Oh What A Night!

[Wills]

So the past few weeks two of my Laetacara started to loom like they were pairing up and tonight... I came home to a cluster of eggs. So quite chuffed that they actually bred, especially in my rock hard water... BUT they went absolutely mental!! I was expecting them to be as calm as anything but they took over about a third of the tank and were doing damage to fish much bigger than them selves!
 
Luckily for me I was able to get in touch with Liam2368 who shot round to the rescue with a spare filter and media and then went home and came back with a small heater! So I transfered the eggs and the breeding male to a spare temporary tank I have on hand across the room, then the sub male started pestering the breeding female who looked like she had calmed down so that worried me... but then the breeding female went back to where her eggs were and then went mental again so she came out and Liam took her with him (hes taking the male as well in a few days when he has calmed down and if he looks after the eggs)
 
Then lastly when the breeding female was removed the sub male started chasing the sub female that was left so once again Liam came to the rescue and has taken the sub male tonight for his show tank, leaving me with the little sub female.
 
Fingers crossed that is all the drama for my tank over!
 
Lesson learned is that I do not add any more cichlids to my tank! 2 biggies, 6 littlies and that is me done! I dont have the nerve or the time to cater for breeding fish. And any risk to my Severum or Threadfin is just a 0% policy in the future.
 
Second lesson learned is that Liam is an absolute legend and I will always be grateful for his help tonight, without him dashing in and helping I would have lost at least one fish tonight!
 
Wills

 

[DrRob]

Sounds like an interesting evening. Thank the Lord for friends like Liam.

 

[Chad]

That's really cool. Can you take a picture?

 

[SouthernCross]

Would love to see some pics of them in breeding dress!

 

[star4]

Glad you managed to get sorted with no casualties are you raising the eggs by hand?

 

[Wills]

Im afraid I was panicking way too much to get any pictures. I put the eggs in with the male last night as he was guarding them the longest - unfortunately it looks like he has eaten the eggs today - they were there this morning but by lunch time they were gone.
 
The good news is like I say Liam is taking both the female and the male, the male is still calming down in my small tank atm so they will potentially breed in the future as he will hopefully be able to give them a tank to themselves. 
 
Its just unfortunate I dont have the time or tanks to breed properly as I would love to, I am quite chuffed that they bred in my tank but I just never expected the levels of aggression both the males and females were putting out. They were fine with non cichlids, my headstanders, tetras and flagtail catfish could pretty much look at the eggs on the rock before being gently nudged back. Where as if a cichlid came within 2ish foot of the eggs the Laetacaras were straight out in full breeding colours and chased the fish off and if they ddint move they took very powerful (for their size) swipes and bites at the fish both my Severum and my Threadfin (both over 8 inches compared to the Laetacaras max 4 for the male 3 for the female) both Lilly and Ted have a few scars this morning but I am hoping that they will heal up well enough.
 
Once Liam has the pair set up I will try and encourage him to post some pics And once my tank has settled down a bit more I'll finally post some more of mine!
 
Wills

 

[Liam2368]

Only just seen this lol


Just happy to help a fellow cichlidiot out