CA/SA Cichlid Fry Growing Tecniques????

[JK47]

Great ideas guys but I personally prefer keeping fry with the parents for 4-6 weeks before removing. There are pros and cons to both ideas. My strategy depends on the individual pair. With some pairs you just have to remove fry immediately. Fortunately I haven't had that problem yet. Here are some of the pros for my strategy; first it helps strengthen the pairs bond, all the fry I've kept with the parents grow faster and healthier than the ones I've removed. Now each species will require different length of time that I will leave fry with parents. Dovii for example will be removed by the 4th week because they grow so fast and are really hard to catch after the 4th week. Most of the rest of my pairs I leave them with fry for up to 6 weeks. Around 4-6 weeks the pairs are getting ready to spawn again and usually do by the 6th week and definitely make sure to keep an eye on their behavior around the 4th week to ensure the fry can be pulled prior to next spawn.

Another thing with larger species like Dovii and Umbee grow faster than most with huge spawns and around 4-6 weeks the fry start to eat the slime coat off the parents, which is another indication that fry need to be moved. Everyone will do things differently and what works for them. Good luck with yours and keep us posted with your results

Strengthening the pair bond is a good point Jason. I mentioned it depends on species earlier as well. My dovii fry stay in the tank with the parents but other species especially ones sharing tanks (carpintis and nics for example) I always remove or the other species pick them off. In your experience do you get more fry long term from a group raised with parents or more from a group of fry you have removed from the parents?

 

[Pomatomus]

Here are some of the pros for my strategy; first it helps strengthen the pairs bond, all the fry I've kept with the parents grow faster and healthier than the ones I've removed.

Hmm I have noticed this as well. I spread out some juveniles throughout my tanks, and the ones left with the parents even grew faster than those in a densely planted tank of the same size. I thought it would be the other way around!

Which raises an important option: Cichlids have a lot of babies and you can try multiple methods of raising the fry at once! That way you'll know from experience what works best for you.

 

[Calihawk]

I remove the frys because in my situation, all pairs are in with other cichlids. Although seperated by hole drilled acrylic walls, the frys will swim throught the holes and get eaten up by the neighbors. Also by this age the frys are too fast to catch all of them.

My Jacks are in a community, although they manage to fight off the others to spawn. I dont trust once they are wigglers.

 

[fishman09]

thanks for all the great replies everyone. right now i have two pairs of parachromis. jags and yellow head la ceibas. im gonna try fwp idea with the jags cause theyre in the tank solo but the la ceibas are in a community setup so ill probably pull them quickly and try the breeder box idea from calihawk cause my growout is a 40b and it seemed super difficult to get food to all the fry. also i tried to feed crushed pellets way too soon and was getting gunk all over the bottom of the tanks. keep them coming this has turned out to be a great thread with great info

 

[Freshwaterpredators]

Yes i agree 100% if the pairs are in a community then definitely remove the fry if you plan on keeping any lol. Like Calihawks circumstance of having multiple pairs in same tanks. I appreciate having the space to house my pairs in seperate tanks.

JK- Yes i get more fry long term on two occasions. first being, by leaving them with the parents longer i have a higher survival rate. and second, the pair gets used to having fry around and will continue to spawn on a more regular basis. Ive learned by removing the fry too early from a newly formed pair can cause relationship damage and could possibly keep them from spawning again. and since fish dont really pair for life, i like to get as many spawns from each pair before one turns on the other
This also gives a prolific pair a break from spawning. if you have a really prolific pair then they will tend to try spawning every 2 weeks if the fry is removed right away, which could be un-healthy long term.

 

[dovii 1]

all good points but no need for basters or syringes, just use small tanks and a good mature sponge filtter and if its large american cichlids your growing out any good pellet or flake crushed up between finger and thumb will do from day one. Dont make things complacated, feed three times a day and loads of water changes always use water of the same temp or up to two d higher never lower. Good luck

 

[RD.]

all good points but no need for basters or syringes, just use small tanks and a good mature sponge filtter and if its large american cichlids your growing out any good pellet or flake crushed up between finger and thumb will do from day one. Dont make things complacated, feed three times a day and loads of water changes always use water of the same temp or up to two d higher never lower. Good luck

Agreed.

To which I will add, for those that feel the need to start their fry out on BBS, use freshly hatched BBS, not that overpriced frozen junk. Frozen BBS is mostly comprised of water (85-90% water content) and is typically 6-7% protein, and less than 2% fat content. (check your package, Justin) The last thing you want is your fry filling up on water. Ideally tiny wigglers should be getting close to 50% protein, and 10% fat for the first few months of their life.

 

[jgentry]

Its hard to go wrong with most CA fry, some of the SA can be a little tricky though. To me it all depends upon each individual situation. Most CA cichlids I breed using dividers and I remove the fry with a syphon a day before they start swimming. Most of the larger CA cichlids would require a huge tank to leave the pair together with the fry and you always risk one of the adults getting killed which to me is not worth the risk. Most CA fry are very hardy (except for a few of the riverine types) and will grow quickly and have a very small die off rate. I start all of mine in a 20g tank with an aged sponge filter until they grow a little and the tank starts getting crowed. From there they get moved to a 50g or as large as needed. I feed golden pearls and crushed flakes for food 2-3 times per day and do 2 50% water changes a week. One key I have found with newly hatched fry is to not keep your tank to clean. You want clean water but lots of algea is a good thing, I never clean the glass in my fry tanks.

With some of my SA and madagascar cichlids I prefer to leave them with the parents for about 2-4 weeks unless the parents start fighting or eating the fry. I then remove the parents and grow the fry out in the tank were they were spawned. Most of these fish are slightly less aggressive and are less likely to kill each other. The fry grow faster this way and I don't have to keep moving them to larger tanks as they grow.

With any of the mouth brooders I strip the fry if I want to raise any.

 

[buddha1200]

I agreed with freshwaterpredator on most parts,i leave with the parents in a solos situation and i remove them once they start free swimming ing a comunity setting(when the lights are off the fry will pile up and they can be syphoned out)also i do the same amount of water changes on my fry that i do on my adults when they are left together(usually very large 60-70%)never had a problem just have to monitor your temps very well.
This seems to grow them very fast and seems to bring their colors out early,on the fry i keep separate i do 50% twice a week and i feed three times daily on both situations.
Now some my not agree on the water changes but thats what works for me and i have never had a problem and always have a good survival rate.i feed decap brines shrimp eggs and hikari first bite powder for the first feww weeks then i switch to grounded up flakes and pellets after that.

 

[RD.]

You want clean water but lots of algea is a good thing, I never clean the glass in my fry tanks.

ditto, and a good point. My fry tanks were also always bare bottom.

The only difference between my dedicated fry tanks & those above is I would do a 40-50% water change almost every day, ensuring that any uneaten food & all waste is removed. If one has multiple grow out tanks it's a LOT of work performing that many water changes on a daily basis, but IME the difference in the growth rate of fry/juvies is quite noticeable in tanks with high volume water turnover.

I have never fed any type of frozen or live food, or even flake food. Only finely crushed grow formula pellet food.