Finally A Neolamprologus Brichardi Tank!

[Fish Guy]

I finally got 10 Juvi Brichardi for my 55g. They are very hard to come by where I am from and when you do they are very expensive. But I found someone that has been breeding them for sometime now, so I got 10 juvis from him. They are all around 2" some a little less. Hoping I will get some pairs form and finally get the colony I have always wanted going. I have kept them before but in a tang. community tank. I got dark beach sand, lots of rocks of course, 4-5 bunchs of java fern, and 3 moss balls. I added the moss balls as they are pretty cool and they would provide a good source of infurosia for any young fry. I'll try to get some pics soon and update on any breeding activity.

 

[kiriyama]

I finally got 10 Juvi Brichardi for my 55g. They are very hard to come by where I am from and when you do they are very expensive. But I found someone that has been breeding them for sometime now, so I got 10 juvis from him. They are all around 2" some a little less. Hoping I will get some pairs form and finally get the colony I have always wanted going. I have kept them before but in a tang. community tank. I got dark beach sand, lots of rocks of course, 4-5 bunchs of java fern, and 3 moss balls. I added the moss balls as they are pretty cool and they would provide a good source of infurosia for any young fry. I'll try to get some pics soon and update on any breeding activity.

Shame you don't live nearer, I know someone who has had several spawns from his Brichardi and is running out of fry tanks
A pic. of the tank would be nice

 

[Fish Guy]

Yes, I'll have to try and get some pics of them. I'll be away until the 13th or so, then I should get a chance to get some pics.
I have been trying to give them a good varied diet.I have been giving them flakes,brineshrimp,glassworms and mysis shrimp. They seem to like it all, I know they are not a picky cichlid anyway.

 

[minnnt]

This sounds awesome Fish Guy. Can't wait to see the tank

 

[Jinkz]

I finally got 10 Juvi Brichardi for my 55g. They are very hard to come by where I am from and when you do they are very expensive. But I found someone that has been breeding them for sometime now, so I got 10 juvis from him. They are all around 2" some a little less. Hoping I will get some pairs form and finally get the colony I have always wanted going. I have kept them before but in a tang. community tank. I got dark beach sand, lots of rocks of course, 4-5 bunchs of java fern, and 3 moss balls. I added the moss balls as they are pretty cool and they would provide a good source of infurosia for any young fry. I'll try to get some pics soon and update on any breeding activity.

If you lived near me you could have stopped by with a big net and a bucket and helped yourself....think I have about 120 fry now

It's getting completely out of hand with the amount of fry now....so decided that I'm gonna take a couple of days off next month, strip all the rocks out the tank, catch the adults and remove them and leave only the fry for a while till they get to around the 3cm size, then get them out also and trade them at the local fish shops. I love Brichardis but they breed non stop and are also aggresive as hell against others in the tank. They killed my Julies and even my shellies have a hard time with them...so despite me loving them, they're going. I didn't start a tangs tank for it to turn into a species tank....badly want Cyps but no way I'm risking putting anything else in the tank till I get it stripped.

 

[Fish Guy]

It is too bad. It took me almost three months to track down some Brichardi. I asked several LFS, but no luck at all. But as I mentioned, I was contacted by someone very much like yourself Jinkz who had been overrun by fry and juvis. I shouldn't have any problem getting rid of the fry as Brichardi are so hard to get here. I'm hoping the aggression won't be too bad as it is just a species tank.

 

[Fish Guy]

Just home from 3 weeks of work, to find my Brichardi have bred. It seems to be three pairs have formed. Not sure how old the fry are, all three broods are fry swimming and seem to be doing good. I am going to start my BBS tomorrow and get the fry fattend up. I'll try to get some pics of the tank and the fry, when I figure out how to post the pics.

 

[Jinkz]

Just home from 3 weeks of work, to find my Brichardi have bred. It seems to be three pairs have formed. Not sure how old the fry are, all three broods are fry swimming and seem to be doing good. I am going to start my BBS tomorrow and get the fry fattend up. I'll try to get some pics of the tank and the fry, when I figure out how to post the pics.

Congrats...you're going to be very overrun with fry soon

They grow very slowly to be honest and mum and dad take great care of them, to the detriment to any other species in the tank with them. Not a prob in your case as you have a species tank so you'll be fine. What I found with mine is that even though of 5 adults only two paired off, the 3 "unmarried" adults who occupy the opposite side to my breeding pair now take care of something like a dozen of the more mature fry who have migrated to the opposite side of the tank. My breeding pair have now given me 3 broods of fry, so I'm looking at something like 80 or so fry now which is more than enough for a 300ltr tank. Will be stripping all rockwork very soon to net the adults as they're going back to the LFS. I'll then let the fry grow out a bit to 3cm or so and net and distribute them also among the LFS's in the area.

Btw, I feed mine with everything to be honest. They're really not fussy. I've given them frozen brine shrimp, bloodworm and daphnia, crushed flake, small pellets a local breeder gave me and also artemia and they've munched it all. They even have a go at the algae flakes I drop in for my pleco

The Brichardi is a gorgeous fish but they're extremely territorial when breeding and mine have killed my julies and relentlessly bully a much larger pleco to the extent that half the tank is full of algae because the pleco can't even get the peace he deserves to do a bit of hoovering

 

[Fish Guy]

I started feeding the fry BBS this morning. They all have full red bellies now, still hard to say their age though. From the looks of it I would say 1 week. Because the fry are at the bottom of the tank I am using a syringe with a 24" piece of air line tubing attached to squirt the BBS down near the bottom. The parents seem to love eating the BBS as well, so at least there are none going to waste. It is certainly different for me to see more then one brood of cichlid fry in a tank and no one fighting. Their colony behavior certainly is showing.