Getting Nyassachromis to breed

[emartin]

I'm still waiting for my Nyassachromis boadzulu to breed. Right now I have 3m6f sharing a 120g 4ftx2ftx2ft tank with 6 taeniolethrinops (temporarily), 4 clown loaches and 2 siamese algae eaters.

Right now that I have the tank almost completely dedicated to that species of cichlid, the males are coloring up and looking gorgeous (will post pictures later) and fighting and displaying to each other so often. The females, I noticed the smallest female is bossing around some of the medium sized ones but not touching the largest female who is as big as the males almost.

Right now I am feeding them every other day OmegaSea Cichlid Flakes, which occasional treats being Spirulina Brine Shrimp, Cyclops-Eeze, or Pure Spirulina Flake.

Anybody with any experience with Nyassachromis species have any advice on setting up breeding conditions for the fish? I was thinking of adding another flower pot or two, and dimming the lights a lot more.

~Ed

[emartin]

To better simplify my question, anybody have any experience getting wild Copadichromis, Mchenga, or Nyassachromis in the condition to breed?

[emartin]

No one has bred wild Copadichromis, Mchenga, or Nyassachromis on the forum?

Anyway I pm'd larry johnson, he mentioned his wild Copads tended to breed on slanted/vertical rocks on the sides of tanks, and mentioned feeding frozen mysis shrimp twice a week should help.

Ideas of mine that I thought of however was dimming the lights... They're pretty deep underwater where it's dimmer... I also remembered that in the wild they only breed seasonally, so I figured I could raise the temperature to whatever Malawi's temperature is in the summer (82F I think), and maybe add another cave for them to retreat to if they get startled, stressed, etc.

Anybody else have any thoughts or ideas?

~Ed

[joe_jaskot]

Try removing the sub-dominant males. Or try adding an easily spawned pair of fish to the tank. When this newly added pair spawns, it may stimulate your other fish to spawn. Good luck.

[AlishanAS]

Frequent water changes and a bit heavier feeding of meatier foods such as the mysis Larry mentioned. I would stay away from bloodworms. Also include a good pellet food.

[emartin]

Frequent water changes and a bit heavier feeding of meatier foods such as the mysis Larry mentioned. I would stay away from bloodworms. Also include a good pellet food.
Currently only the males and 3 of the females will accept pellets, so right now I am just feeding flakes as their main staple.

[AlishanAS]

Try different pellets such as Hikari, Dainichi, NLS. One of our sponsors also carries HBH.

www.Yourfishstuff.com

Maybe you will find one that all will eat.

Do you soften them before feeding?

[6stang9]

Another thing you might try is cold water changes. Drop the temp 5 degrees when you do a water change. Some times it works. Worth a shot. Good luck. ......Oh and if that dosn't work you can pull the lethrinops bag em up and bring them to the PVAS auction and sell them to me!!! That will definetly work. Ha ha Again good luck.

[emartin]

Another thing you might try is cold water changes. Drop the temp 5 degrees when you do a water change. Some times it works. Worth a shot. Good luck. ......Oh and if that dosn't work you can pull the lethrinops bag em up and bring them to the PVAS auction and sell them to me!!! That will definetly work. Ha ha Again good luck.
Or, you can wait for my Taeniolethrinops to breed (they seem more like other haps than lethrinops, as in tough fish) and I can sell you some F1 fry!

One thing I was thinking of though definitely was keeping the lights a little dim, and I am going to over the course of a week raise the temperature to like 82F or 84F...

~Ed

[emartin]

My Nyassachromis females still won't breed! My dominant male, who is just absolutely gorgeous right now, has the other two males, the loaches, the pleco, the taeniolethrinops and all the other females on the far side of the tank. He occassionally will lure the largest female into a flower pot cave and has been doing this the past 3 weeks but breeding never occurs. I've greatly dimmed the lights, increased the water temperately to 82F, and feed frozen daily or every other day and that consists of Spirulina fed Brine Shrimp (adult artemia san francisco bay brand sells that are fed spirulina), glassworms, and sometimes plankton. Otherwise they get fed pellets or flakes.

