T.meeki pair with their first brood

[Tripping Willow 91]

My firemouth pair with their first brood, this was also their first spawn, they've been excellent parents and very protective. The fry have been out free swimming for 4 days now, the parents have moved them from one end to the other and back again. Their numbers are reducing and I don't suspect any will make it but its nice to see and the parents look stunning in breeding dress

 

[Ogertron3000]

An under rated classic fish

 

[Tripping Willow 91]

An under rated classic fish

For sure, they're a great cichlid!

They stay fairly small, aren't overly aggressive, work really well as a group, brilliant in a biotope/natural style scape and you don't need a massive tank.

There's a lot of washed out, overbred stock over here in the uk but after a lot of searching I found these beauties and they have the most amazing neon blue spangling.

I'd recommend them to anyone

 

[Ogertron3000]

For sure, they're a great cichlid!

They stay fairly small, aren't overly aggressive, work really well as a group, brilliant in a biotope/natural style scape and you don't need a massive tank.

There's a lot of washed out, overbred stock over here in the uk but after a lot of searching I found these beauties and they have the most amazing neon blue spangling.

I'd recommend them to anyone

I havent kept them for a long time, here in australia we have some very poor inbred specimens but it might be worth tracking some down.
How many would be best , i had 3 and 2 were always chasing 1, when i took the picked on fish out they started fighting each other.

 

[Tripping Willow 91]

I havent kept them for a long time, here in australia we have some very poor inbred specimens but it might be worth tracking some down.
How many would be best , i had 3 and 2 were always chasing 1, when i took the picked on fish out they started fighting each other.

It's a similar situation over here in the UK. I've had this tank running since jan 2022. To end up with my current 7 meeki, I've actually purchased 18 juveniles from 4 different shops. I let juveniles grow, kept the best and rehomed the worst. I ended up with a few nice fish but 1 really stood above the rest, even at 1" he was a looker, he's the male in my phototos. After 6 months I decided I needed more, I went back to the shop bought the 6 they had, kept them in quarantine for 8weeks and then rehomed my best of the bunch meeki.

I've heard a lot of stories of bullying when kept in small numbers. From my limited experience they seem to do better slightly crowded, my young fish have definitely shown less aggression when kept in higher numbers. I previously had 8meeki, 2 had spawns at the same time, I didn't have any issues, both pairs kept to their nesting corners and didn't stray far. At one point I had 13 fish in my tank and it was kinda boring, not much flairing or chasing.

The scape is very important, you're gonna need a lot of sight breaks and little areas to claim as territory and hide away. Also it depends on the individual fish, the male in the pic is the most aggressive/defensive with his fry that I've kept, he's had the other 5 fish hiding in the back corner and he's now chased the female off the brood. I think this is because he's a lot bigger and older than the others, he's 14months and they're only 10months. Once they're bigger I don't think they'll retreat from his charges so much