable to put back in the main tank, which is around 7mm and upward. No it's not a very high turn out rate but it's a better turn out rate than in the main tank. No I'm not trying to commercially breed these, I don't have that kind of space also the wife would probably kill me. I've gone over as many of the breeding methods as I could find the past few months and to me this is the easiest and best method I could find that could help answer my questions.

It's time to select the breeders.


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## tedr108 (May 14, 2009)

Rion,

Here's what I do and it works well for me, in case you want to give it a try:

I have a nice, fairly flat rock (about 3" x 5") that is covered with a thick layer of moss. I put this into my CPD tank for about a week. I carefully take it out and put it in a 10G tank for fry. In about a week, I usually get about 20 fry hatching out of this. Another thing I have is 2 little clay pots with no-see-um netting covering the the hole with gravel on top of it. I made 2 green acrylic yarn spawning mops, one for each clay pot. I also put these 2 clay pots (with spawning mop in each) into my CPD tank and leave them for a week. I typically get about 12 -15 fry from the pots -- slightly less attractive than the moss rock for the CPDs, I guess. The nice thing about this method is that you are not moving the breeders around.

Not sure what your summers are like, but, here in Los Angeles during the summer, I make 25G "ponds" outside -- just big 25G buckets or containers. I put floating plants (water lettuce and/or hyacinth in them) and some anacharis just floating around below the surface. Nothing cooler than putting the CPD fry in there and letting them raise themselves! There is plenty to eat and they are healthy and happy. Raccoons were causing me trouble at one point, so I made some barbed fencing around the top with 1/2" stainless steel mesh. Pics of ponds here:


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## Rion (Dec 29, 2006)

Hmm, I might have to try the moss rock next, I have a few in the 10...I'll have to see if they prefer the moss over the anubias if given a choice. I would love to try the buckets but I live in an apartment and don't have much of an outside to put them.

On another note a spawning occurred in the 20 after removing the trio. There were signs of this happening before I removed them as I added baby brine shrimp this morning. I've harvested 13 eggs so far and are sitting in a cup till they hatch and are free swimming at which time they will join the other 6 fry.


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## Rion (Dec 29, 2006)

So I'm taking the breeding pair out of the 10 today. I doubt if anything ever happened as they did not adjust well to the new surroundings. Looks like egg harvesting by means of turkey baster and/or moss rock is the way I have to go. They seem to spawn in the same anubias every time apparently so egg collection isn't a problem I guess. I'm curious if they'll prefer a moss rock over the anubias this time around.

On another note of eggs I harvested all but 3 got fungus even with aeration. Has anybody else noticed a high fungus rate with CPD eggs? It looked like very few of the eggs were even fertilized to begin with so that has me concerned as well. Those 3 remaining eggs hatched today and I'm waiting for them to become free-swimming before I add them to the rest of the fry.

I'd add pictures but most of them would be "hey look at the black spot amongst all this white and grayish stuff". Maybe I'll take pictures of spawning next time...


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Rion, thanks for that link you gave earlier! It is such a great read. Your description of the pictures cracked me up. As a fellow CPD lover, I would be excited to see the pics.  Wish I could add something helpful, but I am new to the fish.


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## Rion (Dec 29, 2006)

so... when I went to move the fish from the 10 found a dead female which brings my female count down to 2, so hopefully some of my fry end up being female. I probably need to go out and buy some more females, just don't have the money for them yet cause they're a whooping $10 here and not the $5 I got mine for.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Wow, that's a lot. Put a WTB in the Swap & Shop. You should get some nice ones there.


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## Rion (Dec 29, 2006)

Update time! Alright the oldest fry I've raised is starting to show it's adult colors and it looks to be female, I'll shoot some pictures later but it has the black spot next to the anal fin. Also my error, 4 eggs hatched and they are still not free-swimming yet but have been added to the 10. I also just extracted another free-swimming fry from the 20 and added it to the 10, which brings the total to 11 fry in the 10. The agenda for today is to check the anubias for eggs, in case I missed a spawning, and then place a moss rock in the 20 for aid in egg extraction. Then perform a water change and afterward start taking pictures cause this thread has gone on too long without them.


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## Rion (Dec 29, 2006)

*Now with pictures!!*

all fry are present and accounted for today.








Nice fat fry grabbing some food.








Fry on the bottom is 2 weeks old, fry above that is a week old.








most of the fry.








The tank.


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