# Melanotaenia Growth Rate



## Noahma (Oct 18, 2009)

frosty1 said:


> I have a trio of rainbows around 2" thin a 55 that I got to spawn- although only about 5 or 6 eggs each time. How long before these boesemani reach grow to greater than 3" in size?
> 
> Missed an opportunity to get some 4in mated trio last night. I'm likely to purchase some turquoise between 1.5 and 2" along with another melanotaenia for my 155.
> 
> Just curious if I'm looking at 3 months for an inch of growth on these 3 to get better spawns or if it's slower than that.


bosemani are one of the slowest growing bows you can get. My pair are 3 years old and are around the 3" range now. 

Just keep grabbing and hatching the eggs, part of the fun is seeing the color develops. Are you using a spawn mop? I bet they are laying more than what you are finding. Take some yarn, roll it in a loop, and cut one end while tying of the other end. Place that in the tank and check in a couple days. You will probably have significantly more eggs that way. Make sure though that they are the only melanotaniea species in the tank as they all can cross breed, and the crosses are generally less colorful.


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## frosty1 (Apr 4, 2014)

Yes- I researched it a bit and am using a spawning mop. There are only 1 male and 2 female in the 55 gallon tank plus a small bristlenose. They're only 2 " so I think they are a bit young, but your advice is where I'm headed. I threw a mop in a small food container and floated it in a 20long and found 3 hatched fry swimming. I lost 2 over a few days and tossed the 3rd in the open 20l tank with just bubble filter on low and am feeding APR. Too much work for 1 fry for now. I decided to look for eggs on the mop and cut the strands off 1 by 1 and add to the floating container. Once hatched I plant to turkey baster them out and into the open 20 long tank to try and make it. Plan is to feed apr, then baby brine shrimp. Just was hoping the breeding fish would beef up and have bigger spawns sooner. I guess I'm fortunate to have them spawning at a small size anyway.


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## Noahma (Oct 18, 2009)

frosty1 said:


> Yes- I researched it a bit and am using a spawning mop. There are only 1 male and 2 female in the 55 gallon tank plus a small bristlenose. They're only 2 " so I think they are a bit young, but your advice is where I'm headed. I threw a mop in a small food container and floated it in a 20long and found 3 hatched fry swimming. I lost 2 over a few days and tossed the 3rd in the open 20l tank with just bubble filter on low and am feeding APR. Too much work for 1 fry for now. I decided to look for eggs on the mop and cut the strands off 1 by 1 and add to the floating container. Once hatched I plant to turkey baster them out and into the open 20 long tank to try and make it. Plan is to feed apr, then baby brine shrimp. Just was hoping the breeding fish would beef up and have bigger spawns sooner. I guess I'm fortunate to have them spawning at a small size anyway.


the low yield could be purely age. Keep it going, looks like you are on the right path. bows are addictive. When you get a chance stop over at rainbow-fish.org and sign up. Its a great rainbow focused forum. There are soo many wonderful species of rainbow, and so little tank space lol.


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## frosty1 (Apr 4, 2014)

Noahma- thanks for the information. It got me on track. I signed up and found some info that I needed. You were right- they were laying more eggs than thought. I thought the white ones were the eggs, but they are the duds. I had the trio active all morning, and after getting straightened out on the egg appearance, pulled an mop and inspected it in a gallon container. I found over 20 clear live eggs of which I clipped the yarn and placed em in the floating container. I like these odds better! 
Thank you for the clues and the website.
Frosty1


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## Noahma (Oct 18, 2009)

frosty1 said:


> Noahma- thanks for the information. It got me on track. I signed up and found some info that I needed. You were right- they were laying more eggs than thought. I thought the white ones were the eggs, but they are the duds. I had the trio active all morning, and after getting straightened out on the egg appearance, pulled an mop and inspected it in a gallon container. I found over 20 clear live eggs of which I clipped the yarn and placed em in the floating container. I like these odds better!
> Thank you for the clues and the website.
> Frosty1


 Your welcome. They are very easy to breed, easy to raise, just need a little more time than other fish to mature.


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Jun 15, 2008)

frosty1 said:


> I have a trio of rainbows around 2" thin a 55 that I got to spawn- although only about 5 or 6 eggs each time. How long before these boesemani reach grow to greater than 3" in size?
> 
> Missed an opportunity to get some 4in mated trio last night. I'm likely to purchase some turquoise between 1.5 and 2" along with another melanotaenia for my 155.
> 
> Just curious if I'm looking at 3 months for an inch of growth on these 3 to get better spawns or if it's slower than that.


