Gold Severum eggs hatching - help

[cowgirluntamed]

Just curious, I'm not trying to be mean or anything....but do you have a plan on what to do with the fry down the road if they survive? I read all the time about people being excited and wanting to "save the babies" that they weren't expecting. Not saying this is you, by the way. Lol. But do you have a place for them to grow out? (You've mentioned a tank not set up so assuming you may get one ready.) Do you have a place to take them once they are grown out? An lfs to sell/trade them to or an option to sell/give then away when they grow out? This is what I see alot of people not thinking about. For myself, I won't be trying to breed anything no matter if I ever see fry or not because I don't have a place to take them afterwards. So for me, I would let nature take its course in the tank. Hopefully you may already have a plan though so good luck with them!

 

[Angela’s fish]

Just curious, I'm not trying to be mean or anything....but do you have a plan on what to do with the fry down the road if they survive? I read all the time about people being excited and wanting to "save the babies" that they weren't expecting. Not saying this is you, by the way. Lol. But do you have a place for them to grow out? (You've mentioned a tank not set up so assuming you may get one ready.) Do you have a place to take them once they are grown out? An lfs to sell/trade them to or an option to sell/give then away when they grow out? This is what I see alot of people not thinking about. For myself, I won't be trying to breed anything no matter if I ever see fry or not because I don't have a place to take them afterwards. So for me, I would let nature take its course in the tank. Hopefully you may already have a plan though so good luck with them!

No offense taken at all!! In this instance I want to put the fry in tank I am setting up this weekend!! I actually never intended to breed them...it’s never happened before so I just didn’t know what to do. In this case I will keep the babies in the 80 gallon I set up and maybe seek or even give them to the specialty aquarium store if I find the tank is too small. I will confess I am one of those odd balls (and well aware it is unreasonable and not logical that can often put human emotions on animals so when the first 2-3 batches of eggs were eaten I worried that the pair were stressed and sad or at the very least had some anxiety about it (again well aware this is likely not an emotion they were feeling lol. So I have separated and kept this batch but will not do it again because I don’t have the space...I do have another 50 gallon...but it is all tiny fish that are not suitable tank mates. I am a bit of an aquarium hound over here to the dismay of my kids and family who all like them but are not as big of fans as me in any case that’s my plan...I am setting the tank up this weekend...work has kept me too busy weekdays to do it and I have also realized these fry are way too little to move anyways (I don’t know this just assuming!!) with regards to this next batch that have been laid...I won’t keep them and let nature run it’s course but it’s more the aggressive nature of this male that bothers me...he is huge too...like 9 inches maybe?? He is by far my favorite fish but he is doing the strong mating male dominant shaking behavior all over the place and chasing off all other fish!! My poor blue acara and geo are just hiding now! Again likely they are fine but I am feeling sad for them and it seems to be jarring my tank balance!!

 

[Angela’s fish]

No offense taken at all!! In this instance I want to put the fry in tank I am setting up this weekend!! I actually never intended to breed them...it’s never happened before so I just didn’t know what to do. In this case I will keep the babies in the 80 gallon I set up and maybe seek or even give them to the specialty aquarium store if I find the tank is too small. I will confess I am one of those odd balls (and well aware it is unreasonable and not logical that can often put human emotions on animals so when the first 2-3 batches of eggs were eaten I worried that the pair were stressed and sad or at the very least had some anxiety about it (again well aware this is likely not an emotion they were feeling lol. So I have separated and kept this batch but will not do it again because I don’t have the space...I do have another 50 gallon...but it is all tiny fish that are not suitable tank mates. I am a bit of an aquarium hound over here to the dismay of my kids and family who all like them but are not as big of fans as me in any case that’s my plan...I am setting the tank up this weekend...work has kept me too busy weekdays to do it and I have also realized these fry are way too little to move anyways (I don’t know this just assuming!!) with regards to this next batch that have been laid...I won’t keep them and let nature run it’s course but it’s more the aggressive nature of this male that bothers me...he is huge too...like 9 inches maybe?? He is by far my favorite fish but he is doing the strong mating male dominant shaking behavior all over the place and chasing off all other fish!! My poor blue acara and geo are just hiding now! Again likely they are fine but I am feeling sad for them and it seems to be jarring my tank balance!!

Also there are only maybe 6-7 fry that I think will make it and appear strong. There are a few others but they seem super tiny and weaker.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

