Former Newbie's African Cichlid Experience

I just stripped two holding hybrid females. I fed the younger batch to the rest of the fish, and I feel pretty bad about it. They were probably 10 days along and it looks like they might of just hatched. The older batch was put into a tumbler, and I'm only keeping these ones to find out if it is indeed this female that is carrying the bad tail defect. I took a good look at the fry and I saw 2 that were just a little shorter and the tails didn't look quite right. If they don't develop normally then their mom is out of the breeding business. Any future batches she has will be stripped before they hatch and fed to the other fish.
I'm done keeping new fry and will be stripping all holding females until I choose the next breeding group from the second generation hybrids. That being said, I'm going to have to make room in the 55 for when the juveniles start maturing. I want to re-home 2 of the hybrid females, one of the males, and the blue zebra.

I made a newbie mistake by letting the others chase one of the hybrid females to death. I had her in the 20gal tall to recover from holding fry, and I just threw her back in there without thinking twice. I've done it before and everything was ok. Unfortunately her 2 sisters, the dominant male hybrid, the blue zebra, and the elongatus stressed her out too much and she died. Not too happy, she was one of the good breeders that didn't have the defective tail gene

The 5 fry in the 55gal are growing faster than their siblings in the 20. I'm pretty sure there's two males, one yellow and one grey. The yellow already has a blue face and when he gets aggressive all fins but his dorsal turn black. Still no egg spots, but that's ok with me.

Tomorrow is the day that I'm taking the dominant male, blue zebra and the 8 or so older fry to the pet store to sell them. If the elongatus didn't have a missing eye, I would be taking him too. I really don't want to sell the bumble bee, but I don't know how he's going to react after removing the blue zebra (Queen of the tank) If he gets aggressive he will also be going to the pet store. I might see about picking up a couple female peacocks, but only if there's some that I like. If there's some OB peacocks, that would be great.

Ended up trading the blue zebra, male hybrid, bumble bee, and a bunch of fry for 2 peacocks (1 albino and 1 something else) 3 black khuli loaches (for a diff tank) and a clump on java moss. Also bought a new heater that's rather old fashioned and now I see why it was only 13$. It called a "HI-TECH PC*BOARD" from SPOT brand. 110-120 volts. Doesn't say for what size tank its rated for but oh well. There's a weird clamp thing that is just not going to work for the tank, so I improvised with twisty ties and a small clamp.

I'll be adding pictures of the new fish soon

For the bad news, the albino is in a bad way. It's in a breeder net in a different tank but I doubt it'll make it. No signs of injury and there wasn't a lot of chasing going on yesterday, so I think it's stress.


New OB peacock, hopefully a female:


Fry update: First is a suspected male, rest is the dominant male fry. Note that the second pic also has the uncle


Now here's some pics of all the other fish:




Can't add many more pictures, so gotta start another

Younger fry: 3rd and 4th is the fry with the gimpy tail.


Everyone:

I'm starting to wonder if the dragon's blood peacock is really a girl. I've seen it flash at the other female peacock a few times and it keeps pestering her but not in a "let's make babies" way. I saw them circling a little while ago and DB was doing the quivering thing. The other female is just about ready to spawn so just maybe the DB is a male. But I could of sworn it laid eggs a couple times before. It had the swollen vent area just like the other female, although it never actually held eggs. IDK I guess we'll wait and see

Cool fish Demeter!

Thank you!!! I love my fish and I'm having so much fun breeding them
I wish I could take better pictures of the young male fry. He's looking more amazing every week. His tail has some orange tint to it and the peacock speckles show much better in him than in his father. I haven't measured them in a while but they seem to be right on track with their growth. The parents also started showing color at about 7 months and were spawning at 8. I don't think they are very close to spawning, they seem way to small for that yet, but we'll see. Someone bit off one of the pelvic fins on one fry, but it looks like its healing just fine. None of the suspected males have egg spots, but ironically the runt seems to have one.

