Those with racks

[Hendre]

Hey guys.

I have been made an offer to get some German red paradise fish at a discounted price and in return sell all fry @ $1.5 when they reach 1"
I need to get minimum six anyway so I can probably get a pair

Now for the technicalities, I am busy fixing a 15 gallon tank and have another I can empty. So that leaves me with space for either 2 pairs or a single pair and a final growout tank. I also have an 8 gallon. I can probably buy plastic tubs to use if I need more tanks

So this setup is to try making some spending money for my tanks and get experience with breeding fish for the first time (successfully)


So, how would you guys recommend I go about this? In terms of filtration, feeding and management of this. Note this is in my bedroom so airpumps will either have to be quiet or I will have to stick it in a cupboard.

Any info on how to set up and manage a rack will be really appreciated, thanks guys

 

[Grinch]

Pic of space and tanks? it's much easier/cheaper to setup tanks with centralized air than to run them to a sump with returns

 

[skjl47]

hello; Is the paradise fish related to the betta? By that I am curious if the male fry will have to be housed separately as the male bettas do?

 

[Hendre]

They are. I would like to seperate fry to keep them breeding
They are more peaceful while breeding and aren't wife beaters like betta splendens

Will add pics in a bit

 

[skjl47]

They are

Hello; As with male betta's then the issue may be how to house a lot of fry. Will you need to have a lot of separate small containers or perhaps one or more of the tanks with several partitions?

 

[Grinch]

I think you are going to want to do central air. There are lots of filtration types, all with pros and cons. Under-gravel filters are one option. Sponge filters are another. Box-filters a third. Given the fish you're planning to keep, I'd go with straight air stacks so that you aren't pumping out a strong lateral current.

Given that you want to keep adults/fry apart, you might want to look into hang-on tank breeders and line them up like this:

Whatever you do, plan it out well before you do it. Draw sketches. Figure out how many air-lines you want to run and then buy/make gang valves and manifolds with a few extra valves. Our fish room (link in signature) runs primarily on a central air system... so if you have questions about how we do anything, fire away.

 

[Hendre]

This is the space, the rack would go where the photography light is right now against the other 15 gal:

So what I could do is use 2 tanks to each hold a pair of paradise fish, minimum order is 6 so hopefully I get 2 pairs out of it. Then sell the other 2

I can keep and spawn them in these tanks, then remove the bubblenest and put it in another tank. So basically the chain would be:
8-10 gal parent tank (2x)
8-10 gal hatching tanks (4x)
15 gal (2x)

This may be my best bet tankwise, and the 8-10 gal will likely be plastic containers to save money.

Grinch what sorta size airpump would work for this and how noisy are they generally?

 

[Grinch]

You probably don't need one that is very big/expensive. It depends on how many outlets you want to run. If you want one outlet per tank you can run those small tanks on diaphragm pump somewhere between 10 and 15 watts I'd guess. Those run about $35 USD for a fairly noisy one... about $70 for a fairly quiet one. Not sure what brands etc. are available to you.

They range a bit in noise... some are pretty quiet, others not so. Vibration control is usually the key to shutting them up if they are being noisy, but some are simply noisier than others.

 

[Hendre]

There are some strong boyu linear pumps, maybe $60 roughly. I can probably stick it in a cupboard to reduce noise, what is done for vibration control generally.

I'm probably looking at $250 or more capital outlay, $120 just for fish. Need to make absolutely sure about what I'm doing before I try

This will only happen in 2 months if at all, busy gathering info so long

 

[Grinch]

Pond pumps are overkill for your needs. But if you ever want to expand, it'll give you the capacity.

We run this pump as our primary. http://tgwastewater.com/medo-hem-la80bn-piston-air-pump
We could probably run the next size down and be fine.

Note that Medo is the only company that I'm aware of that makes true linear piston pumps... there are lots of linear diaphragm pumps out there masquerading as linear piston. The one you mentioned is probably a linear diaphragm pump. Linear diaphragms are a little noisier, cheaper, and don't have as long a service life.