Suggestions Needed for 140G Breeding Tank in Classroom

[knobhill]

Hi breeders!
This school year, I'd like to give my students a breeding project!
I have a 140g (60"x18"x30") tank in my classroom. It is empty and needs to be set back up. I have an FX-5 plumbed in to the overflow, with a UV and heater in the overflow as well. I also have a commerical style air pump, capable of running several sponge filters. We also have a 70g, 10g, and 20g tank for growouts or can make a divider to separate parents from the fry.

Here are some pertinent details:
Tap water is hard, pH at 7.6-7.8.
The room is busy and has lots of foot traffic, not a quiet area (Discus are out of the question)
Students perform a weekly water change on the tank.
Fish don't get fed on the weekends or holidays, unless there are special circumstances that require a feeding or maintainence.
Some students have their own aquariums and would have first choice of any offspring.
We are looking for a rare / beautiful species to breed, with the possibilty of selling to LFS.

Here are some of the fish we are interested in attempting breed:

Spotted Congo Puffer- Tetraodon Shoudenti
Red terror/festae
Anglefish-Koi, Altum, or Pinoy

We are open to all ideas so please please chime in! Thanks

 

[Hendre]

Puffers are great if you have the money, make sure to send some babies my way
Will certainly pay off if it works

But in reality koi angels are likely best or captive bred altums. I'd think you will have better chances there.

Good luck, wish you were my teacher lol

 

[FLA]

I think the angels are the most realistic in your list, but those spawn better with softer water. Rainbows are an option you can pull brushes out of the large tank each day and hatch eggs in your smaller tanks. You could pick a nice killi and do the same thing. Central Americans are an option. You could look at something like the lemon fire mouths, EB acaras, rainbow cichlids, or try a Vieja. You could also do one of the fancy bushy nose like the super red.

Or you could try something like bleekeri they would do well in that tank. If you don't mind a mouth brooder you can look at things like Haps. You have the option of ruby greens, flame back, kyoga, black velvet, or a myriad of others. Cyprichromis could work in there as well they aren't extremely common. One fish I always thought was cool is the Matumbi hunter or you could look at a nice peacock.

The real challenge I see in this project is time. Your best bet is to grow out brood stock and it will take more than a school year to do that. Even if you buy breeding pairs most stores are going to want a bit larger fish than you are likely to grow out in that time period. In light of that I would look at some rare live bearers. These caught my eye on aquabid the other day http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwlivebearersw&1500762797 and http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwlivebearersw&150059267. The choice is yours. If you are dead set on selling fish then I would talk to your LFS and ask what they want. It is always easier to fill a void than create a market.

 

[knobhill]

Thanks for the tips and suggestions. The Altum angelfish caught my eye but I don't know how they would do in the LFS. I will send my students out to ask.

Also, I'm going to add Blackberry Silver Dollars to the list--I have seen someone who bred them, and they are a unique fish.

We are more about the process than turning over tons of fish and profit, at least for the time being. I want the students to learn about the growth and development of fish, and how much work it takes to raise them.