# Live breeder or egg layer?



## Shub (Mar 8, 2009)

I had 5 white cloud mountain minnows in a little tank but I moved them into the bigger tank once it was set up. (you can see what I mean by the picture above) the small tank was left set up but with no fish in. I couldnt be bothered to empty it so I left it for about 2 weeks, when I finally went to take it down I noticed that it had about 20 small fry swimming around in. 
Now i have to tanks set up in my room, One with 3 (2 month) fry in and the bigger tank with 5 adults. 

My question is do white cloud lay eggs or do they bear live young and if they do lay eggs will the adults eat them once they have hatched?

One of the adults is very fat and im not sure if I should stick her in a breeder or let her lay eggs in the adult tank so that the males can fertalise the eggs, if they do lay eggs! please help someone!!!


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

I think they scatter eggs, and eat them. What you did, putting them in another tank to spawn and then taking the parents out, is the normal way to maximize fry.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

They prefer to lay their eggs in clumps of plants if available, but will just dump them on the gravel if need be.
They do eat eggs and fry, but they don't do it very much, and hardly at all if they are well fed all the time. It's easy to get a whole tankful of these by doing nothing at all, since they nearly always leave plenty of fry alone to grow.


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## Shub (Mar 8, 2009)

I only have white clouds in the tank so no other fish will eat them. I feed them regulary so they should be okay. thanks for the help.

My fry are about 2months old now, when do they go back with the adults? I really dont want them to be eaten. there about 1.5 cm big now


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

1.5 cm?
That's plenty big; the adults likely couldn't eat them now if they wanted to. You should have no trouble with them.


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