JD`s spawning problems

[Drunken]

Hi

About 6 months ago i paired up some jack`s out of 6-7 fry, and they have been at it ever since.
They are on their 6 or 7 spawn now, but they are still having problems parenting. Male around 4 inches, female around 3 inches.
I will get free swimming fry, the male will pick off a good amount over the corse of couple of days, then massacre the rest of the fry in a couple off hours on the third day. This has happend evry spawn so far, alltought their first few spawns the fry would grow a bit before they were killed by the male.

Well last night the male went on a killing spree, and after killing of all the fry he turned on the female and beat the crap out of her
They are now separated, hoping she will pull through.

Any idea`s on whats going on ?
Tank is 64 gallon corner tank, with no other fish in it.

 

[Natural_Born_Killer]

Really strange behaviour in my opinion... my male defends his female constantly.

You could try taking the eggs out right away and then raising them in a totally separate tank.

As for the aggression I would keep the separated unless you really want to breed them.

 

[ken 429]

im having the same problem.my male beats the crap out of the female and eats all the fry. i put a divider in and she will not lay eggs.my next try im going let her lay some eggs and replace the divider.

 

[Drunken]

I dont get it either. They have been a good "strong" pair up until now, theres never been any aggression issues until last night. I know cichlids in general takes a few tries before they get it right when young, and thats what I`ve just been waiting for and now this

I dont really wanna keep them separated as the tank was ment to be JD species tank.
Guess i might get a diffrent female in the end.

 

[Toby_H]

Having kept and bred quite a few pairs of Dempseys… I find this very typical of Dempsey (and many other Cichlids)…

In my experience… It’s the females job to guard the nest and protect the eggs/fry… it’s the males job to protect the territory…

Well the fry need constant care so the female is busy… but in a tank with no “threats”… or with anything else going on… the male becomes bored and wants the females attention. But she is busy with the kids and ignores him. So he removes the thing that is keeping her preoccupied, the kids!

For this reason I remove the fry when they are around 5 days free swimming, assuming I intend to raise them. Removing eggs is an option, I’ve experienced a low ratio of hatching vs. fungus’ed eggs doing this. I simply cannot offer the eggs the level of care the mother does.

This may sound a bit unconventional, but adding a pair of Convicts may help a bit. I’ve kept a pair of adult Dempseys and a pair of adult Convicts in 75 gal long term (by adult, I mean full grown fish). The male Dempsey was able to stay occupied keeping the Convicts out of his territory and therefore left the fry & mother alone.

Regardless of what approach you take, you will at some point have to remove the fry and care for them elsewhere. Even if the male never turns on the fry, eventually they will be able to care for themselves and the pair will spawn again. At that point both parents will attack/eat the older fry to protect the younger fry. If they do not the older fry will attack/eat the younger fry. I’ve found forcing the parents to pick between older and younger fry puts tremendous stress on the them often breaking their bond and causing the parents to fight amongst themselves.

 

[Drunken]

Thanks nutcase

Dont think another cichlid/cichlids will work, as the footprint of the tank is pretty small. Think I`ll try some bounes aires tetras, and see if that will get hes attention.
My plan all a long was to have a pair of dempsey`s do their thing, and i could sell of the fry to the lfs for some dried food evry now and then. I just love the look of JD`s, and the way ciclids care for their young

 

[Ctrl_Alt_Dlt]

I agree with NC_NUTCASE. I know NC has been breeding JD's-EBJD's for a while and knows his stuff. I myself have bred many JD's and currenly own two BG JD pairs. Knowing the size of your pair of JD's, adding dithers should be okay, especially convicts in that 64 gallon tank. I have been successful at breeding my 6-8inch JD's in a 30 long and 40 long and even a 29 gallon with some runt JD's as dithers or convicts. Taking out the fry would be the other option.

 

[Toby_H]

Thanks Ctrl_Alt_Dlt

Addin gthe Tetras is an option... but Tetras will eat Cichlid fry if given the chance... and the Dempseys know that. So the survival of the tetras is unlikely. I've never been able to keep small non-Cichlid Dithers with my breeding pairs of Dempsey... at least not long term...

Every LFS I've talked to wants 1"+ fish, with 2" being much preferred with Dempseys. You will be hard pressed to convince the parents to raise their offspring to this size in your main tank. So regardless, you are going to need a grow out tank to move them into at some size... The sooner you move them the more you will have survive to a sellable / tradable size...