Factors trigger fish spawning

Most people often get frustrated when it comes to fish breeding because they simply do not have patience. First thing first, that we need to understand is that spawning will only happen provided that the living condition is at its best particularly food and water quality especially pH and temperature. For certain fish like swordtail and guppy, breeding will occur naturally without any intervention while certain fish like discus will only spawn provided that there’s optimal living condition.

However, at times when things doesn’t go the way we want, certain intervention is needed to change the current condition to induce spawning. These are some of the methods which I use, but care and caution is needed so that one doesn’t overdo it.

1. Introduce lots of aquarium plants to provide extra hiding places (works well for neon fish). Presence of plants also stimulate natural instinct to breed.

2. Changing water temperature. (Usually lowering the temperature 2-3degC from the normal 20degC will help to induce spawning for goldfish)

3. pH factor (Different species will require different pH condition so check this parameter regularly with aquarium pH test kit to find out the value. Make adjustments accordingly to suit the fish species)

4. Increase frequency of water changes (generally this will help to keep the water fresh and clean for the fish to become active and participate in spawning)

5. Enrich the diet to include live foods. (Discus fish loves bloodworms and thus it might be a good idea to provide that extra nutrition for them)

6. Create enough space for breeding. (Certain fish like arowana is difficult to breed and spawn      in home aquarium and thus it is better to find large pond for them. Goldfish breeder also use      similar method.)

But before you do any of those, make sure there is a male and female pair present. Just check the gender of your fish based on certain characteristics (use online information) and most people always get frustrated when their fish do not breed only to learn that they have similar gender pair. Certain species like discus will still continue to release eggs even though there is no male fish present but all the eggs will not be fertilized and ended up contracting fungus.

At times also, it is a good idea to ensure that the ratio of male to female fish is about 1:3 to prevent competition and aggressive behavior towards one another. This is especially true when it comes to guppies and swordtails whereby too many males keep on chasing and cause the female to die of exhaustion.