From: hellmann@cs.scarolina.edu (Douglas R Hellmann)
Subject: Re: breeding cichlids
Organization: USC  Department of Computer Science
Date: 28 Jul 92 17:44:42 GMT

tes0@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (THOMAS EDWIN SCHMIDLIN) writes:


>As soon as I notice eggs, a insert a divider in the tank, giving the parents
>and fry as little room as possible without scrunching them up to tight.  This
>keeps the other Cichlids from eating the fry, and protects them from the VERY
>aggressive parents.

>I usually leave the parents with the fry for at least a week.  They keep the
>fry in a close bunch and keep them from slipping through the cracks between
>the divider and the sides of the tank that I can never seem to get rid of.

Are these egglayers, or mouth-brooders?  I have a species tank with
elongotises and they are mouth-brooders.  To protect the female from the
other fish, I place her in a 30gal set up complete with rocks and
gravel.  (The idea was to make her as comfortable as possible.)  I also
drape a towel over the front of the tank so she can't see me walking
around the room, this keeps her calm.

She usually takes 3-4 weeks to hatch the fry, and then I leave them all
in the tank together for several more weeks for two reasons:

	1:  The female has just spent 3-4 weeks without eating and is
	weak, so I feed her a bunch and get her health back up to the 
	level it was before.

	2:  The babies are too small to put in the other tank.

In order to separate them, I create two different groupings of rocks.
One has very small spaces that only the babies will be able to get in,
and the other has larger spaces for the female.

>After some time, I remove the parents to the other side of the tank, and let
>the fry stay for about another week.  After that, I net them and move them to
>another tank to grow.

>There are many reasons for my methods.  I find that the fry grow faster
>without their parents and provided with all the baby brine shrimp I can
>supply.  If I try to take them out too soon, they are a pain to catch.  With
>all of the gravel in my tank, they just hide in little spaces and I can't get
>them.

I feed my babies krill too.

>I've tried moving the parents to a breeding tank, with no gravel, just wide
>open spaces, but they hated it and would not breed.  They were very nervous
>without the presence of the other fish, and swam into the walls trying to get
>out whenever I entered the room.

I never move anyone until the breeding has taken place.

>Like I said, it's probably not the best method in the world, but it works.

I guess this goes for my methods too.

My fish have bred three times.  The first batch was saved, with 8
babies.  The second batch was caught too late and the female ate the
eggs, and the third batch is in her mouth right now.

Doug Hellmann
hellmann@cs.scarolina.edu














>In article <1992Jul27.141056.2981@cis.uab.edu>, patton@phy.uab.edu (David Patton
>) writes:
>>For those of you familiar with breeding various cichlids, what method
>>of removal do you use to seperate the fry from the parents for
>>raising in a seperate tank?
>>Do you find it more convenient to remove the parents to a seperate
>>tank and then catch the fry or is there an alternative method.
>>Because of the parent's fierce protection of the young, I do
>>not want to overstress them or cause them to panic and make a
>>meal of the fry!  Any suggestions?
>>
>>patton@phy.uab.edu
>>
>-- 


>Tom Schmidlin       DEEP THOUGHTS: By Jack Handy - Whenever I see something
>TES0@LEHIGH.EDU         screech across a room and latch onto a guy's neck,
>215-758-0865            and the guy screams and tries to get it off, I have
>                        to laugh because, What is that thing?
Xref: sparky rec.aquaria:5934 alt.aquaria:4271 sci.aquaria:1119