one for danny

[wotfish?]

hi danny,
i also keep lots of vics, i have 2 males and 1 female lipochromis parvidens red, they are just over a year old and about 5" but not bred yet, i cant find anymore anywhere in the uk, as i wanted to add more females.
can you give me some advice on getting them to breed please. should i take out one of the males? they are not aggressive to the female at all.

many thanks

sue

 

[Danny - the lost soul---]

Hi Sue,
First question?
What size tank are they in now and how much cover ( plants,caves,rocks)

This species gets pretty big and can be pretty aggressive. they are a Piscavore and will eat anything it can fit into it's mouth.
My adults are about 5-6" on the largest male. they were pretty hard to breed at first but eventually started up like bunnies.

I keep a group of 3 females to 1 male in a 55 gallon tank housed with about 10 cheap rainbows. I originaly had another victorian Piscavore housed with them but the battles got bad.
They seem to breed better and more frequent when there are other fish present IME.

Mine are on a variety of foods. they get feeder guppies ( which I raise out back in a small pond NOT store bought ) ghost shrimp, fry that are culled out, chopped earth worms, white worms and spirulina.
To get them conditioned to breed I would at least beef up the live foods BUT KEEP IN MIND the high protien count in live foods.

I would feed about 2-3 small guppies per fish DO NOT just dump a bag full and try to avoid pet store bought ones. If you have no other options and must get pet store ones be sure to treat them for pasrasites as a percaution.
Medicate the feeders for a good 5 days to assure that you don't pass on any parasites they may have. BUT PLEASE be carefull as to NOT over feed live foods and cut back on flakes / pellets. It is VERY important that they have a well balanced diet.

I would STRONGLY suggest removing the extra male because when the female is ready to spawn both males are going to fight over breeding rights and the female will also get the brunt of the dispute.
In some cases I have to seperate the females and re-introduce them when they are about ready and egg tube is slightly viss. With a pair to work with I would be extremly carefull cause they can and will get aggressive for the most part. If you decide to seperate the female be sure you introduce the male into her tank and not vise versa. If you remove her and then introduce her with the male chances are she will be beat to a pulp.
When removing a fish for breeding purposes you want to remove the male and when the female isd ready introduce the male into the tank the female is in. Now, sometimes this backfires and the female must be removed because she has now taken over and wants no part of the funny stuff instead she may want to assure it's her turf. Anytime you use the remove a fish method you MUST watch them for the first couple hours to assure that niether fish is getting overly abused by it's mate.

At that size you should have no problem getting them to breed. As long as they are properly conditoned and the female isn't taking a beating prior to breeding. IME I found that with them if the female has been roughed up prior the chances of her not going full term increase.
They have large spawns, an adult female 5" can produce up to 40+ fry. My biggest spawn was 41 fry from an old grandma breeder. ( no longer with us .

Fry mature in roughly 14-16 days depending on water temp. Once fry swimming parents MUST be removed. Young fry can eat crushed flake food till they mature enough at which point chopped worms,ghost shrimpand or flake food mixed will do them wonders.

Alright enough rambling,

Live foods for conditioning
plenty of cover for holding female
dither fish or less aggressive tank mates ( rainbows work well)
water temp roughly 78* - 88* ( i am in Florida it's HOT ! )
weekly water changes and when they seem about ready do a partial water change this time dropping or raising the temp by about 3 degress. This will encourage them to breed also. But if raising the temp be sure NOT to make a real drastic change or you may encourage an ich outbreak. But as long as you DO NOT drop / raise the temp to much you should do okay.

Think I covered most my grounds ? O, here's a picture of the adults about 3 months after I got them. female at right bottom is holding and produced exactly 37 fry.


Good luck and Please feel free to yell across the pond if you need more help.

danny

sorry couldn't add picture but I will put one up in the picture section under the same picture post I have already started if it's not there already.

 

[cichlidmaster]

I have moved this topic here........



Thought it would get more exposure. Guess it could have went into the breeding forum, but oh well....

We need for all to get a better intro into Victorian cichlids and this was avery good start.

CM

 

[wotfish?]

hi danny,
they are in a 40gal tank on there own. there is lots of rocks and plants.
There is no fighting none have even a mark on the fin.
I dont like the idea of feeding live fish, what other food could i use to condition them?
At the moment they get some bloodworm occasionally and flake. they also like algae wafers for the plec. i tried ghost shrimp but they dont bother with them, so i have some big shrimp in there tank as well




thanks for any help

p.s. ive just had 40 ruby green fry produced, and about 40 xenognathus.

 

[Danny - the lost soul---]

Hummmmmm, no live fish .... well, white worms are great but sometimes hard to find. The Bloodworms are okay BUT as long as they are VERY, VERY well rinsed and not any dead or dieing ones are fed.
I am sure you are aware that nloodworms are pretty nasty critters. The are very high in protien and if not fed properly can cause bloat.
Just in case I had to mention it.

I am surprised they didn't like the shrimp. Mine love the shrimp but I also snap of the horn to assure they do not choke.

Earth worms chopped up are a great source of conditioning food again fed in moderation. These are your regular fishing worms which can be dug up outside or bought at any bait store. These you can chop up and mix eith some flake food. It is a nasty process but your fish will love you for it.

If they are getting along I would suggest leaving them anfd just watch them good when they are about ready to assure that the female nor the less dominant male doesn't get the fins beat out of them.
Mine are tempermental ones sometimes not so aggressive other times they are like mad fish.

They are have the freeze dried shrimp but the only thing here is you want to soak them prior so they will not swell up in the fishes belly.
I take it the main resson you do not want to feeed fishies is because you do not want to see other fishies die ? I totaly understand and do not blame you. Unfortionetly I have little choice due to the amount of fish eating fish I keep. Wish there was a vegetarian alternative to feeders. ROTFLMAO.. ToFu feeders....... LOLOLOL...

Danny

 

[wotfish?]

hi danny,
no i am not against feeding live fish if its necessary, but i had a pair of convicts breeding loads for exactly that reason, but even when i put their fry in for the parvidens they didnt even chase them!!!! So i then had to try and catch them back out after a month.
I have a large male green terror who is terrified of any other fish!
Must be in my water, my fish are all wimps
Well almost all, do you find your ruby greens very aggressive? i have a male and 6 females and he has them pinned in the corner, i have to take him out into the naughty boys tank for a week to give the girls a break.
will try the earthworms,(well will get hubby to chop them ) even tho i go carp fishing i cant cut up anything while its alive. talking of fishing, what about the maggots you fish with?
They do eat prawns and mussels as well.

sue

 

[Danny - the lost soul---]

Yeap they will. LOLOL I tried feeding convicts before and NO ONE ate them. shhhhhhhhhh don't tell Maggie. LOL

try the guppies they should chomp them. If they are not indeed wimps. Wimpy Piscavores... thats a first, mine are like hogs when it comes to feeders or SMALL goldfish.
Danny