Any ideas? I've never seen a Malawi species where all 5 females are this reluctant to breed... Right now I am feeling bad for the Taeniolethrinops and am going to remove them soon. Should I increase frozen food feedings, remove the other two males, and maybe add a lot more pvc or clay pipes for hiding? Should I maybe try feeding live adult brine shrimp?

And what's strange too, is while the males are all large (4.5-5.5""), the females all range from 2"-4"...there's no reason why one of them shouldn't be ready to breed.

Anyway one idea I am thinking of is to stop all feeding in this tank for a week, and then do two massive (75% or more) water changes one after the other and then feed a lot of frozen food... Think that would help work?

Oh, and about the water temperature raise to 82F. I figured they wouldn't notice the temperature increase since it happened slowly so every time I do water changes recently I have been purposely putting in colder water (lower 70F's) so it would heat up to 82F over night...

Also, the dominant male has been piling lots of sand around the flower pot cave he seems to love so much...

~Ed

[emartin]

:partay::smilewinkgrin::jump:

FINALLY...THEY BRED!!!

After 6 months of waiting, and 2 months of watching the dominant full sized full colored male intensely court females, and having ALL the fish including the pleco (missing most of its tail fin...) in the corner of the tank...I have a female holding....

Currently I am in the process of cleaning and setting up an old 20g High I got from AMBUSHPREDATOR for the female since I really don't want to strip the eggs and risk injury to the female or the eggs...

So now I just need to wait and find out if the male remembered to fertilize the eggs :roll:

~Ed

[Larry Johnson]

Congrats,you just needed a little patience!:shocked:

Cheers,Larry

[emartin]

A lot of patience... A member here bred them within 1-2 months....

And his were smaller than mine (I believe)!.

Anyway I have the 20g High set up, just waiting for the temperature to drop from 84F to 82F (tank temperature where she is currently at)... Hopefully I cleaned this extremely dusty old tank well enough for her...and hopefully the eggs are fertilized...

~Ed

[AlishanAS]

Good to hear Ed. Good luck with them. The young should be ready by the Fall auction. :smilewinkgrin:

[emartin]

Heh, if the fry are well, I'm keeping the first batch or two (unless they are huge batches, but I doubt it) for myself...

But yeah I'll bring some hopefully to the fall auction. I should have Taeniolethrinops fry by then too...

[fischfan13]

I should have Taeniolethrinops fry by then too...

<perk>
:council:
I think that you just got the attention of a few people.

[emartin]

[/SIZE][/B]

<perk>
:council:
I think that you just got the attention of a few people.
Lol.... The males are starting to show egg spots and I think they should start breeding by May/June...

I can't wait to put them in the 265g. I'm planning on dumping a lot more sand in there for them...they're already compulsively sifting sand like crazy in my 120g. They should breed first since the Lichnochromis colony I am growing out (planning a 3m, 10-15f colony of f1s and f2s) females (rather, suspected females), are still only 1.5-3"... Hopefully the 8" F1 male I have can wait another 6-12 months...!

~Ed

[emartin]

Well, today I decided after 16 days in 82F water it was time to strip the fry, especially since I was worried since it did not look like she was holding anymore, and when I checked her last night by putting a few flakes in to see if she'd eat or release, I saw for one split second a fry looking at me from inside her mouth.

Well when I was going to strip the fry, she was thrashing like crazy all over the 20g, and then she released the fry on her own probably from the stress...and boy was I surprised! I thought at the most she'd have 8 fry, since most people I've spoken to said that theirs only had 3-6 fry the first few spawns...

I counted SEVENTEEN wigglers, all still will some egg sacs but they have their pectoral fins and swimming around the bottom a little bit. One of them was either badly deformed or got injured when the female was thrashing around so I just fed it to my fish in my 265g...

I moved her immediately back into the 120g breeding tank and 20 minutes later fed frozen spirulina brine shrimp, glassworms, and plankton and was happy to see her eating (to hopefully produce fry again soon!).

