Are there anyone on here who can enlighten me on the intricacies of the male stickleback as regards the parental duties he undertakes in the breeding season? The reason i ask is that i have a breeding male in my tank and he has built a fine nest of strands of weed and duly courted his females(two of)to the nest and followed them in when they have laid the eggs and obviously fertilised them, after what seemed like an age these have now hatched and there are numerous tiny fish inching around the nest area which the male guards diligently still, getting to my question now,sorry its a long-winded affair lol! How long does the male defend his young like this and also does he have more than one or two broods in a season?

I ask these questions because i cannot get any info on google and i think its fascinating behaviour and thought you guys would like to know too.
Many thanks as ever for your indulgence.


Jack.

Hey Jack,

In my experience the male will spawn with a few females in short succession so all the eggs in his nest hatch at about the same time. He'll guard the nest area until the young disperse, so plenty of artemia, microworms and then cyclops and daphnia should see them grow fast - especially if you carry out a daily partial water change to dilute the nitrates and pheromones that'll stunt their growth. If they grow quickly he may be ready to respawn in a couple of weeks if the females are ripe.

When I'm growing on fry I try to give six feeds a day and change 50% of the water daily.

Cheers for that valuable info TF! I was worried on doing a water change or cleaning of bottom of tank in case i sucked the fry up tho...i have plenty of the tiny cyclops and daphnia things in my outside pond but when i tranfer them into the tank, the other fish get to em first methinks, but i will endevour to do as you suggest and report as n when. Many thanks m8...

jack.

It's a pleasure - they're one of my favourite species.

Syphon through a sponge or via the filter outlet to safeguard the fry. If you direct the pond food towards the shoal of fry by syphoning that through some airline tubing then the male should see off any other fish.

If you put the little rafts of mosquito eggs into a jar of water to hatch they're a great live food for babies too..

Keep me posted fella and get some pics up too!

Great idea-will do that, i only have the other two females in there plus some Millers Thumbs(4)but the male chivvies these away if they get too close,and there are 4 small minnows as well-about 1cm in length.....As i hope you will have guessed its not a small tank but im still surprised the male actually built a nest let alone bred!...Even now he remains in breeding colours and although he used to keep the other fish away, he lets the one female who looks ready to lay again nuzzle him on his side and tries to usher her towards the nest,but then he remembers he has young and pushes her away..fascinating stuff...was wondering will he build a new nest or will he just refurbish the old one?

Jack.

Sounds like an interesting set up!

I'm now completely spoilt, having worked at public aquaria and having 2 meter and 1.5 meter tanks at home, I now regard any tank I can lift on my own as small

Breeding fish is all about letting them as opposed to making them (hope that makes sense!) and conditions in your nice biotope tank are obviously conducive to spawning.

Normally a male's territory and spawning site is governed by ongoing disputes with the neighbours. He'll probably use the same nest again but if they respawn I'd expect him to drive the older fry away (in a tank he'll probably eat them as they've nowhere to escape to). I'd suggest placing a mirror on the far side pane of the tank to give him another male to interact with which will make life easier for the females too.

As you can see, two tanks is the best way to rear these fish, with a rearing tank used for the first batch of fry to make room for the next. That's kind of how I ended up with over thirty-five tanks a few years ago..

In some respects Toady i am 'old school' so im not sure what you mean by 'biotope' and my tank is 48inches long by 12 wide and 17inches deep(water level to floor). It took me n me m8 to carry it to where it is now and now that its full of water, gravel, stones and not forgetting the fish, i defy the Incredible Hulk to shift that lot lol.
I will endeavour to do as you say and take things from there-will try gettin pics up too, i tried before now but i always get the camera flash on the glass and the pic is spoiled, will experiment with different angles.
not before a water change tho lol as its looking decidedly 'off colour' just now, i put some of that GREEN AWAY for ponds in there(a moment of madness)and now everything appears to have a golden appearance to it. Doesent seem to have affected the fish in any way tho but the water does need a change so i will rectify this before i post anything. Cheers for the info and il get back soon .


Jack.

Update on the sticklebacks, i decided to introduce another male in the tank and that has 'galvanised' the original fish into action!...Both fish have now built nests and the Newbie has also attracted females to his, there are now young fry hatched from both so i must be doing something right lol.
I have taken all the large fish out now and the fry are growing bigger each week on the steady supply of Daphnia and Cyclops things that are in the water.

Jack.

Well done jacksparrow! Aren't they fascinating to watch? We have goldfish that breed every year and hundreds have survived. We've ended up with an indoor tank (for fry) and four ponds! Many have been given away. I have found that doing nothing is the best course of action. If conditions are ideal for them to breed, then they will be ideal for the fry to thrive, so I just try to maintain water quality and leave them to it.

I have just read this all fasinating thread one question from me do you just use tap water when changing the water?

Hi Heather, appoligies for not replying sooner! When i do a water change i refill from my pond in the garden, roughly half a tanks worth and ive purchased a battery powered gravel filter to suck up any leaves and debris from the floor of the tank.
Things have progressed extremely well since my last post and the fry have grown well-there are now around 20 little stickles just over a centimetre long, all the larger fish have been removed back to the pond exept for the Millers Thumbs and i now also have some new additions which came with some fresh weed i put in the tank, these are some big tadpoles without signs of legs forming(im presuming they are toads which i will release in the garden when the time comes) there are also some aquatic 'mini beasts' in the form of 2 different types of Dragonfly Nymphs, One is elongated and looks like The Predator(which is infact what they are i no)and the other one is short and dumpy but both are feeding on watershrimps and the occasional small worm i drop in.
Once the pump filter has done its magic and cleared the water enough i shall endeavour to post some photo's but im not guaranteeing anything as they dont come out of hiding much, but when they do il try get some pics.

Jack.