I still have a pair of monogamous red jewel cichlids (hemichromis sp. benguii) in my 55 gallon fresh tank with a bunch of their fry. I have been breeding them for quite a while now, and they are prolific with a capitol P! After venturing into saltwater, hubby and I began converting all but one of our freshwater tanks into saltwater. I already had about 100 fry from the jewels that were getting pretty big, so I sold about 50 of them, and kept the rest. I also sold all the large more aggressive cichlids from our 55 community tank, and moved the jewels in there with a single otopharinx lithobates. I know the o. lithobates will probably wind up being too big and mean for the jewels to live with but he is still a juvi and after spending 6 months looking for one of these guys I can't give him up until I see his adult coloration...
Anyway, here's a pic of the jewel daddy with a bunch of his fry, who were around two weeks old at the time this pic was taken:
This pair spawns every 1 1/2 to 2 weeks. They generally lay around 400 eggs, and about half survive to adulthood, but those numbers are greatly increasing as the parents age. The eggs hatch in 2 days, and then you have TINY fry that cluster into a lump and are moved around by mom and dad throughout the day. They live off their yolk sacs for a couple of days, and then have to be fed very small foods. I generally use hikari first bites, freeze dried daphnia, and then they graduate to a mix of crushed flake and cyclops. The parents care for the fry through adulthood. If I don't remove existing fry, the parents will let them eat their new batches of eggs. I'm assuming they breed this often for the purpose of supplying food to their existing babies. The fry stay with the parents for several months.
We just had a spawn last week, but I haven't been raising them because I already have too many. So far, with no feedings, my last several spawns have had no survivors. This morning I noticed that mom and dad seem to have adapted to that as well! When I fed the tank this morning, mom and dad were both chewing up the food into tiny bits and spitting it back out at their babies, who were successfully eating it! Right now there are about 50 week old fry back there who mom and dad are both feeding and protecting from their other fry (who are almost adult size and far too big to keep in that tank), and also from the o. lithobates, and three hungry hungry plecos! I just thought that was really cool and should be shared with everyone. I find their mating habits absolutely fascinating and totally unusual. Now, does anyone have any ideas what I can do with all these babies??? None of my LFS want them, and aquabid bugs me.
Anyway, here's a pic of the jewel daddy with a bunch of his fry, who were around two weeks old at the time this pic was taken:
This pair spawns every 1 1/2 to 2 weeks. They generally lay around 400 eggs, and about half survive to adulthood, but those numbers are greatly increasing as the parents age. The eggs hatch in 2 days, and then you have TINY fry that cluster into a lump and are moved around by mom and dad throughout the day. They live off their yolk sacs for a couple of days, and then have to be fed very small foods. I generally use hikari first bites, freeze dried daphnia, and then they graduate to a mix of crushed flake and cyclops. The parents care for the fry through adulthood. If I don't remove existing fry, the parents will let them eat their new batches of eggs. I'm assuming they breed this often for the purpose of supplying food to their existing babies. The fry stay with the parents for several months.
We just had a spawn last week, but I haven't been raising them because I already have too many. So far, with no feedings, my last several spawns have had no survivors. This morning I noticed that mom and dad seem to have adapted to that as well! When I fed the tank this morning, mom and dad were both chewing up the food into tiny bits and spitting it back out at their babies, who were successfully eating it! Right now there are about 50 week old fry back there who mom and dad are both feeding and protecting from their other fry (who are almost adult size and far too big to keep in that tank), and also from the o. lithobates, and three hungry hungry plecos! I just thought that was really cool and should be shared with everyone. I find their mating habits absolutely fascinating and totally unusual. Now, does anyone have any ideas what I can do with all these babies??? None of my LFS want them, and aquabid bugs me.