Anyway, with the 16 seemingly healthy fry (currently all the pvc caves for the female are pulled. I'm going to put in smaller ones later this week for them to use), because I never let a female hold this long (I always stripped the eggs before and hatched in a tumbler until the egg sacs were completely gone in at least two of them) and the fry still have some small egg sacs though there are definitely a few exploring the bottom of the 20g tank should I increase aeration, add any chemicals (salt for example), or put them all in a tumbler or just leave them in the tank? Currently there's a seeded sponge filter in there providing filtration and aeration.

I'll post pictures soon of them. The female though is still very stressed and labored breathing but the fact that she immediately began eating again to me indicates she will be fine. I just hope the male doesn't start stressing her out again yet... (he IMMEDIATELY calmed down and stopped flaring up when I removed her with the eggs...haha).

~Ed

[AlishanAS]

Congrats Ed. That's great.

[YoungAquaticPhotos]

Good luck with them Ed!

[emartin]

They seem to still be doing fine still.

Anyway I am looking for a 100% success rate. I'm going to be giving these more of my attention than any other batch of fry I raised. I haven't done a water change in that 20g since the day I set it up 17 days ago now.

Do you guys think I should wait a few more days until the egg sacks are gone before I do a water change or it shouldn't bother them? I'm going to try and do 2-3 water changes a week until they are large enough to eat flakes and tolerate water quality better.

~Ed

[fischfan13]

Just an opinion...

Water changes everyday or every other day...and about 50% each time.

[emartin]

Oh, I forgot to mention as soon as the dominant male saw the female again today he immediately flared up to full coloration again and is harassing everyone again.

She doesn't looked stressed today, and hopefully she'll be smart enough to just ignore him and keep eating the frozen food before they breed again...

Also, as a result of the daily frozen food feedings and perhaps the 82F water temperature too the Taeniolethrinops are growing fast. They're going to be moved into the 265g soon, I just have to finish treating the Lichnochromis for mouth fungus (just noticed today he developed mouth fungus, which explains to me why he was eating frozen shrimp fine but resisted eating pellets...) in there. Should be just 1-3 more weeks before I can throw them in there...and I am sure they will love it with virtually no other fish in there...plus the upgrade from 1mm pellets and flakes and glassworms to 3mm pellets and plankton and krill will surely make them feel great...

~Ed

[fischfan13]

Ed,

How about an update?
You know that I am a fan of Taeniolethrinops.http://www.clicksmilies.com/s1106/ernaehrung/food-smiley-007.gif

[emartin]

The dominant male Nyassachromis is flaring up every other day, not pounding the fish yet so I am thinking of lowering the temperature back down to 78-79F from their current 82-83F temperature and fasting them for a week or so since they've been eating brine shrimp, glassworms, and plankton almost every day. And then I am thinking of going back to flake food for a few weeks and a little bit later increase the temperature again and feed frozen again...

The fry grew about twice the size they were when hatched and are exploring every section of the 20g and they love the current in there created by the sponge filter and the extra air stone. They're eating Cyclops-Eeze like pigs and hopefully I'll be able to mix them with bigger fish soon (I have a 29gal tank with 1.5-2" fish in it, they shouldn't be able to eat these...hopefully...going to wait probably a month though just in case...). Their mouths don't quite look big enough to handle flakes yet, because I am interested in feeding them my Jehmco Pure Spiriulina flakes to help out their blue coloration in the long run... Oh and one of the fry looks like it may be deformed, it hatched wrong out of the egg. I'll have to see when it gets bigger so I can take a closer look to see if I could use it as a feeder or if it's fine the way it is... They all have all their barring too, including that horizontal stripe on their sides...

The Taeniolethrinops are still fat, golden colored, and eating like pigs. The males still have juvenile coloration and still haven't outgrew the females yet. I'm hoping once I finish treating the Lichnochromis in the 265g for mouth fungus that once they are in there and eating 3mm pellets I'll see a bigger difference in their growth and colors from a 4ft tank to a 7ft tank...

