African Cichlids Breeding Help

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bpoore05

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 11, 2012
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I just started my 125 gallon african cichlids tank. I have 2 Penguin 350's filters and a FX5 filter running on the tank. I was wondering about how to go about breeding african cichlids. I currently have 34 african cichlids in the tank and here is a list of them:
6 Electric Yellow (1.25”) No Sex
1 Yellow Fin Mbamba (2.5”) Male
1 Albino Zebra Red Top (3”) Male
2 Clown Lab (1.5”) No Sex
2 “Fire Fish”/”Dragon Blood” (1.5”) No Sex
2 Deep Water Haps (1.5”) No Sex
2 Blue Dolphins (1.75”) No Sex
2 Ahli Electric Blue (1.75”) No Sex
3 Red Top Zebra (2.5”) Female
1 Red Top Zebra (2.5”) Male
1 Chewere Elongatus (2”) Female
2 Elongatus Mpanga (1.25”) No Sex
3 Purple Lupingu (.75”) No Sex
2 Red Zebras ( No Sex)
3 Kenyl (No Sex)
1 female johanni cichlid.

Is there a god chance any of these fish are going to breed, a decent amount are no sex as of now, as I can't tell.
Can anyone tell me what fish to buy that would give a better chance to breed? I plan on buying so more fish anyways.

Thank You!
 
You will have no trouble breeding african cichlids.If you feed them well and do plenty of water changes, when they are old enough they will breed.Since your fish are maternal mouthbrooders they will spawn in your community tank and have some survivors.If you want more survivors you can watch for your female holding eggs in her mouth ,then seperate her.She will shuffle her mouth,stay away from the others,and eat less.Your red top zebras might breed first since you know you have male and female,but your other zebras like the albino and reds may innerbreed with them because they are the same specie just another color strain.You may have to watch out for your psuedotropheus dominating some of your other fish like the ahlis or deep water haps as they get older.If your trying to get young to sell you will have to try to avoid the crosses that alot of times happen with the africans. Have fun .
 
Thanks! How long does it take for the fish to mature and are able to breed?
 
You should of had mutiples of each species like 5 or 6 then they would breed.... It matters but prolly around 3.5in mark they will start breeding. Its hard say because you have unsex fish you should of gotten mutiple of each species. 1+ on hybrids. Your different strains of zebras and yellow labs will breed and possibly kenyi
 
I am going to get like 10-15 more fish. Any Ideas of what I should get?
 
I get more kenyi and more clown labs. I would get some peacock cichlids if you can get them to breed it would be pretty neat. Get a couple females for the yellow fin mbamba. couple more joanni. The fish you have are mouth brooders so 5 or 6 of each will be good for breeding. On the harder ones to breed 6 to 8.
 
I am going to look to purchase them on livefishdiret.com Still waiting for more females to be available.
 
No, not kenyis...much too aggressive for rest of your stock. When grown they will take down a lot of your milder haps and your electric yellows.

You should think 1 male 3-4 females(or 2 male 6-8 females). In a 125, I think 4 - 5 different breeding group of very different species is possible. If you don't want to strip for fries, create lots of small nooks and crannies like holey rocks and pretty soon you will want to give away your little fish.
 
Kenyi are not aggressive they are very docile...... I would worry about you male zebras thats about it and johanni males but with so many fish you aggression level will be down. Take it from someone who has about 500 fry at any given time.
 
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