Lionheads Breeding

[barrycuda]

i have a couple of lionhead cichlids, they live in a shipwreck ornament. i used a torch to look inside the ornament and discovered that they have eggs in there. one lionhead is about a third of the size of the big one. the eggs are right in the bow of the ship and im not sure if the big one would be able to fit in there to fertilize the eggs. the eggs are yellow and look like large caterpillar eggs. anyone experienced with these?

 

[barrycuda]

ok i found a photo on the internet and the eggs do look yellow aswell so i think mine are normal.

 

[england]

hi mate, lion heads....iam guessing they are Steatocranus casuarius...which the male is much bigger than the female usually with a large lump on the forehead..they do not have large batches sometimes as low as 20eggs, eggs usually take about one week to hatch and it takes another week before the fry is free swimming.
Good luck with it, i would leave them to get on with it, if it does not work, provide them with a big choice of sutibally sized caves for next time

ps you would be better in oldworld cichlids section

 

[barrycuda]

thanks , yeah the male is much bigger and has big lump on forehead, kina looks like that alien from the alien movies eggs are quite large and like you say a smaller batch. hope they hatch.

 

[england]

yep fingers crossed for you mate, are there any other fish in the tank?, if you get to free swiiming fry stage there is something called deshelled brine shrimp eggs on ebay,costs around 2.50-3 pounds....perfect stuff and the bag lasts i still have half a bag after bringing up around 100 babie snakeheads on the stuff, cheap as chips

 

[barrycuda]

only a chinese algae eater and some zebra danios. i will move the danios to the other tank when the eggs hatch.

 

[razer121]

cool, keep us posted i want to see this...

 

[barrycuda]

here in the left ship they live

 

[barrycuda]

i decided to take the shipwreck out of the water and take a proper look at the eggs in there. she put them right in the bow of the ship where the big male cant fit in there to fertilize the eggs. these fish are first time breeders so she is probably not the smartest fish by laying the eggs where he cant reach them lol.