I'm going to try and get a video of the Nyassachromis dominant males when they are both in breeding dress...they are just awesome fish... In my opinion this species is MUCH better looking than the Copadichromis trewavassae species...

~Ed

[emartin]

Cut back on feeding again and fed 1mm pellets for a while. I lowered the temperate from 82F to 79F, and when I last did a water change I lowered it with cold water to the upper 60s and it went back up to 79F by the next day. The male is flaring up again and has all the fish on the one side of the tank and is now chasing the two largest females, not just the dominant one this time. I'm going to feed them some glassworms today to give the females an extra protein boost.

Also, for some odd reason once in a while a fry from my first batch will randomly die... Since then I lowered the temperature down to 79F from 82F and am now feeding crushed flakes...they'e very slow growers especially given the tank temperature and the cyclops-eeze I fed originally... These are definitely more fragile than the Aulonocara fry I used to breed and raise... Hopefully I won't lose any more.

I'm going to try and get a video soon (vhs-cassette tape that will be digitally recorded onto my pc...not the best quality) of the dominant male in his breeding dress...he's awesome. I can never seem to get a good photo of them otherwise showing the color the way it really is. I did get one decent shot but it shows their hidden sheen (they show it when the males aren't in breeding dress) of a slight yellow color over the navy blue color...

~Ed

[fischfan13]

Cut back on feeding again and fed 1mm pellets for a while. I lowered the temperate from 82F to 79F, and when I last did a water change I lowered it with cold water to the upper 60s and it went back up to 79F by the next day.

~Ed

Are you saying that you added water that was in the 60's to the tank, or you lowered the temperature of the tank to the 60's?

[emartin]

I lowered it to what the thermometer said was either 68F or 70F with cold water, and the heaters got it back up to 79F in just a few hours.

[fischfan13]

This is pretty dangerous, Ed.
Doing a water change and adding water that is several degrees cooler is fine, but dropping the temp by 13 degrees is DANGEROUS, and then bringing it back up so quickly is practically giving your fish a death sentence.

[emartin]

I don't see how, and the temperature wasn't exactly at 79F until probably around 5-7pm that day (did the water change at around 3am when I couldn't sleep)...took over 12 hours for it to get back up.

And that wasn't 13 degrees...at the most it was 9/9.5 degrees...the thermometer on there is an old one, dirt cheap one that I personally think is off a little...not sure if the water is colder or warmer than what it says (old stick on one, I had to take the glass one out of there for the fry tank). I've done something similar before, about 4 days before they bred last time I did several small water changes lowering the temperature down to around 75F +/- from 82F and they spawned just a few days layer.

I do understand the risk though with lowering the temperature, but these guys don't seem sensitive at all to temperature or water quality (I do 1/3-75% water changes a week anyway though) and based on their behavior the past 3 days since that water change the male is definitely pounding the females a lot harder... Of course I'd never try that with species from Tanganyika for example, etc...

Thanks for the concern and heads up though. I'll definitely be sure not to lower it more than what I know they can handle, since they seem to show no ill effects at all (first time I did that I watched them intently to make sure).

Anyway, any idea what else I can feed the Nyassachromis fry now to help speed up growth? I was thinking of maybe trying to get them to start chewing on 1mm or 3mm pellets until they are big enough to eat full sized flakes... Otherwise right now I am just feeding crushed flakes since they seem to digest the cyclops-eeze a lot faster than I thought they were... I thought about feeding the HBH Brand First Bites but after seeing that their product was tainted back in 2007 with Melamine from China I decided against it...I try to avoid all fish food originating there even frozen because of that...

~Ed

[joe_jaskot]

In nature, rain water is usually much cooler in temperature than the water in lakes and rivers. Sometimes the onset of rain induces fish to spawn. That is probably what happened when you lowered the tank temperature.

[emartin]

In nature, rain water is usually much cooler in temperature than the water in lakes and rivers. Sometimes the onset of rain induces fish to spawn. That is probably what happened when you lowered the tank temperature.
Yeah I read the same thing and that's exactly why I tried it. When I lowered the temperature back in February from 82F to like 75F and it went back up they spawned 3 days later. I'm hoping to get similar results the next few weeks.

