Lemon Yellow Cichlid as food.

[-DC-]

I agree, SA cichlids are a better choice for breeding feeders, I keep Africans and i feed my culls to the monster tanks they are great feeders but reproduction is going to be much slower then that of a SA species.

SA cichlids will be better then them IMO for a few reasons, 1st of all they are much easier to breed M+F+water= babies. Since it's a pair alone there is no competition from tankmates eating fry, and setup can be as simple as a bare tank with a flower pot making it easy to separate fry or eggs and have the parents start another batch right away.

Africans need more specific water parameters to breed readily and require several females per male, They also need dense rock work which will make collecting those fry much harder. Because they are in groups their will be competition from the others eating fry as they are released etc.

I'd also go with a darker colored fish, convicts for example with the black bars and grey base will last MUCH longer in your pond, allowing you to add several at a time and it'll take several day or even weeks for the fish to hunt them down. Flashy yellow fish will be spotted instantly the fish will stuff themselves cleaning them all out as soon as you dump them into the water.

Given your stock i wouldn't waste your time small cichlids as feeders, get something with a 12+ adult size. If it were me i'd go with a pair of Talapia or even oscars themselves, something big will have larger fry that grow faster. Wont be long before your fish need feeders as big as an adult african or convicts and you'd need ponds for them just too keep up with demands of that many adults.


Hope that helps

 

[richkid]

I would never pay more than 3-4 dollars u.s. For convicts. For like thirty bucks you've got enough cons to thrive I think. They'll breed the first week they're in the pond. And forever after. I see you're in Mexico. Tetras are probably really cheap there and that's the perfect environment for them. I hear they're not easy to breed in aquaria but a pond in Mexico is their natural habitat. They should reproduce fine. Either way you would have a faster population growth than with the yellow labs.

 

[RCDV]

I agree, SA cichlids are a better choice for breeding feeders, I keep Africans and i feed my culls to the monster tanks they are great feeders but reproduction is going to be much slower then that of a SA species.

SA cichlids will be better then them IMO for a few reasons, 1st of all they are much easier to breed M+F+water= babies. Since it's a pair alone there is no competition from tankmates eating fry, and setup can be as simple as a bare tank with a flower pot making it easy to separate fry or eggs and have the parents start another batch right away.

Africans need more specific water parameters to breed readily and require several females per male, They also need dense rock work which will make collecting those fry much harder. Because they are in groups their will be competition from the others eating fry as they are released etc.

I'd also go with a darker colored fish, convicts for example with the black bars and grey base will last MUCH longer in your pond, allowing you to add several at a time and it'll take several day or even weeks for the fish to hunt them down. Flashy yellow fish will be spotted instantly the fish will stuff themselves cleaning them all out as soon as you dump them into the water.

Given your stock i wouldn't waste your time small cichlids as feeders, get something with a 12+ adult size. If it were me i'd go with a pair of Talapia or even oscars themselves, something big will have larger fry that grow faster. Wont be long before your fish need feeders as big as an adult african or convicts and you'd need ponds for them just too keep up with demands of that many adults.



Hope that helps

Thank you very much for all thia info.. I'm considering the common oscar, they're are fairly cheap and have the dark coloration you mentioned above. Just one more question, as far as I know the water in this area is hard, not sure if this will have an effect on oscars breeding.. if it do how can I soften the water?

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[RCDV]

I would never pay more than 3-4 dollars u.s. For convicts. For like thirty bucks you've got enough cons to thrive I think. They'll breed the first week they're in the pond. And forever after. I see you're in Mexico. Tetras are probably really cheap there and that's the perfect environment for them. I hear they're not easy to breed in aquaria but a pond in Mexico is their natural habitat. They should reproduce fine. Either way you would have a faster population growth than with the yellow labs.

Actually there is a kind of cichlid in the area, it is know here as Mayan Cichlid (Cichlasoma urophthalmus) I think I can get some pretty easy.. they might work for me.

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[paulW]

Not sure I would use oscars as feeders.. Unless you're ok with a few possibly surviving and becoming adults. (I guess that is a risk with using any cichild as a feeder)

How about Mollies? Get the larger variety. They breed like crazy if you put about 6 in a tank maybe 55 gallons or greater, with some cover for the babies. Or if you have a second pond, I think you'd be set for life with Molly feeders..