Firemouths
- Thread starter cynster
- Start date
My Firemouths just had a bunch of babies 2 weeks ago... And sure as sh*t the daddy ate them all!!! I dont think thats normal and I searched online and it said they are good "parents". Its just the two of them in the tank, so I dont know why it happened. And how often do they breed? They just dug another hole in the gravel, same as they did last time, so I was wondering if they are laying more eggs or what? Someone please fill me in how how these breed, the do's and dont's, etc..... Thanx
Oh I've done -tons- of research and I've gotten -tons- of help from firemouth breeders. They breed about 5 times a year. If they are too young, they can sometimes eat their fry, but that's okay, because they are learning 
You can save some by "stripping the fry" (use a turkey baster and suck them out and put them in a clean 5 gallon filtered aquarium and feed them finely crushed flakes or baby brine shrimp). I think if they dug a hole again, they might be preparing to breed again.
There are tons of great resources - and even though this one is for angelfish, it gives you a great idea of the breeding process - I found it on youtube:
[YT]BBF4CfUCVpY[/YT]
part 1 of 2
and it's -extremely- helpful for egg layers in general. These guys share some attributes of breeding that firemouths do. The parents are very protective of the fry, they breed on similar surfaces, a flat stone or inside a flower pot. He goes into how to set up a tank for the fry, and he has a video of how to hatch brine shrimp eggs.
Oh and I wanted to add a video of my firemouth juveniles Not to do with breeding, but this is the group I have. I took it on my iPhone, so it's not great quality, but you can see some of those beautiful specks of blue beginning to show up!
[YT]vK2S4Cp6Zn0[/YT]
Oh and experts, if I missed a point or said something inaccurate, please correct me I don't have first hand experience, just researching.
You can save some by "stripping the fry" (use a turkey baster and suck them out and put them in a clean 5 gallon filtered aquarium and feed them finely crushed flakes or baby brine shrimp). I think if they dug a hole again, they might be preparing to breed again. There are tons of great resources - and even though this one is for angelfish, it gives you a great idea of the breeding process - I found it on youtube:
[YT]BBF4CfUCVpY[/YT]
part 1 of 2
and it's -extremely- helpful for egg layers in general. These guys share some attributes of breeding that firemouths do. The parents are very protective of the fry, they breed on similar surfaces, a flat stone or inside a flower pot. He goes into how to set up a tank for the fry, and he has a video of how to hatch brine shrimp eggs.
Oh and I wanted to add a video of my firemouth juveniles
Not to do with breeding, but this is the group I have. I took it on my iPhone, so it's not great quality, but you can see some of those beautiful specks of blue beginning to show up![YT]vK2S4Cp6Zn0[/YT]
Oh and experts, if I missed a point or said something inaccurate, please correct me
I don't have first hand experience, just researching.Congrats. Out of my four, I have one male and three females. The male and one of the females (the largest) paired off and had a batch of fry about a week ago. They were also eaten like the other poster's fry, but I'm not sure if it was the male that did it, or the other fish in the tank.
I'm not trying to breed them right now anyway as I don't have the space for more, but their displays are brilliant.
I'm not trying to breed them right now anyway as I don't have the space for more, but their displays are brilliant.
Thanks! And they really are Luckily I have a good LFS that would like fry to trade for store credit (new tank?? >.>) hehe
I'm planning to use my current tank as a growout tank and move the little ones once they are not so little.
Congratulations on your fry; it's a shame they were eaten! I'm planning on doing half and half - take half of the fry to raise on my own and watch the parents raise the rest Then if I screw up or they do, at least we both have a 50/50 chance haha
Luckily I have a good LFS that would like fry to trade for store credit (new tank?? >.>) hehe I'm planning to use my current tank as a growout tank and move the little ones once they are not so little.
Congratulations on your fry; it's a shame they were eaten! I'm planning on doing half and half - take half of the fry to raise on my own and watch the parents raise the rest
Then if I screw up or they do, at least we both have a 50/50 chance haha