Con Breeding "Journal"

[Dread]

So, as fishdance suggested, here is a little journal/write-up of my cons and their breeding, as well as me learning. Alright, so I see alot of threads about con breeding, and since I myself am learning, I figure there'd be no better way to help others learn than by bringing them along with me through the experience! I'll be posting what happens with my cons, hopefully teaching some others about the process as I learn aswell. Step by step, hopefully with as many pictures as possible, where needed. But mind you, I'm no photographer, so don't expect excellent photography! However, I'll do my best. So, here we go!

Setup
Tank: 55g
Subtrate: Play Sand
Average Temp: 80.4° F

The male, who I've been calling "Armani" lately, in the foreground. He's not show stopping, but he's personable, and he's more than willing to get the ball rolling, so to speak. :thumb:

The female, who I refer to as "Prada". Blurry, yes, but you get the ideas of her color. She is wild caught, and has alot of blue under her gills, which I find to be very attractive.

Aw, how cute! Going for a stroll. Here's the lucky pair together.

Here's a good-enough shot of the full tank. It's pretty bare for now, but I plan to add some Java Fern and Java Moss, as well as more rocks to build it up a bit, and make it look more natural.

I hope you like the rainbow leigh and Scarface poster in the background :wink: . The little school of fish there ( I think 7 or 8 ) are Tiger Barbs under an inch.

So far, there's been numerous pits dug, and the female's breeding tube appears to be coming out. It almost looks like a stubby pinkish turd. Charming in the fish world, I'm sure. I expect to see eggs within the next 3 days, at most. Any questions/comments/suggestions (especially on how to continue decorating the tank) are welcome. I'll keep you posted! :!:

 

[nukeman]

good luck, i hope all goes well and you are a proud parent soon!
Nice tank btw. Decoration sounds good. its such an ongoing process, i think i change mine once a week. excited to see some eggs soon.

 

[Mystix212]

Beware of those barbs. They'll snatch up those fry. Pretty drab colours on the male but good/ish on the wild female.

Ad several caves, plants etc, try and 'seperate' the tank so the fry have lots of hiding places in 1 place of the tank. Open area in the other.

 

[Dread]

Beware of those barbs. They'll snatch up those fry. Pretty drab colours on the male but good/ish on the wild female.

Ad several caves, plants etc, try and 'seperate' the tank so the fry have lots of hiding places in 1 place of the tank. Open area in the other.

Yeah, I removed the tiger barbs last night for that reason.

 

[Mystix212]

Cool. Are the cons gonna be the only ones in the 55?

 

[Bderick67]

Beware of those barbs. They'll snatch up those fry. Pretty drab colours on the male but good/ish on the wild female.

Ad several caves, plants etc, try and 'seperate' the tank so the fry have lots of hiding places in 1 place of the tank. Open area in the other.

I had tiger barbs with my breeding cons, the barbs never had a chnace of getting near the fry. I would keep the barbs as target fish, plus it helps develop the parental instincts.

 

[Dread]

Cool. Are the cons gonna be the only ones in the 55?

For the time being. I plan to add 1 or 2 larger dithers, such as Mollies, so I can watch the Cons defend fry and that sort of thing. I don't want them to feel like the tank is automatically theirs, I want to see building of territory. And yes, the colors on the male are drab (and my poor photography doesn't help), however I'm not breeding for overall color. Both male & female, in person atleast, have very large areas of blue under their mouths, and almost most of their stomaches. For the first brood, I'm going to select a male with these traits, raise it, and introduce it to another wild female I have in a 20long by herself, and go from there.

 

[fishdance]

Dread,
I dont know what camera you have, but if it has center or spot focus instead of multi-zone focus then use that. If your unable to focus on the fish itself then aim at something a similar distance away (maybe a rock or something beside the tank) and then focus lock by pressing the shutter half way down.... then swing back onto the fish - which hopefully hasnt moved far. Try without a flash but you might have to increase ISO to 400. Animals are usually considered in focus if their eyes are sharp. If you need the flash then hold camera at 45 degrees (up - side- diagonally or use remote flash) so flash bounce back goes away from camera.

Your thread is off to a good start.

 

[Dread]

Thanks for the advice and kind words. As for the camera, it's just some Digital Camera I found in my closet, so I'm still getting used to it. By the end of this whole thing, I won't be a photographer by any stretch, but holefully I'll be able to focus! :lol:

 

[ewok]

nice journal and it's good to see you have such an interest in their behavior. cichlids are very interesting and i remember being fascinated by them because of that. good luck and keep us updated

i'm guessing after a while the journal might look like this ->

week 3: spawning!

week 5: wow, they did it again!

week 9: err there's another batch of eggs...?

week 13: yeah you guessed it...

week 17: yup... now i have 2354 fry and no where to house them

hahaha jk man good luck!