Hi frosty1;

I keep the Gary Lange strain of Melanotaenia boesemani 'Lake Aytinjo'. I have currently raising 50+ fry from eggs he brought to GSAS last March so they are now about 12 months old. They are about 1" - 1 1/2" currently and stunning. Melanotaenia boesemani may grow slowly but they live for many years.

Melanotaenia boesemani 'Lake Aytinjo'


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## Noahma (Oct 18, 2009)

Seattle_Aquarist said:


> Hi frosty1;
> 
> I keep the Gary Lange strain of Melanotaenia boesemani 'Lake Aytinjo'. I have currently raising 50+ fry from eggs he brought to GSAS last March so they are now about 12 months old. They are about 1" - 1 1/2" currently and stunning. Melanotaenia boesemani may grow slowly but they live for many years.
> 
> Melanotaenia boesemani 'Lake Aytinjo'


He is coming for a presentation to Colorado at some point this summer, I am going to see if I can snag a mop of something when he is here lol.


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Jun 15, 2008)

Hi Noahma,

Gary will usually work with the club that hosts him and put together 'egg kits' or juvies of species he has collected, keeps, and breeds. He will usually advise what he anticipates having available about a month or so before the talk. The 'egg kits' are relatively easy, I used a dedicated 10 gallon for the fry until they were a few months old. After a few months I moved them to a 20H.

Here are some of those juvies on 1/22/15; not yet mature colors.


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## frosty1 (Apr 4, 2014)

you guys really made the effort to get and raise some nice strains of rainbows.
Good motivation.


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## lksdrinker (Feb 12, 2014)

I've always loved these fish! Anything in particular thats needed to get these rainbows to spawn?




Seattle_Aquarist said:


> Hi Noahma,
> 
> Gary will usually work with the club that hosts him and put together 'egg kits' or juvies of species he has collected, keeps, and breeds. He will usually advise what he anticipates having available about a month or so before the talk. The 'egg kits' are relatively easy, I used a dedicated 10 gallon for the fry until they were a few months old. After a few months I moved them to a 20H.
> 
> Here are some of those juvies on 1/22/15; not yet mature colors.


Aprox how old would you say the guys in this photo are? I just picked up 2 bosemanis from the LFS that are about the same size if not a bit smaller, and am curious how old they might actually be.


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## Noahma (Oct 18, 2009)

Seattle_Aquarist said:


> Hi Noahma,
> 
> Gary will usually work with the club that hosts him and put together 'egg kits' or juvies of species he has collected, keeps, and breeds. He will usually advise what he anticipates having available about a month or so before the talk. The 'egg kits' are relatively easy, I used a dedicated 10 gallon for the fry until they were a few months old. After a few months I moved them to a 20H.
> 
> Here are some of those juvies on 1/22/15; not yet mature colors.


I have read about the egg kits. I cannot wait. I do have a rearing tank, just cannot set it up until we are in our new house. I am hoping he is coming later in the summer lol. He had the species I REALLY REALLY want (m.gracilis) up until recently, apparently they were not breeding well, and had mostly females with what he was able to get from them, so he gave his stock to someone else. 

My m.nigrans trace back to lori in Colorado who used to do many collection trips with Gary.

Bump:


lksdrinker said:


> I've always loved these fish! Anything in particular thats needed to get these rainbows to spawn?


morning light, typically they will display to each other for a while after lights come on. Although my bosmani usually spawn just before sunset which they never did until I got the BML light system setup lol.


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Jun 15, 2008)

lksdrinker said:


> I've always loved these fish! Anything in particular thats needed to get these rainbows to spawn?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Hi lksdrinker,

The juvies in the photo are about 10 months old.


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## lksdrinker (Feb 12, 2014)

Noahma said:


> I have read about the egg kits. I cannot wait. I do have a rearing tank, just cannot set it up until we are in our new house. I am hoping he is coming later in the summer lol. He had the species I REALLY REALLY want (m.gracilis) up until recently, apparently they were not breeding well, and had mostly females with what he was able to get from them, so he gave his stock to someone else.
> 
> My m.nigrans trace back to lori in Colorado who used to do many collection trips with Gary.
> 
> ...





Seattle_Aquarist said:


> Hi lksdrinker,
> 
> The juvies in the photo are about 10 months old.


Thank you both!


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