[AMBUSHPREDATOR]

Good going Ed. Congrats.

[emartin]

No spawn yet but the male is REALLY pounding all of them...this time even the Siamese Algae Eaters (never bothered them before). He has all of them herded up in the bottom left corner. I fed some more glassworms and brine shrimp again today so hopefully one of the females will breed again soon so the male will calm down...

Since switching the fry over to broken up flakes they've had a mini growth spurt growing another 1/8th of an inch or so. They're all about 1" long or just under, but are growing extremely slow... Only an inch in like two months...

~Ed

[AlishanAS]

1" in size - perfect size for an auction......

[emartin]

Haha you guys wish... I'm keeping the first batch for myself (or rather, at least one male and some of the females from this batch).

Any other broods though I'll bring to an auction. Hopefully I'll have Lichnochromis fry and Taeniolethrinops fry available by the fall auction too... I already have a crapload of extra F1 and F2 male Lichnochromis I am growing out that are useless for my colony, perhaps some full grown adults will show up at the fall auction :).

~Ed

[emartin]

The large female again has been holding for over a week now. Because of the holidays I've been neglecting to do water changes for nearly two weeks in all my tanks (compensated by only feeding once a week though to reduce waste) and finally caught up again today with major water changes only to realize I only had enough Prime for the 265g and the 60g... Will have to buy more tomorrow...

Anyway the first batch in the 20g are still BARELY growing and are just under or exactly 1" now after two months since they hatched... It's really annoying to me since all my F1 and F2 peacock fry I bred and raised all grew to 1"+ the first month... Oh well I guess...

~Ed

[fischfan13]

How often are you feeding your fry and how often are their water changes?

[emartin]

The past week or so I cut back on feeding to once every other day, but usually I do two 50% water changes a week and feed A LOT of flakes daily once daily (they keep eating for several hours) until they are about 2-3", then I'd just do one water change a week .

The flakes I crush up for them and feed are OmegaOne Cichlid Flakes. Have any ideas on a better fry food?

~Ed

[fischfan13]

You have to change your habits if you want the fry to grow.
They need to eat 3-5 times per day.
Giving one huge feeding is not good as it will foul up the water, lowering the quality horribly.
More important than the type of food is their water quality, and you are not helping the fry out at all.

IMO, feed small amounts several times per day and change 50% of the water every other day.

[emartin]

I thought about increasing water changes to 3-4 times a week, but I don't feel I am fouling up the water with the feeding, all the food is gone within a few hours and I am not dumping in a lot really, just a sort of pinch full of crushed flakes.

I will consider increasing water changes though... I have thought also of adding an aquaclear 30 with a prefilter on the next tank they will be moved to and keeping that filled with purigen and carbon and keep using the prefilter and the sponge filter for biofiltration to keep the water clean. That tank in particular that they are in I test for nitrates every few days to keep a close eye on it.

Have any ideas on different foods I could feed them? I thought about trying to get them to start eating pellets by putting one 3mm pellet every time or every other time I feed flakes until they realize that is a food source and to just mouth the pellets for food but I was concerned that if I fed 1mm pellets for example they may try and eat them whole... I also thought of feeding my remaining pure spirulina flakes I have in the freezer since that apparently has a lot of protein in it...

~Ed

[joe_jaskot]

As Bill said, if you want your fry to grow faster, you have to feed them more than once a day. 3-5 small feedings throughout the day are much better than one large feeding per day. For faster growth, increase the water temperature and change lots of water each week. Also you should give your fish a variety of foods, not just one type. Live or frozen foods also promote fish growth in fry.

[dogofwar]

I bred Nyassochromis prostoma a few months ago.

They're delightful utaka-type "haps" that - far as I can tell - aren't aggressive at all.

I sold the parents but I've got a bunch of grow outs that are now 2-3" and starting to color up.

Breeding them just happened: feed them (NLS), do 50% weekly water changes (on their 40g breeder), and strip the holding females :)

Here's a picture of a non-breeding male...

