Breeding Copadichromis borleyi

[StiffMeister]

Guys, i have a question:

I have a couple of these Red Kadango's but for some reason the breeding doesnt succeed.
They are breeding etc and the female has her mouth filled with eggs but after 2 days, all eggs are swallowed or something as she starts eating again.
A couple of days i watched the whole breeding process and almost immediately after dropping the eggs, the female takes them in her mouth. Could it be that eggs arent furtilized? The male is horny as an elephant and seems to be chasing the female around all the time for sex but nothing has happened after 3 tries... what do you think?
I must add that i dont keep them for breeding or something, they were a gift a while ago and i just like their looks. could it be water parameters, as i know they should be in hard water with high ph.
Water parameters:
temp 28 degrees
nitrite 0
nitrate 20
gh 7
ph 7,5

 

[Joea]

How big are your fish?

Sometimes they're just too young to breed successfully. Males will tend to be a little more behind in being able to fertilize the eggs, even though they are the same size as the females. The other issue is you really should have more than one female. These aren't a pairing fish and a group of females will definitely yield more results. The male may be wanting to spawn again shortly after the first spawn and his harassment of the holding female may be causing her to swallow the eggs.

 

[StiffMeister]

ah, cool, thanks for the info. the male is around 15 cm and the female a bit smaller. like i said, i dont really mind if they breed or not but i do find it strange that whenever they actually do breed, it fails everytime...

 

[fsc46]

How big are your fish?

Sometimes they're just too young to breed successfully. Males will tend to be a little more behind in being able to fertilize the eggs, even though they are the same size as the females. The other issue is you really should have more than one female. These aren't a pairing fish and a group of females will definitely yield more results. The male may be wanting to spawn again shortly after the first spawn and his harassment of the holding female may be causing her to swallow the eggs.

Good points.

Also, the female may not be large enough to go 3 weeks without eating. The larger she gets, the more body mass she will have and it will allow her to survive 3+ weeks without eating. Which is what they need to produce fry.

 

[somthinsfishy]

Younger females tend to get over protective of their eggs. They can pick up to fast. Also it could be your tank mates. Are there other fish swimming in and out of their breeding circle? You can also try putting just the male and female in a breeder by them selves. I have a otto. lithobate that does the same thing. Really makes me mad.

 

[Red Devil]

Did you ever breed these guys..how are they doing? How are you doing too?