i have 2 firemouths i believe are a pair. what are signs they have paired? what are the best water perameters? i have a 4-5" rock for them 2 spawn on, is this good? its nice and smooth. how do i cure the rock? boil it?
firemouths
- Thread starter dempsey420
- Start date
LOL. My pair has spawned a couple of times. The pH was 7 and the temp was between 78-80. I would do 25% water changes once a week. The rock should be big enough but these fish can lay a lot of eggs. You might want to put a few different smooth rocks in and spaced out for them to choose from. I have never done anything special with the rocks that I put in the tank other than wash and scrub them them well. If they didn't come from a water source, it is unlikely they will carry a disease that could be passed on to your fish. I fed them red wrigglers and lots of frozen food like blood worms, brine shrimp, mysis shrimp and supplemented with flakes/pellets.
When they have paired up they will flare their gills and fins and swim in circles with each other. The colors will deepen on both fish. The pic in my avatar is my pair of FM courting. They will then choose a rock (mine always chose one that had some kind of overhead protection like a piece of wood or something) and they will clean the rock, shimmy over it and any gravel around it will be carried away. They shouldn't be far from laying eggs at this point. Good Luck!
When they have paired up they will flare their gills and fins and swim in circles with each other. The colors will deepen on both fish. The pic in my avatar is my pair of FM courting. They will then choose a rock (mine always chose one that had some kind of overhead protection like a piece of wood or something) and they will clean the rock, shimmy over it and any gravel around it will be carried away. They shouldn't be far from laying eggs at this point. Good Luck!
thanks jakeca77..... perfect description of what i wanted.... my females bout 2" and male 4". they do the circling a little but is the size diff too much for now? and ill def go steal a couple more rocks from my buddies yard lol
The size difference shouldn't be an issue but you should try to bulk her up on frozen and live food if you can. My female is actually bigger than my male. Do you have places for the female to hide if the male gets too rough?
ya she has a couple spots to run to but the male doesnt really attack her much. if they are a " pair" would they swim together all the time?
Not necessarily. When they are defending their territory or mating yes they are very much together. I would say that my male is a bit of a domestic abuser most of the time. Maybe your male is nicer than mine.
BTW I have mine in a 120 so you would think there would be plenty of space for him to just let her live and let live but he likes to chase her sometimes.
BTW I have mine in a 120 so you would think there would be plenty of space for him to just let her live and let live but he likes to chase her sometimes.