There is no guarantee when buying eggs that they will hatch but it is always heaps of fun watching them grow. I have always found them easy to raise using frozen food (baby brine shrimp or daphnia) in planted tanks.
Some say they are not suited to community tanks and should be species only but I disagree. I keep many species together with other tropicals such as tetras, bettas, blue-eyes, cories, BN, small gudgeon.
As far as breeding goes, those that will spawn on mops are easier then those that require peat moss, as with these you need to dry the eggs for 3-6 months depending on species. With mop spawners I just transfer the mops to a new tank and in a couple of weeks it is full of babies.
