Old vs. Young Cichlid Breeding Discussion Thread
- Thread starter balton777
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Thanks goodness, after reading about horsehair worms, it says they only affect insects and are completely harmless to all humans, livestocks, pets and plants. That's one less thing to worry about.
*Edit* to say I was really worried because I've been feeding backyard crickets, grasshoppers and beetles for years.
I agree with this statement when pairing and breeding young fish, the other competition difinitely has proven ime to strengthen their bonds as well as leaving the fry with first time parents for as long as i could which usually ends up being 4-6 weeks then theyre ready to spawn again lol. But I am no pro when it comes to spawning festae, ive only had one pair spawn for me and they did it a few times. a couple theories i had at the time was, placing them in a smaller tank a 55 or 75 depending on how large the pair was. like your pair Balton i wouldnt put in a 55 lol but a 75 will bring them closer together and giving them a possibility of more comfort and less options for spawning grounds. my second theory was that I am pretty sure that festaes come from blackwater in the wild and i know it can be expensive for really large tanks to run that kind of biotope but lets say we did set up a 75 as blackwater only during the season changes and place the pair in there for the time being for spawning season
my third theory was the level of salt content, I had my pair that spawned growing out in a 75 and i was in a middle of a move so i dropped them off at a buddies place for a month and they went into a 55. now the male was 9" and female was 6.5 He basically added small amounts of salt to the tank every few days anddid a coiuple water changes and they spawned for the first time in a 55. once they got that out of the way they would spawn 2-3 times a year but the spawns had low survival rates for the first year. then after that they increased.So now i have a group of festaes and unless they pair out and spawn in their community tank then im going to try some of those theories in separate tanks. but also doing frequent WC and increasing their protien for a couple weeks which i do for all my pairs. but good luck bro with your expiriments as i would love to see your genetics be spread around
Sorry, I didn't mean to imply a danger to the fish or the people caring for them, it's just super creepy to see a foot long "hair" swiming in your tank with the fish!!!
I've gone two weeks without a water change after raising the temp from 80 to 85 then I've done a large 50%+ WC with cooler water (10 degrees or so) and that has worked to trigger spawing in pairs that flerted non-stop but wouldn't spawn. The increased temp does increase the metabolisum which in turn icreases their appatite and the extra food helps in egg production, then the big influx of cool water simulates a heavy rain and that sometimes works. The above did not work with my Krobia, after a couple of months of non-stop flerting I stopped trying and and went back to changing the water with new water of a similar temp to the tank and then they spawned, so..........scratches head.
I went and got some nightcrawlers yesterday and fed them a couple each, but can't the other live foods until this weekend. I've upped the temperture for now so hopefully their metabolism starts to increase. The male was really begging for food this morning and I fed him some high protein Massivore which he rarely gets. He gobbled down a small handfull of pellets pretty quickly. The female's appetite was only so so.
It could also be that some fish dont spawn as often as others... for example my gt's spawn every 3-4 weeks but my midas have spawned twice since january.... I have read they breed more often but i concluded that maybe some take longer to spawn....
