How to Make DIY Spawning Mops for Breeding Aquarium Fish

Many aquarium fish like to lay their eggs by scattering them or sticking them onto plants and various surfaces. To protect the eggs from being eaten and improve the survival rate of baby fish, veteran breeders often make spawning mops for the fish to deposit their eggs. This artificial spawning media is not required for live aquarium plants. They are easy to transport and do not break any roots or leaves. They are even used with livebearers, which is fish that have live young. The mop’s many strands provide a dense cover for fry to hide under. Here are two types of spawning mats for aquarium fish.

Instructions for Yarn Spawning mop

This popular type of spawning mop is commonly used with goldfish, rainbowfish, tetras, barbs, killifish, and more. You can choose to make floating, sinking, or attachable mop depending on which species you are breeding.

1. Gather the materials: 100% acrylic yarn 2. You can use cork for a floating mop or small rocks (for a sinking one), or suction cups (for a mop that attaches directly to the tank’s bottom or wall). A flat, hard object that can be used to measure the height of the mop (e.g., a notebook, book or piece of cardboard). Scissors

1. Wrap the yarn around your notebook 40-100 times, then trim the excess.

1. Use a length of yarn measuring 12 to 24 inches to tie the yarn strands around the notebook.

1. Slide the yarn strands off the notebook and cut the loops at the opposite end of the yarn knot. If the yarn strands appear uneven or excessively long, trim the mop.

1. Securely tie the knot around the cork, rock or suction cup by taking the extra ends.

1. Rinse the mop in tap water without any soap and place it in the aquarium. 2. Depending on the species of fish, it may take a few days up to two weeks for the eggs to mature. Then move the eggs in the spawning mop into a breeder net or specimen container that has a gentle air stone in it. Some people carry the whole spawning mop along with the eggs. Others prefer to take the eggs out with their fingers, tweezers or fingers.

Instructions for Ricefish Spawning mop

Regular yarn mops do not work as well for certain species like Japanese medaka ricefish because the yarn strands are too free-flowing. For the eggs to be released from rice fish, stiffer bristles are needed to rub against.

1. Gather the materials Pool noodle with a hollow hole in the center 2. Scotch Brite pads (without any cleaning chemicals) The kitchen knife and the cutting board Scissors

1. With a knife or a cutting board, cut a 1/2-inch circle from the pool noodle.

1. One pad can be used. Position it horizontally in a landscape orientation. Starting from one of the bottom corners of the pad, make a vertical cut upwards and stop roughly 1/2 ” from the top. You will create the “strands” by making multiple vertical cuts along the bottom of your pad.

1. The pad should be rolled up so that the top half of it looks like a spiral and the bottom “strands of the pad look like a skirt.

1. The spiral end of your mop should be stuck through the middle pool noodles disc.

1. Rinse the spawning sponge with water and then place it in the aquarium.

1. After spawning has taken place, you can move the eggs, whole spawning mop, into a separate grow-out tank, specimen container, breeder net, or other container.

We wish you the best of luck in your breeding efforts. To help your aquarium hobby, you might consider selling any fish that you have raised to your local fish shop or other fishkeepers. Find out more about How to Breed Aquarium Fish to Make Profit.