getting in the mood to raise some fry...

[piranha45]

I have a texas + urophthalmus pair, and a jack dempsey pair.

The JD pair won't breed; the female has never laid eggs, despite the fact that they've gone through the breeding ritual (jawlocking, aggressive swimming, etc) several times. I personally think the female is unable to lay eggs (if she even has any) due to genetic problems. This has been quite a frustrating experience for the male, and consequently this pair has undergone much intermarital strife... its a good thing they're in a 200g, or one would have likely killed the other by now. The female is 6", I've kept her for 26 months, since she was 2". The male is about 6.5", got him at 2.5" about 20 months ago.

The texas x uro pair will almost certainly breed though, if i keep upping their diet. They haven't been getting fed very often (once every 3 days or so) till the past 2 weeks. I figure if I feed them twice a day the female will pop out some eggs once more. They've had 2-3 successful spawns in days long past, but I was either disinclined to keep the fry alive, or they cannibalized one another to utter extinction and then I'd lose the remaining specimen via jumping.

This time around, the texas (9-10") and uro (7") will be in a 55g with 2 4" scolofi mbuna. The scolofi mbuna will serve as dithers, to keep the parents' aggression focused on the scolofi rather than (potentially) on each other. I think they will do a fine job of raising the fry, and I doubt the scolofi will even have enough free time to beat on each other (they do this alot), let alone be concerned with eating fry. The female uro loves terrorizing them as it is.

I'll keep this thread posted on the status of this project.

[redtailfool]

What are u feeding your breeders right now?

Good luck!

[piranha45]

kensfish floating pellets, occasional guppies

[nick]

live feeding (worms and crickets) should do the trick , keep crayfiash (small UNDER 1INCH) every day , this will give them something to hunt and constantly eat

[piranha45]

i cant keep fish food in the freezer due to parents, so no worms. Crickets are a ****ing hassle, you have to sit there and wait for the fish to eat them all every time, or you risk letting them crawl out and escape.

if i had a source of cheap crayfish, i would totlaly stock up on those. As it stands, I don't though...

[rayman45]

nick i told you
whats good with them crayfish

buy some cheap schooling fish
i have neon 50+ in my gator tank
and i got 10 gaint dainos for my sh tank

[piranha45]

neons and giant danios sell for 99 cents each around here. pretty expensive. better to just stick with 10cent guppies.

[rayman45]

umm
i got mine for 25 each
the danios were a buck each

my gators and turtles can catch them neons tho

[redtailfool]

need worms to condition those mamas for breeding. Feeders should be good though. Live foods is the way to go for conditioning.

[nick]

i have a couple hundred small nightcrawlers and trout worms along with a nice supply of crayfish , tell me what size and il hollaer at ya (30 cents each) they will probably be the best seller in my nicks natives


i give discoutns (buy 20 get 5 free buy 100 get 30 free) shipping = 6.00 flat fee for p to 130 crayfish

[iheartfishies]

i cant keep fish food in the freezer due to parents, so no worms. Crickets are a ****ing hassle, you have to sit there and wait for the fish to eat them all every time, or you risk letting them crawl out and escape.

if i had a source of cheap crayfish, i would totlaly stock up on those. As it stands, I don't though...
What the ****....you can't keep frozed food?
Now Crickets, I could understand them not wanting those in your house....or live meal worms in the fridge, but Frozen food!!Weird.
Buy a effin Mini fridge.
****, I'll send you my extra one, I don't ever use it.

[piranha45]

oh thank god, no more worries there, angela's gonna cross-country her minifridge over to me :P

[iheartfishies]

Eff you snook.

I would. :mad:

You ungrateful b*stard.

[sleepyflight]

From my experience....its all about the male and female totally accepting each other. The live food trick hasn't worked, but giving a diff. male or female for them to pick from has. If they're in a tank all alone, try putting in something hearty that they can kinda bond with against it. That one has worked. Everything that's bred for me has been just one pellets. But I've also seen what looked like breeding ritual but it was also just m/f trying to reject the other politely. If you really wanna get froggy....a ur. or carp. bred with a dempsy looks awsome.

[piranha45]

agreed, here's a pic of someone's octocyanofasciatum :grinyes: wish it was mine :(

[piranha45]

Well my pair indulged on 6 1" tinfoil barbs. Hope they liked the $12 meal. Didn't even last them over a day. And they had guppies just a few hours prior.

[Phtstrat]

You aren't worried about the Pseudotropheus eating the fry?

Or are you assuming that the parents will take care of them if they come too close?

[piranha45]

we'll see if/when they breed... the scolofi have a hard enough time moving as it is; the female uro spends much of her time harassing them already.

[piranha45]

I noticed this morning that my uro was fairly listless, and not attempting to feed. Gave her a looking over, she has frayed fins and missing scales.

Texas must've flipped out on her... which is sort of odd, because the texas is (and has been) exhibiting no breeding coloration whatsoever. The texas is looking fine and dandy, otherwise.

The uro's still pretty weak and in hiding now, not sure if the texas intends to wipe her out or what, though he hasn't shown any aggression to her in front of me. I'm not particularly attached to her, though I would have certainly enjoyed some tex+uro fry. I'd separate her into my 10g if I had a great interest in her, but as it stands my 10g is housing some flagfish that I'd like to breed, and I'd rather sacrifice her than them.

I've noticed the 55g is exhibiting an uncharacteristically fishy smell; I suspect its the result of the excess/lost slime coat of the uro, since I did a 90% water change yesterday.

[piranha45]

yeah she's in total hiding, looks like she's a goner. So much for this project.

when she dies, I think I'm gonna plop in a 4" female JD and see how that goes.

[piranha45]

she bit the dust. The texas seems very pleased about it. 8" TL, about 6.75" SL. I opened her mouth up, checked out the teeth lining her jaw, they weren't very big... about on par with an inspection i made on a dead JD a year and a half back. I looked deep inside her mouth.... cichlids' pharyngeal jaws are always impressive.

gonna have to do another water change on the 55g already, she sure smelled up the tank in her time of stress.



a shame i don't have a digital camera on me

[e!o!z!]

Man your one twisted sick guy, I like that in a person

[piranha45]

too bad I have to take so much crap from other people for it tho :\