Matt

[yourfishstuff]

+1

Lots of small feeding per day and keeping up with the water changes will help the fry to grow quicker. Clean water, good food and don’t crowd them.

Something to consider is the condition/age of the food you are giving. Fish food will lose nutritional value over time. The vitamin content will be lost if kept out in a high temperature, high humidity environment. Like near an aquarium for instance. I always recommend keeping out a few weeks worth of food and storing the rest in the freezer. Try to avoid storing it in the refrigerator as it is can be humid.

A great food for 1” fry are the 500-800 micron Golden Pearls. They don’t sink as fast as normal pellets, which allow the fry time to eat without it getting buried in the substrate (if it’s not a bare bottomed tank).

[dogofwar]

Also, Nyassochromis aren't aggressive fish. I can see how housing them with more aggressive species, even peacocks, could keep them from doing their thing.

I seem to remember taking out some grow out peacocks that I had with mine before they bred.

[emartin]

Also, Nyassochromis aren't aggressive fish. I can see how housing them with more aggressive species, even peacocks, could keep them from doing their thing.

I seem to remember taking out some grow out peacocks that I had with mine before they bred.
Actually my dominant wild male is a PSYCHO... First he's a giant at 6" long, and whenever he wants to breed he puts everyone including the siamese algae eaters and the plecos and clown loaches in the far left bottom corner practicly claiming the entire 4ftx2ft tank for himself. Currently besides two other wild male Nyassachromis that he bosses around he also bosses around 3m3f Taeniolethrinops furcicauda...

Anyway the Taeniolethrinops will be going into my 265g soon...

[emartin]

+1

Lots of small feeding per day and keeping up with the water changes will help the fry to grow quicker. Clean water, good food and don’t crowd them.

Something to consider is the condition/age of the food you are giving. Fish food will lose nutritional value over time. The vitamin content will be lost if kept out in a high temperature, high humidity environment. Like near an aquarium for instance. I always recommend keeping out a few weeks worth of food and storing the rest in the freezer. Try to avoid storing it in the refrigerator as it is can be humid.

A great food for 1” fry are the 500-800 micron Golden Pearls. They don’t sink as fast as normal pellets, which allow the fry time to eat without it getting buried in the substrate (if it’s not a bare bottomed tank).
I forgot all about that food, I remember reading about it and looking it up on Kensfish.com to buy...I just ordered 1/4lb of the 500-800micron size Golden Pearls and they should be here tomorrow or Friday...

~Ed

[AlishanAS]

I looking it up on Kensfish.com to buy...I just ordered 1/4lb of the 500-800micron size Golden Pearls and they should be here tomorrow or Friday...

~Ed

Ouch!

Bill - maybe you should change your SN to your company name.....

[yourfishstuff]

:laughing: just trying to help Ed out. I've raised many rainbowfish and petricola fry using the GPs. Both start out much smaller and more fragile then the Nyassachromis fry, so they should do well.

BTW- I don't think you are able to change your username?

[emartin]

:laughing: just trying to help Ed out. I've raised many rainbowfish and petricola fry using the GPs. Both start out much smaller and more fragile then the Nyassachromis fry, so they should do well.

BTW- I don't think you are able to change your username?
Lol sorry didn't realize you were the guy behind yourfishstuff.com haha. I was already ordering more ChlorAm-X and other crap from them though lol... Otherwise I'd likely order from you...shipping should be significantly cheaper coming from inside the same state versus shipping from Massachuesetts...

[fischfan13]

Plus yourfishstuff.com gives ECC members 10% off!

[emartin]

Plus yourfishstuff.com gives ECC members 10% off!
Oh well, now I know LOL.

[fischfan13]

This was originally posted on January 7th...gotta read the posts, Ed.

http://forums.eastcoastcichlids.org/showthread.php?t=457

[emartin]

You can't possibly expect me to read every one of your 1,296+ posts Bill :) :lol:.

[fischfan13]

Ed, this post is #10,500, and yes I have expected you to have read every single one.

[emartin]

Ed, this post is #10,500, and yes I have expected you to have read every single one.
:roll: I'll try harder next time rofl...