No offense taken at all!! In this instance I want to put the fry in tank I am setting up this weekend!! I actually never intended to breed them...it’s never happened before so I just didn’t know what to do. In this case I will keep the babies in the 80 gallon I set up and maybe seek or even give them to the specialty aquarium store if I find the tank is too small. I will confess I am one of those odd balls (and well aware it is unreasonable and not logical that can often put human emotions on animals so when the first 2-3 batches of eggs were eaten I worried that the pair were stressed and sad or at the very least had some anxiety about it (again well aware this is likely not an emotion they were feeling lol. So I have separated and kept this batch but will not do it again because I don’t have the space...I do have another 50 gallon...but it is all tiny fish that are not suitable tank mates. I am a bit of an aquarium hound over here to the dismay of my kids and family who all like them but are not as big of fans as me in any case that’s my plan...I am setting the tank up this weekend...work has kept me too busy weekdays to do it and I have also realized these fry are way too little to move anyways (I don’t know this just assuming!!) with regards to this next batch that have been laid...I won’t keep them and let nature run it’s course but it’s more the aggressive nature of this male that bothers me...he is huge too...like 9 inches maybe?? He is by far my favorite fish but he is doing the strong mating male dominant shaking behavior all over the place and chasing off all other fish!! My poor blue acara and geo are just hiding now! Again likely they are fine but I am feeling sad for them and it seems to be jarring my tank balance!!

Awesome! Glad you have thought it out and that you are thinking of them first. I wish I had a store that would even just take fry because then I could at least do a guppy or platy tank like I want! Lol. Oh well. Maybe one day!

As for the male, I know in talking with Byron about space issues with different fish....if they don't have the appropriate space, it can make fish more aggressive. So hopefully if you can give them the whole tank again soon maybe he will settle down? You did sort of kick him out of his territory after all. Lol.

 

[Wills]

What kinds of fish do you have??

I have a 135g tank and Im keeping a group of Cryptoheros Nanoluteus with some Mexican Mollies at the moment, as well as a few older fish that I have had a while - a couple of Flagtail Catfish and some Annostomus Ternetzi. I want to add some more fish to the tank but not sure what yet and I dont want to disturb the Nanos as they are quite timid fish really.

Meanwhile the parents in the other side of the tank, still separated, have just laid an entire other batch of eggs!!! Is this normal?? Should I do anything? The male is acting quite hostile and they are obviously in a smaller tank size since I have separated the fry....I am worried about my other fish too. Is this laying cycle normal?? I have still not set up my other tank - I just have not had the time. Do you recommend that?? Sorry to bug you again!!!

Dont worry about bugging

The tricky part of having breeding cichlids is managing the male, the fact they are breeding well is good but you just have to watch the aggression around other fish but also having other fish in the tank could help spread the aggression out.

Where are the fish now, sorry I got a bit confused as to where they all are lol! If you want to keep breeding them

I would put the pair in their own tank and build a community around them. Potentially make them the only cichlids in there and give them the bottom of the tank so no catfish or loaches etc. A group of big tetras like bleeding hearts or something similar, maybe some Silver Hatchets for the top? You could look at some sort of headstander group as well, I have had a group of Annostomus Ternetzi in the past and they were great, Im down to 2 now and they still get on well. Or you have the Spotted or Marbled Headstanders, all of them need to be in a group but you get a good mix of shapes and colours between them. Having the schools of fish with the Severums should give your male enough distractions to not be too hard on the female. Some of the tetras will help you keep down the Severum population as well, especially if they keep breeding as much as yours. Your BGK might be ok as well, but to do this sort of tank I would want you to do this in your 140g and move the others to the 80, though I would personally rehome the Bala Sharks which I know is tough when you have had fish for a few years but I feel it would be for the best.

Which type of Geo do you have? Is it a 'Surinamensis' type, 'Braziliensis' type, or 'Stiendachnari' type? If it is a Surinamensis type they will do much better in a group and I would worry as an adult would out grow the 80g unless it is something like a Geophagus Pindare or Geophagus sp.Tapajo Red Head.

I think now it would be a good idea to look at your tanks and try and work out what you want to keep and how to best accommodate those fishes needs, eg now the cichlids are approaching full adult size and sexual maturity can they all be kept together in a way that gives them a good quality of life? And are all of your schooling and gregarious fish in big enough schools? Having the schooling fish in good numbers is important on 2 fronts, firstly so the schooling fish feel safe and their natural instincts to be in a group are satisfied and secondly for your cichlids, they will gain confidence around bigger schools as the bigger fish will always look to the small fish to judge how safe an area is, so to fish like your Sevs, no small fish or few small fish kicks off an instinct that there could be predators around and places a level of stress on them.

Hope that helps

Wills

 

[Colin_T]

Your severums are just a young pair that are still learning how to be parents. Most cichlids will eat the eggs the first few times. Then when the eggs hatch and the fry wriggle the parents think yummy, live food and eat them. This can happen 4, 5 even 6 or more times. But they usually work it out after 3 or 4 attempts.

The parents should be left to care for the young because the young that are reared by parents will normally rear their own young when they are older and breed. Fish that have not been reared by their parents are usually bad parents that eat their eggs and young all the time.

If you remove the eggs or fry from the breeding pair, the will usually breed again within a week or two.

The fry should be fed on newly hatched brineshrimp, which you can hatch out quite easily in a small container of salt water.

Do not breed too many cichlids because they are not big sellers and you will be left with hundreds that you can't find homes for. Keep 10-20 nice healthy good sized young and trade them in at the petshop for some food or whatever you need. Most pet shops will take them when they are about an inch or two long.