Re: NANFA-L-- minnow breeding

Bob Muller (michiganfish-in-wideopenwest.com)
Fri, 14 Apr 2006 18:31:02 -0400

Pteronotropis (flagfins, stonei, greandapinnis, orangetail) are very easy
and breed every few days for months. I have caught blacknose dace heavy
with eggs and had them spawn with 5 minutes of being poured out of the
collecting bucket into an aquarium. Fatheads or other Pimephales would be
the easiest as they guard the eggs. Therefore no problem with egg eating,
gathering eggs etc. F1 Rainbow shiners set up now, they also spawned for
months.

Bob Muller
----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Unmack" <peter.lists at>
To: "nanfa-l" <nanfa-l-in-nanfa.org>
Sent: Friday, April 14, 2006 5:17 PM
Subject: NANFA-L-- minnow breeding

> G'day folks
>
> I've been thinking a bit lately about good species to suggest to beginners
> trying to keep and breed natives. For the moment I only want to consider
> minnows (Cyprinidae) to keep the discussion more manageable. A bit later
> I think I'll bring up the question in other groups.
>
> My experience with breeding minnows is pretty limited. But the two
> easiest species that I know to spawn are red shiner (Cyprinella lutrensis)
> and fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas). I never spawned bullhead minnow
> (Pimephales vigilax), but they should be pretty easy too.
>
> In addition to being relatively easy to spawn, each of those species are
> pretty tolerant of a wide range of conditions, are generally pretty hard
> to kill and they are mostly widespread, thus a little easier to get.
> They are also reasonably attractive fish, although not as brightly colored
> as some species. And they also tend to spawn-in-a reasonably small size
> and they don't get especially large. They also don't need any tricky cool
> down period, and as long as their lights are on ~14 hours a day they
> should be in spawning mode with sufficient temperatures. And I think
> their fry can all be started on baby brine shrimp too. All of these
> traits make them relatively good beginner species to try and breed.
>
> Some my question for everyone is what do you think are the easiest minnows
> to spawn besides those I just mentioned? You don't have to have bred them
> per se, thus it can be based on your impression of what is easy to breed.
> I haven't done any reading or literature searches on any of this, so feel
> free to point out obvious stuff. Any thoughts and ideas are welcome (even
> if they don't meet all of my criteria above).
>
> Cheers
> Peter Unmack
> Provo River, Utah
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/ Association (NANFA). Comments made on this list do not necessarily
/ reflect the beliefs or goals of NANFA. For more information about NANFA,
/ visit http://www.nanfa.org Please make sure all posts to nanfa-l are
/ consistent with the guidelines as per
/ http://www.nanfa.org/guidelines.shtml To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get
/ help, visit the NANFA email list home page and archive at
/ http://www.nanfa.org/email.shtml