Shed or Breeding Room?

If you have a spare room, shed, garage or even an empty wall, you can have a breeding room. The size of the area will determine the size and number of the shelves and tanks you can have. I was going to use 20 and 29 gallon tanks on one side, so I made the shelves on this side 15 1/2" wide. The shelves for the other side were for 10 gallon tanks, so I made these shelves 12 1/2" wide.

My shed is 7'6" x 6' x 7'6" and the fourth wall is almost all door (5'), so I can only use my side walls for tanks. On my remaining end wall I installed small shelves for pumps, food, etc. All of the tank shelves were built with 5/8 plywood and 2"x4" on edge with 2"x4" vertical braces. The bottom shelves I kept at least high enough off the floor so I could store 5 gallon buckets and some other fish supplies. The top shelf should be at least 5-6" higher than your tallest tank on the bottom shelf. This will allow easier access to the bottom tanks for feeding, water changes, etc.

When choosing your PVC pipe for air lines, make sure it is heavy duty. I used 3/4" PVC with 480 PSI. You can go bigger if you want, but I wouldn't go smaller as the air valve needs room to seat on. There are three air valves you can get, either plastic, brass or brass and chrome. The plastic ones are cheaper, but wear out more easily I am told. The brass were recommended, so I purchased 15 of them. After drilling all my valve holes, I then had to tap the holes so I could screw the valves in. With plastic valves you drill a hole and pop them in.

At long last we're ready to connect air pumps and get this fishy bordello going. The choice of air pumps was the hardest part of the whole project. I asked several dealers (DON'T DO THIS). Everybody has just what I needed providing I hocked my home. The only person I got a straight answer from was fellow club member Bill Shields. Bill invited my wife and I to come over and look at his set-up to maybe give me a few ideas on how I could do mine. He also wanted to show off his fish. After seeing his complete set-up, I believe he has every right to be proud of it. I again would like to thank Bill and his wife for inviting us over to invade his home and see his fish, dogs, frogs, birds, kids, etc. All of Bill's tanks were run with three Tetra Luft pumps. My own set-up was smaller so I ordered 2 from the F.T.F.F.A. This is also where I got my air valves and many other items needed in bulk (far cheaper than I could get them in a standard store). I was chafing at the bit to get started when my pumps finally arrived and I hooked them up. One pump to the top line of tanks and the other pump to the bottom line of tanks and then it was time to THROW THE SWITCH! YEA!!! Nothing happened, or at least no air came out. What the blip is wrong? Calm down, start checking for problems. I checked all lines, no leaks, pulled valves, used silicon on the threads to stop air leaks - still no air. After two days of tearing my set-up apart and putting it back together again, the problem was finally solved. No matter how hard you closed the brass valves, they still leaked air. So with all 15 valves leaking air, there was no pressure going to the foam filters in the tanks. I replaced all the valves with the brass and chrome ones (these have a lever shut-off) and EUREKA!!! I am now the proud owner of my own backyard house of H2O repute.

Well, now that I have air, I'm ready to go. Well, woe-up there finny flipper. Just where am I going to get all the water to fill my tanks? I figure three 29 gallon tanks on one shelf, one 20 gallon and one 10 gallon tank on another. On the other side I put three 10 gallon tanks on each shelf. That is just about 180 gallons of water (177), plus many more water changes than normal because these tanks are breeder tanks.

I've been watching rain falling of my shed roof and just going to waste on the ground. Now, if I could catch this rain water and make it usable, my water for breeding would be solved. I measured my shed roof and then found an aluminum section of gutter that would work. I boxed the ends and sealed them (use an aquarium sealer if possible), then screwed it to my shed roof. I then cut a 2 1/2" hole in each end of the gutter bottom. This will allow water to fall into 55 gallon plastic barrels to make it easier to get at the water. With all the rain lately I had no trouble getting my barrels filled. to insure my water was clean I filtered it. I took a long siphon hose (from my wife), a three foot piece of 3" PVC, then stuffed about a foot of the hose with angel hair. I then poured the water through it into a third barrel I keep in the shed for water changes. The end result was water almost too soft to measure, which is 7.0 pH with a hardness of about 8. I added 15 gallons of city water to 40 gallons of rain water. So by doing this I have 55 gallons of soft neutral water for my finny couples (a "soft bed"). My shed roof is fairly clean so it doesn't take much to filter the water coming off of it. If you have a shingle roof, painted tile roof or a roof with a bunch of trees close by, you may have to filter the water two or even three times with different media to clean your water.

We've got air, we've got water and we've got tanks to put fish into. Are we now ready to breed fish? NO!!! For those of us just starting out, we need information and help. At first I didn't think about this and it cost me about twenty to thirty dollars in fish. They were Cichlids I had been raising for about seven months and they were beautiful fish, so don't goof like I did. There are basically two forms of breeding, live-bearing and egg laying, but this is like saying night is day. I can't begin to list the different ways to condition fish or the many ways egg layers spawn their eggs. I (being totally stupid) took my own advice and bought a fairly cheap book written by Dr. Herbert R. Axelrod called "Breeding Aquarium Fishes." Though a small book, it contains a wealth of information for the novice breeder. You should also check with Vinny Kutty, our club librarian, to see if the club has any books on breeding. You can also talk to Bill Shields who heads the Breeder's Award Program. I myself have asked this busy man many questions and he has always helped in whatever way he could. I m also sure anyone in the club who raises certain species of fish would be happy to give whatever help he or she can. I believe this is what makes our club so much better than others. Members do help each other!

I have found since I started breeding fish that my tank set-up is wrong. With conditioning fish, separating parents from fry and breeding uses up tanks really quick. My solution was to change the width of my shelves. I have made two shelves wide enough to set 10 gallon tanks on end ways. This allows me nine tanks to a shelf instead of four. Plus instead of having a couple of fie gallon tanks as my smallest tanks, I have found 2 1/2 gallon ones which I also set end ways on my other shelves. Doing this has allowed me to move from eleven or twelve tanks to almost 28. These 2 1/2 gallon plastic tanks work great for conditioning breeders and holding separated parents or fry. I just hang an air line with an air stone on it, in the tank and let it go. The 2 1/2 gallon tank also uses less water so it doesn't take as much to change it. You can get these plastic tanks for a fair price at the F.T.F.F.A. Co-op as well as many other items to keep your fish healthy.

Maybe someone more advanced in our club will come up with an idea like how to breed a fish a month article. Hint, hint.

P.S. Don't think I do all this alone. My wife, Stormie, is the other half of this team and she does more than her share. I just don't want everyone to think I do it all!