how to limit eggs

pigman723

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 14, 2012
97
0
6
GA
Soo i need advice, i made the 500 an african rift lake tank. Now question being how do i stop them from over populating? As of now i see two set of babies.
 

wrslrcichlid

Candiru
MFK Member
Aug 27, 2011
596
2
48
Battle Creek, MI
The only solution to keep the fish from mating is male only, but in my experience there are a few things you can do to keep the tank from overpopulation (without just scooping out fish and selling/disposing of them).

Having catfish (pictus and other varieties) in the tank helps with keeping juvenile populations down. They are great hunters, especially when they have not been fed in a while. This leads to my second suggestion. Any time I want juveniles to be culled, I just don't feed the tank for a few days (maybe even a week or two). As the fish become hungry they look for other food sources - the juveniles. Doing this, my tanks are basically juvenile free in a matter of days.
 

Mr.Manaconda

Candiru
MFK Member
Nov 9, 2008
256
8
48
Atlanta, GA
Yep, she's holding. You have a couple choices with keeping population down other than male only. 1. Let the adults thin them out as suggested earlier (maybe introduce a specialized fish eater that's too small to eat your adults for better efficiency) 2. Manually collect them (siphon them out at a small size or strip the holding females before they spit) and use them for store credit at your LFS.
 

justarn

Arapaima
MFK Member
May 24, 2011
8,732
3,348
203
40
Kent UK
african pike will sort em out!-) that will keep with the african theme too!
 
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