Cardinal breeding

I just wondered does anyone on here breed cardinals

I used to breed them....as in raise the young, but now just let them spawn away merely in their community tank.

Are you breeding them? or wanting to breed them?

ian

I'd love to know how to breed them what do you need to do too get them to spawn

They are not the easiest of fish, but a nice thing to aim at breeding.

This is a only a quickie bullet-point text....

Firstly....get good breeding stock. I would strongly recommend buying wild-caught specimens in good condition.

Secondly......cardinals can be quite adaptable to various water conditions when simply keeping them, but for breeding you need the ideal conditions.

Ideal conditions for cardinals are mature water that is soft and acidic with very little additional salts or other things to increase conductivity. ie do not add various chemicals to reduce the pH as that will increase Total Dissolved Solids and conductivity.

Mature sterilised rain-water or a mix of RO water (from a LFS) and tap water will do. Do not use raw fresh rain water or un-stabilised RO mixes.

If your water from your tap is soft and acid then you are probably onto a winner.
I only ever bred my Cardinals when I lived in a very very hard water area (Birmingham water supply...awful) and so needed to treat my water.

Thirdly.....blump up the females, and make sure you have a mix of males and females (best buy a group of fish).
Prepare some live food.....infusoria/rotifers.

Have some fine-leaved plants throughout the tank (top, middle and bottom)
Allow the water to mature and become stable.
Raise the temperature slowly to about 27/28 C.
Over a few days, slowly and carefully add 'purer' water (sterilised rain water or RO water mix) to reduce conductivity.

You will see the spawning.....remove parent fish.
Set-up a brine shrimp hatching system for newly hatched shrimp.

Remove all lighting from eggs.

Wait a day. Add the first food (infusoria or rotifers....don't use the ones in saltwater).
Your fry will hatch in a day or 2.

You can also add the freshly hatched brine shrimp to feed the 'bigger' eaters and select for stronger fish.

Your tanks should be clean of all bacteria/fungus.

ian

Wow there is a lot to it I have between 12-15 adult cardinals about 4 years old I bought from a guy changing over to salt water and just thought it would be a challenge to get them to breed thanks for taking the time to give me sone tips

paulcavan wrote:

Wow there is a lot to it I have between 12-15 adult cardinals about 4 years old I bought from a guy changing over to salt water and just thought it would be a challenge to get them to breed thanks for taking the time to give me sone tips

No problems. Hope there are few things of use there. There is a little more detail, but you can improvise.

I bet your cardinals look great....and big.

If you have any pictures, then get them up here.

ian