I have gone to many web sites and received much information about how to spawn and what to expect, but you will have to read all you can and work off instinct. You will understand once the process has begun.
Listed below are the items you will absolutly need in order to prepare for breeding. If you have the time and the resources, I found that garage sales are the best way to get some of these items at a greatly reduced price as well as tropical fish enthusiast clubs swap meets and auctions (see www.gcca.net). Those items will be marked with a *. Everything else is available online or at your lps (local pet shop for all you newbees).
10 Gallon Tank*
Tank Lighting and cover*
Submersable Heater 50 watt
Sponge Filter
Airline with airflow control
Airpump*
Glass Hurricane Lamp*
Water Conditioner
Aquarium Salt
Aquarisol
Styrofoam Cup (cut in half)
Real or fake plants*
Don't forget after the little guys are born they need food!
Liquifry #1
Microworm Culture (see stock page)
Baby Brine Shrimp (or BBS) live or frozen
Jars!!!!!!!*
If you go all brand new, it will probably set you back about $120. Preperation is half the fun, so take your time, investigate all the stores in your area (and some not in your area!) and you will get the best deals and make new friends.
About 2 days before the scheduled release date of the male, set up the 10 gallon tank with the submersible heater close to the bottom. Attach the sponge filter and hook up to the pump. Make sure you have a air-regulator valve attached so you can start the filter out slow and increase the bubbles as the fry grow. Add in your plants on the right side of the tank, give space for your female to hide, but also leaving the left side open for spawning. Add about 5 inches of water to the tank. This amount of water makes it eaiser for spawning, picking up eggs and picking up falling fry by the father.
Add your water conditioner, Aquarisol, and salt (about 1 teaspoon for every gallon), and make sure your temperature is stable at around 80-82 degrees. Also, test your filter and make sure it is set to slowly release bubbles, then turn off, you won't need this until later. Cut the styrofoam cup in half so that each half is a mirror image of the other. Set one half on top of the water with the open end facing the front of the tank. You will want to see all the bubbles and eggs!!!
Now is the time to release Dad into the tank and watch him survey the lay of the land. I wait around 12 hours and place the hurricane lamp into the tank, close to the styrofoam cup and place the mother-to-be in the holding area. This is Dad's time to do the dance of love. He will probably show off and flare for the female and MAY even start to build a bubble nest. "May" because I have had males not build a nest at all, but still made great fathers by picking up falling eggs and fry and placing them back into the "nest". One guy didn't have a nest of any sort, the eggs just floated on the top of the water, and they still hatched!
About 12 hours after you have placed the female in the tank, release her from the hurrican lamp and let the games begin. Watch the pair to make sure the male and female is not beating each other up to much. There will be some fin tearing for one or both of the fish, but you will notice biting on the body if there starts to be a problem. At that point, terminate the spawn. In most cases, everything will go "swimmingly" and the female will hide out while the male chases her away from the bubble nest. Approximatly 24 hours later, the spawning will commence. The male will wrap his body around the female and after a few practice "hugs" eggs will start to fall out of the female. The male and female are in such close proximity to each other, that the eggs are fertilized when they fall from the female. The male (and sometimes the female) will start to scoop up the eggs and blow them into the nest. This will continue for anywhere from 1-3 hours. The eggs produced can be as little as 1 (I had 10 in one spawn) and as many as 500+. So get ready, now the fun begins!
Once you see the female starting to hide out again, it is time to remove her. Carefully, without distrubing the nest, remove her and place her in a warm tank (or bowl) with some melafix. Feed her in a few hours, as she will be hungry from not eating during spawning. I do not feed the parents while they are in the spawning tank because I do not want to trigger hunger and start the parents on eating the eggs. Father will now do what a every dad should, take care of the kids and play Mr. Mom. He will clean house by rearranging the eggs, some feel this is to keep the eggs clean and free from fungus. He will also start picking up any falling fry once they start to hatch.
At 24 hours after they hatch, when the fish are swiming horizontally,I remove the father into Melafix and start to feed two drops of Liquifry twice a day to the fry. At 3 days, I start to feed microworms twice a day for one month. And at 2 weeks start feeding brine shrimp. You will see when your fish are getting big and need to have more or larger food. By the time they are 3 months old, I have them on a diet of purely bloodworms (frozen and freeze dried) and daphia (frozen and freeze dried), with live brine shrimp once a week.