I purchased a 6"-7" female from a friend and then shortly after purchased a 9" male off of the internet. At the time I was told the smaller female I was getting was a male and the bigger male I was getting was a female, I took a good look at both fish before buying them from the 2 different sources and went with my gut feeling they were male and female either way.
I had the female for about a 2 months before I did actually find the male, I was in the middle of a move and let the ad sit on the site for sometime until my tanks were up and running again and then made my purchase.
At first the female was attacking the male and I thought maybe I had myself 2 females but within the day after they owned one side of the tank and kept my Red Albino Oscar on the opposite end.
About a month into having the male I woke up one morning and noticed a nice batch of eggs on a flat breeding rock I have. I noticed them dancing around before then so took the Oscar out for obvious reasons, that then must've helped them into spawning. The eggs were their for about 3-4 days before I noticed half of them going missing and some of the others were nonfertile and growing a white fungi on them. Their was quite a few that looked to be in good shape and maybe days away from hatching.
But then a day or two after we woke up to 99% of the eggs gone. I was very upset as I had my heart set on breeding Jags and bringing this beautiful fish into my city as I find it very rare to come across a Jag.
After the loss of pretty much all the eggs I was feeling like maybe it would never happen. Since then I have got more tanks and fish and been successful at breeding most of my fish except my Jags.
They come very close to spawning and have spawned again one day but the next day they ate some eggs and covered the rest with sand. I try not to get my hopes up any more when they breed so just put them in my 180g with a few other large Cichlids and let them enjoy it. They were acting like they were going to breed one day (with a few big SA/CA fish in it I knew the babies would not survive) so I netted them out and put them in a 55g, I know this is not much space but all I had for now as a open tank besides a Pictus who I took out and put in a 125g African tank.
They seem to enjoy the tank and have started cleaning off rocks all over the tank and the females little button near her anal fin has came out and the male has no such thing that I see anyways.
My questions after this very long and pointless story I guess would be how do I get them to breed successfully?
How do I know if they are for sure male and female (as a friend of mine told me they could be both females and just messing around)?
What should I do when they do eventually lay eggs again?
And should I feed them or stop feeding at this point (as last time they stopped eating and wasted food)?
I hope someone can help me out with this very exciting time. I can get photos soon as possible if this will help but I tried to pretty much explain the pair as best as possible.
Thanks
I had the female for about a 2 months before I did actually find the male, I was in the middle of a move and let the ad sit on the site for sometime until my tanks were up and running again and then made my purchase.
At first the female was attacking the male and I thought maybe I had myself 2 females but within the day after they owned one side of the tank and kept my Red Albino Oscar on the opposite end.
About a month into having the male I woke up one morning and noticed a nice batch of eggs on a flat breeding rock I have. I noticed them dancing around before then so took the Oscar out for obvious reasons, that then must've helped them into spawning. The eggs were their for about 3-4 days before I noticed half of them going missing and some of the others were nonfertile and growing a white fungi on them. Their was quite a few that looked to be in good shape and maybe days away from hatching.
But then a day or two after we woke up to 99% of the eggs gone. I was very upset as I had my heart set on breeding Jags and bringing this beautiful fish into my city as I find it very rare to come across a Jag.
After the loss of pretty much all the eggs I was feeling like maybe it would never happen. Since then I have got more tanks and fish and been successful at breeding most of my fish except my Jags.
They come very close to spawning and have spawned again one day but the next day they ate some eggs and covered the rest with sand. I try not to get my hopes up any more when they breed so just put them in my 180g with a few other large Cichlids and let them enjoy it. They were acting like they were going to breed one day (with a few big SA/CA fish in it I knew the babies would not survive) so I netted them out and put them in a 55g, I know this is not much space but all I had for now as a open tank besides a Pictus who I took out and put in a 125g African tank.
They seem to enjoy the tank and have started cleaning off rocks all over the tank and the females little button near her anal fin has came out and the male has no such thing that I see anyways.
My questions after this very long and pointless story I guess would be how do I get them to breed successfully?
How do I know if they are for sure male and female (as a friend of mine told me they could be both females and just messing around)?
What should I do when they do eventually lay eggs again?
And should I feed them or stop feeding at this point (as last time they stopped eating and wasted food)?
I hope someone can help me out with this very exciting time. I can get photos soon as possible if this will help but I tried to pretty much explain the pair as best as possible.
Thanks