[emartin]

+1

Lots of small feeding per day and keeping up with the water changes will help the fry to grow quicker. Clean water, good food and don’t crowd them.

Something to consider is the condition/age of the food you are giving. Fish food will lose nutritional value over time. The vitamin content will be lost if kept out in a high temperature, high humidity environment. Like near an aquarium for instance. I always recommend keeping out a few weeks worth of food and storing the rest in the freezer. Try to avoid storing it in the refrigerator as it is can be humid.

A great food for 1” fry are the 500-800 micron Golden Pearls. They don’t sink as fast as normal pellets, which allow the fry time to eat without it getting buried in the substrate (if it’s not a bare bottomed tank).
The Golden Pearls, are they best stored in the freezer in between feedings or is it fine as long as I keep it in a dry dark place away from any sources of UV light?

Anyway thanks for reminding me about this food, the fry seem to voraciously eat this compared to the crushed flakes I was giving them and I will definitely order by the lb when I run out...You sell larger amounts other than 4oz right?

~Ed

[yourfishstuff]

The Golden Pearls, are they best stored in the freezer in between feedings or is it fine as long as I keep it in a dry dark place away from any sources of UV light?

Anyway thanks for reminding me about this food, the fry seem to voraciously eat this compared to the crushed flakes I was giving them and I will definitely order by the lb when I run out...You sell larger amounts other than 4oz right?

~Ed

Glad the fry like it

Between feedings it's fine to keep out, but I would definitely put the GPs in the freezer for longer term storage. They are higher in fat then most foods, which is good for fry, but not so good for shelf life.

I have a 500g bag, which is 1.1lbs..

[emartin]

Awesome 1/2kg... that's about 4times what I have now... When I run out I'll have to order that size.

Thanks!

[emartin]

Moved the holding female (same female as last time) to the 20g-high and the fry that were in there into the 20g-long and the Pl. jalo fry that were in there to the 29g... All done in between doing water changes on the 265g, 60g, and 120g... Long night it was for me having to move all those fish and redecorate and reorganize all the tanks and doing regular filter cleaning...

ANYWAY, the large wild female has been holding in the 120g for about two weeks now and this time I am going to wait and give her the chance over the next week or two to spit them out on her own (perhaps some cyclops or golden pearls to entice her to spit and feed her and the fry).

Oh, and believe it or not the 1" F1 fry already started a mini growth spurt since I started feeding the golden pearls... Probably the best prepared fry food ever...

~Ed

[emartin]

Female still won't spit, so I am going to strip her tonight. I'll post again later with the number of fry....hopefully more or the same amount as last time (17)!

~Ed

[emartin]

Woohoo! I didn't do an exact count, but I can safely say there is at least 20+!

I love this species... Don't breed as often as my old f1 peacocks did but they sure do produce good numbers!

~Ed

[AMBUSHPREDATOR]

Way to go ED . Keep em coming

[emartin]

Got another spawn...this time FINALLY with a different female.


EMTBMIKE if you are reading this, with your group I'd remove some of your ATRs, add a bunch of peaceful juvenile fish for growing out (like peacocks for example) or remove some of your nyassachromis males for a few weeks and re introduce them.

When I got in a new shipment in September and added like 20 small fish and 2 big ones into my 120g the males went NUTS and flared up...bred almost exactly a month after that shipment!

~Ed

[emartin]

Stripped 12 free swimming fry ALL HUGE... I swear they are about 1/2" or 7/16" long...

[emartin]

Just got another spawn with yet another different female... Finally I'm getting some diverse blood going.

This spawn looks HUGE though. The females mouth is VERY VERY swollen the most I've ever seen in person on a mouth brooder. Must've been a lot of eggs to fertilize because the male is back to normal coloration ROFL.

At this rate I can finally start selecting and line breeding process and sell some fry soon...

[gibbs]

Hi Ed. Grats on the way things are goin with these little beauties mate! I think you need to post some pics, it would be a great reward for the reader of your 7 page (so far) thread :)
All the best, hope the good luck continues