Breeding Gertrude’s rainbowfish?

[qwedfg]

Hello everyone

After some set backs with flooding over the winter I have been able to set my tank back up as well as acquire a couple new tanks that are sitting empty. I have also purchased some Gertrude’s rainbow fish and I’m really enjoying them. I thought it might be a fun project to try to breed them. I did some reading but have a question on the logistics of my set up.

I have a 5 gallon shallow tank that I was hoping to use as a breeding set up. Would make sense adding a male and a couple female rainbowfish to this set up with a mop, let them lay eggs, and then return them to my display tank while raising the fry in the 5 gallon? I have read Gertrude’s will eat their eggs and fry if not separated. Please let me know if my plan makes sense thank you!

 

[Mr.Shenanagins]

I think @Koan mentioned having experience breeding them in the past, or at least that type of smaller rainbow. Hopefully he chimes in for you

 

[Art]

Hi @qwedfg - thanks for asking the question. I'm excited to discuss fish and fish breeding as we don't do enough of that.

As with anything rainbowfish, I loop in @GreggZ for his expert knowledge on the subject. He's had them for years but not sure about breeding.

This site on Pseudomugil Gertrudae or the Spotted Blue-Eye Rainbowfish seemed to indicate that spawning mops and checking for eggs daily did the trick. They did seem to say that the fish were eating their eggs.

Sounds like a fun project. Please be sure to take pictures and post them here so we can follow along and learn.

 

[Koan]

spawning mops and checking for eggs daily

The great thing about pseudomugil eggs is they're relatively massive, easy to see and to pick off the mops by hand.

Here's what Gary Lange the Rainbow Man has to say about how to go about hatching the eggs!

And another on raising the fry, from back in the mists of time..

 

[ElleDee]

They are great little fish, aren't they? I wish I had bred my Aru II when they were younger like I was told to, but I had a lot going on and was intimidated by it. I've only ever bred white clouds and that wasn't even on purpose.

 

[RickyV]

I have about a dozen Gertrudes in my tank and on occasion I spot a fry and scoop it out. Not sure where they're laying eggs unfortunately. I recently added a mop to a low flow, shallow area that the CPDs love hanging around in. Hopefully they lay eggs in there. Though I'm not sure if they'd really find the mop more appealing than all the plants around it. But we'll see. Here is the biggest fry with 3 CPD fry I also found in the tank.