My pikes have spawned

[jegt]

Here they are. Not a good picture but it was the best I could get.

 

[Skoomakilla]

Congrats on ur fry... any plans for the fry?

 

[jegt]

I don't know exactly. I will probably keep some of them and sell the rest.

 

[softturtle]

Good work. Are the fry swimming yet? Once they start swimming you need to start feeding them live baby brine shrimp. You could try to feed them frozen baby brine shrimp, but the fry will grow slow and be somewhat stunted.
You can get the fry out as soon as they are free swimming and move them to another tank (bare bottom, sponge filter, heater). It will make feeding, water changes and monitoring their progression really simple. This will be a lot easier than trying to raise out any in a decorated tank.

 

[jegt]

They are not swimming yet but I expect them to be tomorrow. I think I will leave them with the parents this time, I want to see all of the parenting behaviour and my goal is not to get the maximum number of sellable fry. If it doesn't work out I will remove the fry the next time they spawn.

I have started to hatch brine shrimp in preparation.

 

[BobB]

Do the fry feed on the parents slime coat like some other S/A cichlids do?

 

[jegt]

Not yet but they might when they start to swim, I have read that they have been seen to do that at least.

 

[Peanut_Power]

Awesome, pikes are great parents!! They generally are great from the start, although a few need a few tries to get it right. Congrats on the successful spawn. Rocking man!! Your LFS will LOVE that!!

 

[jegt]

They have started to swim now, I will upload some pictures this weekend.

 

[jegt]

I have made a video of the fry:

http://jegt.net/fry.mp4

It's a 30MB download, let me know if I should make a smaller version or some other format.