How to Breed Wild Shiners
Shiners, also known as Minnows are attractive baits for fishing and can expand your fish catch by multiple times. Since they are so good at the job, they are also very expensive and can cost you a lot especially if you fish regularly. Wild shiner is abundantly used in commercial fish farms. They have vibrant colorful scales on their body which lure fish towards them and eventually get caught on your fish. If you do not want to spend a large amount on buying wild shiners from the bait shop, you can breed your own and raise them easily on your own without much of an effort. Our step by step guide has suggestions for you to breed your wild shiners.
Things Required:
– Casting net
– Two 50-gallon aquariums
– Pump
– Filter
– Gravel
Instructions
-
1
In order to breed healthy wild shiner species, you need to catch some fresh wild shiners from fresh water yourself or through a fisherman. The emphasis is on fresh shiner and not the ones from any bait store is because those at the stores have already lost most of their vigor because of all the transportation. The shiner caught freshly will be healthy and adaptable.
You can catch the shiner using a fishing net. To breed a good quantity, catch as many shiners as you can in the available time. -
2
Take a water aquarium that can hold up to fifty gallons of water. Fill the aquarium with water. The water should be cool to a temperature of around 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Now put the shiners in a plastic bag. Now submerge this into the aquarium filled with water and keep it like this for around twenty minutes. The aim of the exercise is to bring the temperature of the plastic bag to that of the aquarium.
-
3
Separate the male shiners from the female shiners into two separate tanks. The cues that can help you is that the males are more colorful than the females. The females are also larger in size than the males.
-
4
Use the pump to decrease the temperature of each tank to 65 degrees. Add clean gravel or pebbles to the bottom of each tank and allow them 16 hour period of light cycle. Now place both the male and female in one tank and let them mate. After five days, you will notice tiny eggs among the gravels. Remove the adult fishes. With proper aeration and light cycle, you will see baby shiners after approximately a week.
Now regularly feed the babies algae and fine crushed dry food.
