[shiftyfox]

Just wondered if anyone has tried setting up a small fish room in an outdoor shed before..?
Currently running out of room, the only place that is free is an 8x6 metal shed In the garden (no windows) that has power installed.

This week in the UK Temperature has been about 25 degrees. As a quick test I left a large tub of water in there for about 4 hours with a thermometer inside and lid loosely on. After 4 hours or so in the hottest period the temperature was 23 degrees. At the hottest here is about 30 so I thought being too hot shouldn't be a problem and that's before it is fully insulated.

I guess my main concerns is keeping it warm enough in the winter months and having no condensation all over the tank and damp problems as well as the running costs each month
A local breeder mentioned heating the shed rather than each tank and a LFS mentioned tubular heaters were the way forward.

My thinking was to firstly re felt the roof to get that water tight. Next Baton all the inside walls and roof then fill with a decent insulation then perhaps silver foil line everything.
I was thinking some sort of cut out in the roof for ventilation or would it be better to use a dehumidifier attached to this opening on a thermostat.
Each tank would have sponge filters attached to an air line, I have a six way splitter set up on my fry tanks currently so that works fine and is plenty powerful enough. I can add extra pumps as necessary.
Metal racking with heavy duty wooden shelves that can take 800k a shelf, already have this in my kitchen and works great.

As previously mentioned I just wonder if I can keep the shed warm enough in water and not cost me fortune to do so.

The plan is to breed 6 or 7 of the most desirable Mbuna to start and progress to Peacocks after. I guess the only other stumbling block is if they don't sell..

 

[DJRansome]

86 degrees farenheight seems pretty hot for Africans.

Will leave heating costs to others.

However, don't plan to make a profit selling them...even if they all sell. Breakeven is usually the best anyone can do...even in a room that is already heated and cooled.

 

[shiftyfox]

If it does go ahead breaking even would be amazing. This is all about the hobby anyway, if I need to give them away to LFS then so be it.
Yes 86 is obviously too hot, but with insulation I can't see it getting anywhere near that temperature, insulation should work both ways.

 

[shiftyfox]

Is it best to put a couple of 6ft tanks in there with 5 species in each and and pull the females when holding or would it be better to do species tank only..?

 

[DJRansome]

Depending on the mbuna, my favorite is 33G long which is 48" long. For fun I would put 2 species in each. For production I would put 1 species in each. You will need 3 of them or more for growing out the various sizes of fry...so plan to keep some with no adults. The 40BR are probably more economical.

Lots of small tanks as opposed to two big tanks.

 

[shiftyfox]

33 Longs do look rather cool, with there shallow height gives the impression that they are even longer than 4 feet
So if I was to get a bunch of them and do one species in each one.? Would I stick to 1m and say 15 females per tank..?
Would two males be risking it..?

Or would it be better to do a bunch of 40 breeders and again do 1 species per tank say 1M 9 females?

 

[shiftyfox]

Another question is rocks. Now I know removing females for stripping from my main tank is always problematic and hate having to pull rocks out.
Would I still need loads of rocks in each breading tank or could I ease back on them or not use any..?

 

[DJRansome]

I like the 48" length better but check out costs because as I recall the 40BR are less expensive than the 33L.

I would put 2 species in the 48" tank with 10 fish max. The shallow height is a factor. 1m:4f.

With a 40BR I would do single species and stick to the smaller, more peaceful mbuna like labs and rusties. 1m:9f. Might limit your species options.

I would still put in a lot of rocks...if you don't like to net fish...why are you going to breed them again?

 

[shiftyfox]

I understand the need for rocks but it just sounds a little counterintuitive to pull out all the rocks each time to be able to catch holding females. So substrate and rocks in breeding group tanks, but fry and grow out tanks I could do no substrate and and no rocks..?

So if I went for some 33 longs, with two species in each would some of the below work for the breeding groups of 1m 4F - 10 fish per tank total?

Tank 1
Yellow labs and rustys

Tank 2
Salousi and white labs

Tank 3
Maingano (tank of there own 1M 9F)
Or would I need a bigger tank for them.?

 

[DJRansome]

You want the fish to be calm and feel comfortable enough to spawn continuously if you are going to break even. Like free range chickens versus corporate production factories for poultry. Or puppy ranch versus puppy mill.

Hey, removing rocks is fun!! Work on convincing yourself.

I would do some rocks in fry tanks as well. No substrate is OK.

The maingano would be an experiment. People have trouble with them in 48x12 so we started recommending 48x18. I would give it a try but be on the lookout for issues.

 

[shiftyfox]

So introduce 2 inch fish or fully grown adults for each breeding colony..?

 

[DJRansome]

The species you listed (except maingano) can spawn at 2 inches. For fun, I would stock with unsexed juveniles realizing that you may have to rehome extra males.

IDK about UK but in US "reliably" sexed mbuna are rare and usually unsexed juveniles about 1.5" are what is generally available.

 

[shiftyfox]

To be fair, the 5 species I've had from my breeder so far he's identified each one spot on. Vented then In front of me.