As for the fry in the 29, they are also growing well. The largest one is still white and lovely, it even has a nice blue gloss to it in the right lighting. There's two or three darker orange fry that have an interesting orange stripe on the edge of their dorsal fin. It's getting harder to pick out the gimpy yellow fry, it looks like the tail is gradually straightening out a little. I'm hoping to clear out most of the yellow fry and give them to the pet store in a week or two, I might even throw the white one in the 55 while I'm at it. I've put some of the larger fry from slightly younger batches in the 29, but it looks like they aren't doing too hot. The older fry are slightly cannibalistic and ate some of them, well, parts of them.... Live and learn I guess

An update for the genetic mystery for the gimpy fry. I definatly have another deformed baby from the last spawn. It gets on just fine, but it's tail is shorter than all the others. The deformity reminds me of the "balloon mollies". I haven't the heart to cull it, so if it makes it to a decent size, it well go in the 55 as the second handy cap fish. The other gimpy fry that's between the other two in age is still alive. It's deformity isn't as bad and the youngest but looks worse than the oldest. The tail isn't shortened but it curves up slightly and the fin bends to the side for the top portion, just like the oldest fry. The female carrying this gene is out of the breeding program, so no more fry will be kept from her (unless she spawns with the OB male)

This was a rather wordy post. Pictures will be next time.

Very Nice

Picture time! I tried to take some pics of the promising male fry and show how his orange specs are on his tail and dorsal fin but ehh


Two other fry, both look very peacock like. The first pic is the one with a bitten off pelvic fin and the second is the other possible male.


The OB male blends in so well with the sand...

Everyone is still alive, but the lace catfish has a slightly cloudy eye and so does the female peacock. The peacock had an old injury to her eye where I'm guessing one of the other fish nipped at her and scratched it. It was mostly healed up but 2 days ago it got cloudy again. If it gets worse I'll quarantine her and treat the eye will melafix and aquarium salt.
I took out the 2 hybrid females and put them in the 20 tall to see if the male OB peacock would spawn with them, but I'm pretty sure she both laid eggs alone and now have mouths full of infertile eggs. I also put the other OB (I'm pretty sure it's female) in with him and that's the only girl he seems to take an interest in....

I plan on taking most of the fry in the 29 gallon to the pet store and putting the youngest fry in the 20 into the 29, all 3 of the gimpy fry are still alive and well. When I went to the pet store yesterday I got to see a few of my little ones in the selling tanks. They looked nice and healthy

The fry in the 55 are doing great, but the one I assume is a male has yet to show any color. I saw the for sure male doing the shimmer thing at his siblings, but I doubt any of the females are ready to spawn. I got a new iPod and the flash really helps show off their colors.

Just took most of the fry that were in the 29 to the LPS and put the adults from the 20 into the 29. The 8 or so fry that I decided to keep out of the 29 were placed into the 55, which was a mistake. One was already killed and the only fish I worry about is the blue ahli. He's stalking them...I caught two and put them back in the 29 so here's to hoping the others will survive.

About half the fry in the 20 long were moved to the 20 tall, they are doing well. I stripped the 2 holding hybrid females of their infertile eggs and also moved the long fin bristle nose into the 29 with them. The albino was pretty curious about the new pleco and they circled each other for a bit. Still not sure whether the long fin is a male, but I'm hoping it's a girl.

I traded the fry for a white tip acei who looks lovely. It's about 2 inches long, smaller than the oldest batch of fry. I put it in the 29 as well, just to make sure it adjusts okay. I know I have for too many fish in the 55, but it's going to be a mess until I decide which fry I want to keep for breeding the next generation.

Stocking in the 55:
male elongatus
2 female peacocks
male blue ahli
male rock krib
male yellow lab/peacock
12 or so fry
lace cat.... so not as bad as I thought but I still need to place the fish in the 29 back in the 55 soon as I get the male OB peacock to spawn with some of the girls.

29 stocking:
male OB peacock
female OB peacock
3 female yellow lab/peacock
2 fry
1 white tip acei
2 bristle nose pleco

Make that 3 fry in the 29, I just rescued another that was in an easy place to get to

My female dragon's blood peacock has me a bit worried. She's absolutely full of what I assume are eggs and she won't eat (no she's not holding). A week or so ago her egg tube was down and I thought she was going to lay her eggs and be good like she always is, but now her "tube" is not extended any more and she's really bloated looking. I suspect she's egg bound. I've heard of using epsom salt and occasionally massaging the near the belly and vent to get the eggs moving. If I can catch her when doing a water change today I will see about trying this treatment.

I easily caught the poor girl with my hand, she must really not be feeling too well. I still have her soaking in 1.5 table spoon epson salt per gallon. I added 7 teaspoons to the main tank as I hear it's harmless and should help her recover, if she is able to recover. I also tried massaging her belly and it is very squishy, more so than I thought it would be.


I might as well add some pictures of my little male while I'm at it. He's still looking good, very blue.


And the lovely blue ahli