The best places to spawn your fish are completely subjective. If it is nearing spawning season and you would like to encourage your fish to spawn, you’ll need to do some extensive research to determine exactly what method you would like to follow for spawning fish.
Spawning is the natural process used by “egg laying” fish to breed. You do have the power to have some influence over this process by selecting healthy spawners and combining them to achieve maximum health and visual attractiveness in your spawn. You can also maximize the amount of spawn produced by providing the female spawner a protein rich diet in the weeks prior to spawning so she will be strong enough to produce healthy and hearty spawn. You can place breeders or spawn in a breeding tank to protect the spawn or you can leave them in the existing pond and remove other fish. That choice is up to you. Remember to make note that you will be putting some serious effort into healthy spawn to include temperature monitoring, water changes and meeting their nutritional needs.
If you choose to remove the spawners so they may spawn in a breeding tank or pond, you are making a wise decision. Spawners can get very rowdy and they will bump into each other and everything else. You don’t need to do much to encourage the fish to spawn, but you can raise the water temperature by a few degrees to help things along a bit. Placing spawners in a breeding tank will make it easier to clean up after them as well.
Once the fish have successfully spawned you can remove the adult fish and follow up with care for the spawn. This care is not necessarily difficult, but it can be a bit labor intensive. Be prepared to change water and feed precisely.
Fish who are allowed to spawn in their regular pond will be able to do everything on their own, but the process can be helped along by removing the other fish from the pond to protect the spawn from being eaten. Again, water quality may be an issue, so be ready for anything when you are spawning in the existing pond.
Fish will also spawn independently from time to time. Your options if this occurs are to keep the spawn in tact in the pond and let nature take its course or remove the spawn to a separate tank for monitoring and care. Few spawn left in a pond will actually reach adulthood, but they will not hurt the existing ecology of the pond either way.
Spawning fish can be very exciting, but you will want to be well informed of the best places to spawn your fish.
