Hi

I have 6 white cloud minnows in an 18ish gallon tank atm and ive had them for about 3 or 4 years now.
I'm pretty sure there's 3 males and 3 females, but ive never seen any eggs/fry before.

That's likely either because there isnt any suitable area for her to lay, the filter may have sucked them up, or the fact they've lived with a couple of goldfish all that time so they may have eaten them.

Anyways they are alone now, apart from a male betta, and i've noticed 1 female looks really swollen where eggs would be in her body, and I reckon she must be getting ready to spawn, so basically, how so I know for sure if she's going to lay, and what can I do to prevent anything happening to the eggs if she does lay?

Turn off the filter? Turn it down to its lowest setting?
Or take her out separately to a diff tank?

Any advice appreciated! I'd quite like baby minnows now that mine are getting a bit older

(btw it is a coldwater tank, and I know betta and white cloud minnows are usually tropical but in both cases they were already in coldwater in the pet shops, so I wasnt keen on trying the heater in case they went into shock)

The betta may eat the minnow fry when they hatch. Female white clouds will always be really round like they are ready to lay eggs after they have developed some for the first time. It's one of the ways you can tell the two sexes apart.

The coldwater setup is fine for the minnows as they are a river fish and would naturally be in cooler waters. You will need a few groupings of silk or real plants for them to lay eggs on. The minnows also like a fairly strong current of water for them to play in as it mimics the river water flowing by. The males will be flaring at each other, either side by side or head to tail so the females can compare them. When you get that and the males flaring and sorta darting against the females in the plants you are most likely seeing the breeding behavior.

My white clouds never bothered their eggs or fry, although I have heard of others that have had them eaten by the adults. Your betta will most likely become a threat to the fry after they hatch. The fry are about 2-3 millimeters long with two black dots on one end (the eyes). It took a week before mine were big enough that they could not slip through the breeders net and get back into the main tank. I tried to get mine all in a net after they hatched so it would be easier to feed them in one area. To keep the fry from getting sucked up the filter you will need to rubberband either a piece of pantyhose or a brineshrimp net (taken off the frame) to the intake.

Mine decided to spawn the first time while their tank was cycling. It was a 25 gal with one clump of live plants. Some of the fry ate the algae off the plants untill I found them. After that first spawning I got continual spawnings/hatchings for over 2 months. I ended up with over 100 fry. After that I decided to get a couple of female mollies to help controll the population/put a damper on the minnows breeding behavior. I already had 2 nets in that tank with the big fry in one and the little fry in the other and had no more room for another net for more.

Good luck and let me know what happens.

Hi, thanks for the reply
so do you think if I plant a corner fairly heavily that she'll lay her eggs?

I can remove the betta easy, he's only been in there for a short while, I've had the filter turned down slightly while he has been settling in, I usually have the filter on fairly strong as I read that the minnows like to swim as if in a river
I've created an area to the side for him where the current will be blocked by a silk plant and an ornament, if he wants a rest from the filter.

I've seen the 3 females pretty round before, but like I said nothing appeared, so I figured they never laid anything. Maybe they did and they just got sucked up/eaten.
I was just a bit excited about this female because usually the females were all the same size but now the other 2 are pretty streamline and this one is really bulging.
I'll put the pantyhose on the filter tomorrow, thanks I never thought of that


lol i've kept fish all my life but never had any babies so im kinda excited at the prospect

How soon do you think it'll take her to lay eggs if I can get the plants in by tomorrow?
ie should I remove my betta now, and if I do, how long before I either see eggs/ or I can be pretty sure she isnt going to do anything, so I can put him back in.

I personnaly never saw any eggs. I just realized one day that there ware a ton of little things swimming in the water. Upon closer inspection I realized they were fry, and they were TINY! You can also do 2-3 medium water changes to simulate natural rainfall, that might get them to spawn for ya.

I would say if you don't see anything in a month and the water is in pristine condition for that duration then they will probably not breed for ya till next spring. I think they usually start breeding around the same time that goldfish will, but can continue through out the summer.

Edit: The eggs should hatch in 2-4 days depending on the temp of the water.