Update on my ridiculously disorganized breeding efforts...
A few cool nights have seen the water temp in my stock tanks hovering in the mid-F50's for several mornings in a row. This was just the excuse I needed to do some collecting to bring some of the fry indoors. I will provide mid-70's temps to get some growth on them a bit more quickly than leaving them all outdoors.
So...my first assault was upon the G.balzanii tank. I knew that I had lost at least one adult from this tank to a raiding Mink, which I have surprised on several occasions when going outside in the evening or at night. I have resorted to covering the stock tanks with wood each night, but the wily weasel began appearing earlier and earlier after I began, and of course there were a couple of nights that I forgot until well after dark. The animal enters the stocktank and dives right down, and I have seen it once actually leaving with an adult cichlid in its mouth. I removed some concrete tile pieces and finally found one adult female balzanii; there may be one or two more in there as well, as I didn't do an exhaustive search, but normally, removing all three pieces of pipe with a net clapped over each end is the quick and easy way to catch all the adults. I did this and got one. Not a good sign. In addition, the tank had visible fry as recently as a few weeks ago...now, nothing to be seen. Again, there may be some in there, but nothing like the numbers that were previously visible. This tank looks like a bust.
Tank #2 is the 300+ gallon containing 4 adult C.dimerus, which had grown into much more attractive and impressive fish than I expected. They are the most likely species of the 3 I have to feed at the surface, and I have seen them regularly when I am out feeding the tanks. I spotted several fry in the 1-inch range in this tank, but didn't try to catch any. Qualified success.
The 6 adult G.rhabdotus had been busy, and I easily netted 2 dozen fry in the 3/8 - 1/2-inch range from this tank. No idea how many adults have eluded the Mink, although I have never seen it invade this tank so hopes are high.
The final cichlid tank was stocked with a half-dozen G.rhabdotus, as well as a few other small cichlids, all of which had been spawned indoors when I applied some heat to their overwintering tank a bit too soon this past spring. Again, no idea how many of those grow-outs persist...but 4 energetic scoops of a big dip net produced 75 or 80 lovely little fry, ranging from a maximum of 3/8-inch all the way down to some sub-1/4-inch babies, which I am quite certain are G.rhabdotus. Many more remain. Pretty impressive for a tank that I never really expected to be anything more than a grow-out for this year.
So I have a nice whack of rhabdotus fry in a 75-gallon sponge-filtered tank in the basement, and plan to keep them warm and feed them generously, hopefully to bring some more in a bit later as well. I have a spare 40 that I will set up for the dimerus fry as well. The outdoor Swordtails and their offspring will return to the same 120 in which they spent last winter. I never bother to separate out fry from adults with these, but thick Hornwort usually ensures the survival of decent numbers of fry.
Future plans call for tight-fitting screen covers for the stock tanks to deter predators.
A few cool nights have seen the water temp in my stock tanks hovering in the mid-F50's for several mornings in a row. This was just the excuse I needed to do some collecting to bring some of the fry indoors. I will provide mid-70's temps to get some growth on them a bit more quickly than leaving them all outdoors.
So...my first assault was upon the G.balzanii tank. I knew that I had lost at least one adult from this tank to a raiding Mink, which I have surprised on several occasions when going outside in the evening or at night. I have resorted to covering the stock tanks with wood each night, but the wily weasel began appearing earlier and earlier after I began, and of course there were a couple of nights that I forgot until well after dark. The animal enters the stocktank and dives right down, and I have seen it once actually leaving with an adult cichlid in its mouth. I removed some concrete tile pieces and finally found one adult female balzanii; there may be one or two more in there as well, as I didn't do an exhaustive search, but normally, removing all three pieces of pipe with a net clapped over each end is the quick and easy way to catch all the adults. I did this and got one. Not a good sign. In addition, the tank had visible fry as recently as a few weeks ago...now, nothing to be seen. Again, there may be some in there, but nothing like the numbers that were previously visible. This tank looks like a bust.
Tank #2 is the 300+ gallon containing 4 adult C.dimerus, which had grown into much more attractive and impressive fish than I expected. They are the most likely species of the 3 I have to feed at the surface, and I have seen them regularly when I am out feeding the tanks. I spotted several fry in the 1-inch range in this tank, but didn't try to catch any. Qualified success.
The 6 adult G.rhabdotus had been busy, and I easily netted 2 dozen fry in the 3/8 - 1/2-inch range from this tank. No idea how many adults have eluded the Mink, although I have never seen it invade this tank so hopes are high.
The final cichlid tank was stocked with a half-dozen G.rhabdotus, as well as a few other small cichlids, all of which had been spawned indoors when I applied some heat to their overwintering tank a bit too soon this past spring. Again, no idea how many of those grow-outs persist...but 4 energetic scoops of a big dip net produced 75 or 80 lovely little fry, ranging from a maximum of 3/8-inch all the way down to some sub-1/4-inch babies, which I am quite certain are G.rhabdotus. Many more remain. Pretty impressive for a tank that I never really expected to be anything more than a grow-out for this year.
So I have a nice whack of rhabdotus fry in a 75-gallon sponge-filtered tank in the basement, and plan to keep them warm and feed them generously, hopefully to bring some more in a bit later as well. I have a spare 40 that I will set up for the dimerus fry as well. The outdoor Swordtails and their offspring will return to the same 120 in which they spent last winter. I never bother to separate out fry from adults with these, but thick Hornwort usually ensures the survival of decent numbers of fry.
Future plans call for tight-fitting screen covers for the stock tanks to deter predators.
