Drape Fin Barbs Breeding Rapidly

Gave the Drape fin tank a trim the other day and was pretty shocked over the quantity of fry. There was about ten fry of various sizes hiding under some driftwood and java moss. While this number isn't huge, when you consider this tank is only a ten gallon and houses the Drape fin Barbs, a male betta splendens and a trio of least killiefish males, you'd think the fry wouldn't stand a chance. Aside from predation, you'd think they would be out competed very easily. Not to mention I've only had these guys a couple of months. It's interesting to note that the old pros in my neighborhood seem to be having issues keeping these guys alive never mind getting fry. I wish i could take credit but considering i simply through them in a ten gallon tank on my porch, it's all nature's course in this case. I think the temperature swings help to stimulate them, after all very few places in the world sees no temperature changes between day and night.

I actually believe live food int he form of micro fauna in the tank is vital to these guys. My impression of them is they meticulously search the tank for small things to and while they certainly gorge themselves at feeding times, it does not take them very long to start searching for food again. I believe they have a high metabolism and much like dragonets in the ocean require a steady stream of food. Seems like the folks around here doing the worst with them house the fish in bare tanks set ups. I would assumed a sponge filter would provide food for them but it seems not to be enough.

With this in mind i trucked down to the nearest pond and scooped up some leaf litter and muck. This gave me a starter culture of various little buggers. I'm not concerned about disease i let the culture grow for a couple weeks with water changes, giving plenty of time for unwanteds to work themselves out.Surprisingly though, as my copepod, daphnia and other critter populations increase in the bucket, mosquito larvae seem to be disappearing. Next year I'm running two buckets, one for mosquitoes and another for other critters.

The Drape Fins seem to be plant safe, though truly the tank has such dense planting i really couldn't tell the odd nibble from simple wear and tear. Obviously, after two months if they were voracious plant eaters the tank would be bare. I believe. like the larger Filament barbs I keep, they make an occasional snack of duck weed or anachris(i mean who wouldn't?) in a moderately fast growing tank you won't even notice.