First off, you need patience. It will take years to raise a group from fry to breeders.
I'll start by talking about my breeding group. I bought a non breeding trio from the LFS. One male, one female and one unknown.
How do you know if you have a female? The easiest way to tell is by watching them like you would any other female cichlid. The females will eventually get a swollen belly a day or two before breeding. To some people it looks like bloat. Most folks notice a dropped tube, I've only seen it on my males. Either way, even if she never holds or even tries to spawn, you can bet that it's a female. Never get rid of her!
The Alpha male was about 8-9 inches when I got group. He spent most of his time chasing the sub adult ??males?? around the first few months. By accident I happened to come across a much larger male (~11inches) and figured I'd give him a try. I removed the other male and placed the big guy in there. Not even a month later she was holding.
I have aggronite sugar sized sand as my substrate and I forgot to turn the overflow pump back on the day they spawned, what a lucky mistake.
When the first male was in there added wal-mart table salt without iodine and they made a huge change for the better. Their appetite grew and they weren't as shy either.
more to come............... got to go to bed.
I'll start by talking about my breeding group. I bought a non breeding trio from the LFS. One male, one female and one unknown.
How do you know if you have a female? The easiest way to tell is by watching them like you would any other female cichlid. The females will eventually get a swollen belly a day or two before breeding. To some people it looks like bloat. Most folks notice a dropped tube, I've only seen it on my males. Either way, even if she never holds or even tries to spawn, you can bet that it's a female. Never get rid of her!
The Alpha male was about 8-9 inches when I got group. He spent most of his time chasing the sub adult ??males?? around the first few months. By accident I happened to come across a much larger male (~11inches) and figured I'd give him a try. I removed the other male and placed the big guy in there. Not even a month later she was holding.
I have aggronite sugar sized sand as my substrate and I forgot to turn the overflow pump back on the day they spawned, what a lucky mistake.
When the first male was in there added wal-mart table salt without iodine and they made a huge change for the better. Their appetite grew and they weren't as shy either.
more to come............... got to go to bed.
