Lamprologus tetracanthus bred

Last night herte in Dayton we had some pretty fierce storms with heavy downpours. The fishroom in my basement was flooding a bit, and I spent a good part of the night mopping up water trying to contain it. Things seemed under control around midnight, so I started turning off all the aquarium lights so I could go to bed, I had to get up early for work today. Then I noticed in the 55 in the corner where I have 2 small tetracanthus, there was a swarm of free swimming fry around the male, kind of took me by surprise. They looked too young to breed. I did have a group of tiny tetracanthus, and gradually I found two that were acting like a pair, and over the summer started removing the others, though a couple of them were killed.

I figured the two remaining ones would breed eventually, but not this quickly. All I had time for was a one take video and one pic, had to get to bed. I'm going out tonight, so I didn't have time to snap more pics yet. It seems that the female has been banished to the other end of the aquarium. I just assume she is the female because she is smaller. Is this typical with tetracanthus? Anyone who's bred them before, please give me advice. I don't know how strong the pair bond is with this species. The female is hiding in rocks, but I don't want her to get thrashed.

Well, I've got to go, I'm late. Here is the last second vid I quickly shot last night minutes after I made the discovery. http://www.vimeo.com/6188898

my one pic (so far)

Got home at 2:42 am. The fry are gone. They're all gone. Wish I would have siphoned off a few while I had the chance. Oh well.

At least the male and female are back together, they seem to be doing well, hopefully they'll be at it again soon. Fed them some frozen mysis tonight. I know these fish can have huge spawns, upwards of 1000 for a fully grown pair, which these are not.

gomezladdams;3405070; said:

Congrats on the spawn!Not an easy species to breed but usually any cichlid will do it again once they pair off.Nice going.

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Thanks! Hopefully next time I'll get a chance to siphon off some of the free swimming fry. Maybe I freaked out the parents by taking pictures.

They finally bred again! Just noticed a cloud of free swimming fry late tonight. Smaller than the last batch. Gotta go to bed and go to work in the morning. After I get home I want to try to suction some off while I get a chance.

I did manage to pick off about 10-15 with the siphon, got them in 30 gallon long. Took some pics of the parents, but I suck at taking pics, and the parents were darting around so much it was hard for my camera to get focused on them long enough to snap a pic. I did take some though, I'll look at them and see if there are any worthy of posting. I will post at least a couple no matter how bad they are. Oh, and thre are still a lot of fry left with the parents, so they can continue guarding them.