Brichardi spawned!

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E

elevatethis

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 14, 2005
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Richmond, VA
I keep a 3 brichardi in a 20 gal tank, and out of nowhere I find a bunch of fry swimming around the tank last week. Unfortunately, I think only about 6 are left, but they developing well and are starting to look more like fish and not tiny tadpoles.

My question is this...what are these guys eating? I tried feeding First Bites, but these guys are way too timid to come to the surface.

I do see them picking at the rocks and gravel. Are they eating something that grows in the tank that I just can't see?

Anyways, the 3 adults seem to take turns guarding the fry, so hopefully they make it.
 
Congrats!! As for what they are eating, its possible small peices of food in the gravel they could be picking up. When I had fry from my peacocks they wouldnt come up and eat either. I crumbled up regular flake foods so tiny they look like dots and put them in and made them sink and the fry ate it off the floor. When they got larger I gave them flakes and brine shrimp.
 
THe first bites will work, just stick a pinch under the water and it will sink, they will eventually find it. Make sure you don't overfeed with this stuff...its pretty easy to do.
 
I never made any effort to feed the fry specifically. They survived just fine. I think the regular food has enough small particles that get to the bottom for fry that are ignored by the larger ones...
 
Well, they spawned again!

Pretty cool to watch, the parents swim above the first generation, the second are in the middle, and the newest fry are all the way down in the pit they've dug. The older fry guard the youngest fry just as much as the actual parents do.

Wasn't intending on a Brichardi colony starting...but I'm probably going to get a 40 gal going in a couple of weeks....
 
That's totally awesome! What about the third adult? (The non-parent) Does he participate? How are you keeping them? (salt, etc) I'd love to do this too!
 
santoury;695432; said:
That's totally awesome! What about the third adult? (The non-parent) Does he participate? How are you keeping them? (salt, etc) I'd love to do this too!
Click to expand...

Yeah...about that 3rd one...I found him on the floor behind the tank a day or two before the first batch of fry showed up. Apparently he got chased out of the back 1" of the tank that the glass canopy doesn't cover. There was also another smaller individual .5" in the tank (so, an original total of 4) that was getting beat on to the point that his tail was completely gone. I've got him in a 10 gal by himself now while he heals up. I'm hoping to re-introduce that little guy eventually. So basically, the adult breeding pair eliminated all others in the tank, even though they were much much smaller.

This tank started out as something I put together with spare parts. I'm running it with a AC20 and an undergravel filter. Definitely hate the undergravel filter, but I'm going to get this group a bigger tank soon, so no big deal.

I keep the tank at 80 degrees and use Seachem Tang lake salt...the buffer keeps my ph right at 8.0....no aquarium salt though.

I do weekly 10-20% water changes and feed really lightly...with such a small tank and such a high pH, any ammonia would not be good.
 
Has anyone kept these in full fresh long term?
 
I'm referring to "adding salt" to African cichlid tanks... as opposed to just putting them in regular water and raising the pH
 
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