I'm getting set up for a few fish projects this year. I want to breed my emperor tetra, kubotai rasbora, forktail and gertrudae rainbows, and apistogramma macmasteri. I would like to hear about everyone's breeding set ups or systems and what work's best for you for your different species. Some bullet points would be: age of fish when they start to spawn, size of tanks used, fish room set up for breeding area, equipment used (like breeder boxes), food used at different times during breeding/egg hatching/fry age stages, how you set up live food systems, culling points, age of fish when you begin to move them from one tank to another, age of fish when they are ready to sell, and how you decide what fish to sell vs what fish would be a good BAP project. I hope this stirs some conversation!
Not sure where to start, but the fish you are hoping to breed should be super popular! The variety makes it very difficult to directly answer some of those questions. Most of those fish, I don't believe need to grow over a year. Many fish do need a couple years to get to spawning age but I think those prob could all be done within 1 year. Study each species. Look at plecos. They are always grouped together but there are a lot of different feeding routines you need to follow, so its great to ask! That is my one piece of advice "Ask before you buy your fish!". Then get the temp, pH and hardness close to what the fish are normally used to. Buy from hobbyists when you can. Some fish just aren't available from hobbyists. Don't be afraid to ship in from a reputable breeder. Frequent water changes will greatly increase you success! Conditioning with good quality food is important too. Live foods can be helpful, but variety helps alot. Feeding all one type of live food can cause problems. Better to switch up with good quality flake, pellets,frozen food and live food.
Right now I have most of these species in 10-20 gallon set ups. I'm planning on building a wood rack that will hold up up to 6 10 gallon aquariums for grow outs. I have a Penn Plex nursery box to catch egg scatter eggs, caves for the apistos, and some spawning mops for the rainbowfish. Then breeder boxes on the sides of the parent tanks to raise the young. I did get myself a brine shrimp hatchery but growing multiple live food specimens is daunting. With the size of most of my fish I believe fry are too small to eat baby brine shrimp at first. I know nothing except what I've read or listened to online about fry care. Is there a good info website that will show the growth stages/timing per species?