Day 1: Breeding

[Chris2]

First, hello to everyone. Ive been in the hobby for about 20 years, and keep both freshwater and saltwater/reef tanks.

A bit about me. I work for a tropical fish wholesaler, but not directly with the live stock. Instead, im your ordinary run of the mill dry goods guy Im about as knowledgeable as any hobbyist is when it comes to basic husbandry requirements, I just know more than i want to admit about pumps, skimmers, chemicals, heaters and substrate lol....

Anyways, my reason for joining here: I want to learn more about the live side of the business, as such ive figured the best way would be hands on. To keep things interesting ive also deceided to take up breeding as a hobby. Ill breed whatever i can get my hands on. First up, an easy one (to build my confidence) and a cichlid. The easy one: Marble s/f mollies! The cichlid: Green Jewels.

Today is Day 1. Fish have been added to a system that has been running for about a year. Im currently cycling/setting up there permanent tanks. My hope is in the time it takes for them to cycle i will be able to narrow the Jewels down to 3-4 possible mates and the Mollies will have a spawn.

Im open to all questions and helpful comments! Pics and video per request or as needed.

 

[Proxo]

I just want to say welcome and good luck

 

[Chris2]

Thanks Just ran downstairs and observed then fed some NLS small fish pellet and a bit of brine shrimp. Both groups of fish ate eargerly. The Jewels just came in yesterday and they are a tad beat up, but nothing that cant heal. The mollies have been in the shop for a week and they look great.

 

[fish.mw.breeder]

Welcome! I hope you get loads of information here! I know I sure have! I am a fish breeder myself so I know how complicated things can be...believe me... This site interested me from the first time I saw it. Ever since (about 2 days), I have been on everyday about 6 times a day... I hope you enjoy~

 

[Scott MacAdam]

Welcome Chris!

This is truly a great site. I'm a breeder too. Working on some african cichlids right now. I check this site all the time and there's not much in the hobby that you can't find out from the stickies or the other members. Best of luck with the new fish!

~Scott

 

[Chris2]

Thanks for the welcome guys. Learn'n something new everyday. I never seen mature green terrors until i seen Proxo's youtube vid of his tank. Amazing colors on them! I would have never guessed...i only see them when they are 1.5" grey/green juvi's.

 

[Proxo]

Thanks for the welcome guys. Learn'n something new everyday. I never seen mature green terrors until i seen Proxo's youtube vid of his tank. Amazing colors on them! I would have never guessed...i only see them when they are 1.5" grey/green juvi's.

he's still got abit of growing to go yet, i'd say he's only about 5inch.

I found them pretty easy to breed when slightly younger, although i've never tried to raise the fry.
They've not bothered breeding for a good 8month now, it's due to my tank layout i think though.

Been thinking about giving it another try and raising the fry but i'd have to move out the tank mates lol.

 

[Chris2]

Thanks for the welcome guys. Learn'n something new everyday. I never seen mature green terrors until i seen Proxo's youtube vid of his tank. Amazing colors on them! I would have never guessed...i only see them when they are 1.5" grey/green juvi's.

he's still got abit of growing to go yet, i'd say he's only about 5inch.

I found them pretty easy to breed when slightly younger, although i've never tried to raise the fry.
They've not bothered breeding for a good 8month now, it's due to my tank layout i think though.

Been thinking about giving it another try and raising the fry but i'd have to move out the tank mates lol.

Your tank looks great with the fish and their behaviors. The coloration on your mail, is wow!

 

[Chris2]

Quick update on the fish. The Mollys either came in with something or the largest female killed everything else. I took a sample from the living molly and looked for the usual suspects, but found nothing. I think the female beat up everybody else, because she looks great and has a great appetite. Anyone know if this is possible though?

The Jewel (hemichromis) cichlids are doing great. I fed worms and all of them ate well. There is one that is pretty beat up from travel that i dont think will be around next week, but i could be wrong. There are two hemichromis that are larger/more aggressive than the rest. Im thinking these are males? Another one had a bit of a pot belly, i think it was from feeding though...but its body was truncated compared to the rest and it seemed to be more robust compared to the other two which are more aggressive.

Still no pair behaviors in any of the hemichromis though. From what i read it will be a few weeks before i start weeding out the "outsiders".

 

[Chris2]

Quick update on the fish:

The jewel pair: Ive been watching the female/male interactions. They are very civil with each other when bonded. They seem to take turns eating, one keeps "a look out" while one grabs a bite...then they switch. The one jewel i have left (in another container, but in view of the pair) has regrown all its finnage in less than a week. Very remarkable given its condition when i separated it from the pair.

As far as differences from male to female (for those who want to know): The female is obviously more vibrantly colored while the male is more subdued. She is a light brown, he is a dark brown. He has a LARGE scale on his gill plate that is black. On the top part of the black is a orange semi-circle, while the bottom part has a yellow semi-circle. The female only has orange on this same scale. The males dorsal fin is taller (it might be because of the size difference between them however), but he does have a different stripe of color. His is red, while the females is more of a red/orange. The female also has a sharper angel of body going up from the anal fin to the tail fin, where the male has a much slighter slope from anal fin to tail fin.

From these observations i have determined my lone jewel is most likely a male, which should make pairing him up easy. If i get time tomorrow, i will try to single out a female jewel from the big group of them at work and see if this is an accurate way to determine males/females.

The Mollys: All died. I think they had a bacterial problem, as the batch i pulled them from had a bad problem with dieing that seemed to stop after a nitro treatment for 2 days. Oh well


Im currently on the look out for some apistogramma sp. or some of those lovely "powder" blue rams i have seen in one LFS near me and also on aquabid.

 

[Scott MacAdam]

Hi Chris,

I was curious about sexing jewel cichlids too and I found this on another site:

"The tail is the key. Females have a red edge and a bit of color on the top of the tail which fades out about half way down to a yellowish gray. Males have a latticework of red and sky blue markings throughout the tail, top to bottom, and in all the way to the body. The difference occurs while the fish are still very young. This is the best way I've found to tell them apart."

Does that match up to your particular fish? I hope this helps you with your hunt for a suitable mate for your other fish.

Best of luck,

-Scott

 

[Chris2]

Thanks Scott, ill make some notes later today and compare them to the fish and see what i get.

 

[Chris2]

Update on my breeding efforts:

Black moscow gups/fry are everywhere! I have about 200 of them at different ages spread over 4 tanks. I still have my powder blue rams, im down to 4 though. I did get a pair around October, but they perished for some unknown reason after i moved them to there own tank. They were eating, the tank was 'old' and the parameters where in line....so no idea what happened with them. Of the 4 i have left, they all eat like pigs (blood worms and brine + NLS pellet) but the 4 have not shown any signs of pairing or aggression.

However, i do have some exciting news! I received a bag of Blue Cobalt discus today, id put there age around 12 months+. They are acclimating now. I should have atleast 5 depending on how they shipped, but it could be as high as 7 (i cant see in the bag right now, its covered in black plastic). Im hoping for a pair of out of this batch within 2-4 months...update to follow