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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/ This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes
/ 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