dimerus spawned in the wrong tank - advice needed

[peathenster]

My Cichlasoma dimerus pair have been displaying to each other for a couple of days, and became very territorial. Yesterday I noticed the male pulling one leaf of an amazon sword - just that one leaf and nothing else in the tank. The way he did it made me think he wasn't trying to eat it.

Today I came home - guess what - that leaf is covered with eggs. Both parents are guarding.

There are a bunch of other fish in the same tank but nobody messes with them. No nocturnal fish either.

According to some articles I read in the past, the eggs will hatch in 3 days and the parents will move them to depressions in the substrate.

QUESTION: Is it safe to move the parents and that plant to another tank? I can set up a 10g relatively quickly, but it's all I have atm .

 

[titansfever83]

Overnight them to me and I'll take care of your problem

 

[sick_lid]

You could put the plant in some kind of container under the water first so it does not disturb the eggs when moving them.

A 10 is kinda small, why not just see what happens?

 

[BigPic]

A 10 is kinda small, why not just see what happens?

if this spawn doesn't work out and turns out to be fish food. . . don't worry about it, they are just like cons! You won't be able to hold them back!

 

[peathenster]

Overnight them to me and I'll take care of your problem

LOL you already saw them Sunday

You could put the plant in some kind of container under the water first so it does not disturb the eggs when moving them.

A 10 is kinda small, why not just see what happens?

My 55 breeder is currently occupied by a pair of orangeheads....still holding...they should release the fry anytime now. I was going to move the dimerus in there but....

if this spawn doesn't work out and turns out to be fish food. . . don't worry about it, they are just like cons! You won't be able to hold them back!

That's good to know . I guess I want to spawn them, raise the fry, figure them out, and move on Got some Australoheros growing fast and it won't be long before they get in the mood....

 

[peathenster]

This is the grow out tank they spawned in.

Female guarding eggs: 0:15-0:25 The sword is all the way back in the corner.
Male is under the driftwood around the 1:00 mark.

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[ryansmith83]

You could try moving them but there's a chance they'd eat the eggs. I would just leave them in the tank for now and let them pair-bond some more. Sometimes if you move them, one of the fish will get unnecessarily aggressive with the other. I've removed eggs from cichlids or moved cichlids after spawning and they take out their frustration on their mate.

If you do move them, you can just lift the leaf out of the tank and move it to the new one. Exposing the eggs to air for a few seconds won't hurt them. I pull slates with angel and festivum eggs all the time.

Most of the "port" varieties like C. dimerus are really easy to spawn and raise. They will spawn every week or two if you pull the eggs/fry. They should hatch in 2 - 3 days (closer to 2 if the tank is warm, in the 80s) and the parents will move the fry around a couple times before they go free-swimming. Feed the little ones BBS and soon your house will be flooded with C. dimerus.

They're handsome little fish. I lost my old male port about four months ago. If you want to get rid of them I'll take them off your hands.

 

[darth pike]

Holy Marvel Universe batman ... I can see why you don't think the fry will last long!!

I vote to leave them though for now. Those midsized ports (and acaras) can surprise you when the male turns nasty. I'd suggest waiting for the larger tank too.\

I do love those 3 southern port cichlids (bolivians, dimerus, true ports), such beautiful little fish.

 

[ryansmith83]

I vote to leave them though for now. Those midsized ports (and acaras) can surprise you when the male turns nasty. I'd suggest waiting for the larger tank too.

I was raising out a group of ports a few years ago. I went from 12 fish to 4 fish overnight. When males decide they don't want other port companions, they don't play around.

 

[darth pike]

I was raising out a group of ports a few years ago. I went from 12 fish to 4 fish overnight. When males decide they don't want other port companions, they don't play around.

I never had a port that bad, but had a Laetacara thayeri that one day decided to ice the entire tank. Including pike cichlids and zebra plecos. Midsized acaras peacefull my arse ...

I recently noticed at the LFS they had a pair of ports, northern clade ones ... 60 gallon breeder, lots of various cichlids in there, and the large port would just not leave the smaller one alone ... rather surprised me. Less so hearing your story though.