From: mattk@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (matthew.kaufman)
Subject: Re: breeding cichlids
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 13:53:34 GMT
Summary: Depends on the cichlids

In article <1992Jul28.014652.80222@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu> tes0@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (THOMAS EDWIN SCHMIDLIN) writes:
>
>My method is probably not the best in the world, but it works well.  I have
>about a 90% survival rate among my fry.
>
>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.

Depending on the type of cichlids and the value/toughness of their tankmates
I generally leave fry with the parents for awhile. For some cichlids like
apistos, the damn fry are so touchy that I find I do better removing them
from the parents tank into a very clean tank with a scrungy filter that
gets lots of small water changes and live food for a long time (months
on brine shrimp, grindals and microworms.) Still those damn fish grow slow.

Julies I leave the fry with the parents as the parents have the tank
largely to themselves and there's no way I can catch the little buggers
without half-draining the tank, anyway.

Acaras I siphon out all the fry even if I have no intention of raising them,
as the parents go psycho when they're guarding fry and I've lost some
nice geophagus due to the depravations of the female acara (one of the smallest
fish in the tank, sigh.)  I've done very well by putting the fry in
an adjoining tank next to the one the parents were in so that they could
watch the fry, but none of the other fish could get near them. Shoulda done
this the last time but the adjoining tank has killies in it, oh well.


Jewelfish I siphoned out fry once, found out that instead of the dozen or so
fry I thought I had I had closer to 50, but the jewels seemingly reserved
the worse of their aggressions for their conspecifics, didn't really bother
the larger tilapias, and the synodontis angelicus 'disposed' of the unwanted
fry and has fresh ones every two weeks or so (no loss - I don't need hundreds
of jewel cichlids, especially since I'm not overly happy with my strain.)

You will do better raising the fry apart from the parents unless the parents
have a tank to themselves. I don't move cichlids into breeding tanks as
I've found its the quickest way to get them out of the mood. They tend to
need some time to 'get happy' and they dislike disruptions - in the
case of my julidochromis, I don't move rocks around or chase them with nets
as that makes them stop breeding for months, sometimes.


Of course, if you do better, what will you do with all the cichlids, they
need room to grow, hence more tanks, more water changes, more food, and
what will you do to dispose of all the extras? Africans (some) are popular
with pet stores and quickly get to a sellable size (like 1.5"). Cichlasomas
are far less popular and take longer to reach a sellable size. Apistos other
than rams (I guess a rams is a microgeophagus, not an apisto) are generally
not that popular, though cacatuoides and agassizi are. Of course, I don't
breed those:-)
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