Raising fry in a natural setting

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Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jun 5, 2008
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So I have been reading and watching videos of scenarios where cichlid pairs breed in a community setting. Basically the fry are not fed any artificial food and simply feed off detritus found in the tank as well as their parents slime coat. I have read of people having great success raising fry pass in this manner. I am interested if anyone else has had success raising fry like this.

I know most people simply siphon fry out and feed them artificial food with the intent of raising fry to be sold off. I am not interested in that. I am only interested in watching the breeding process of cichlids and if fry survive to sellable size well that's just icing on the cake :). My centrarchus are currently guarding free swimmers and I want to try this method. I have driftwood in the tank which the fry seem to nibble off of. I also have sailfin mollies and 5 small nics in the tank but the parents seem to easily be able to guard the fry against these fish.

Basically I am just wondering if anyone has had experience raising fry this way. I would be very interested to hear about it.
 
It really depends on the fry. My jag pairs fry had to be fed like clockwork or they all died. My la ceibas survived mainly on detritus but grew very slow compared to the half that I pulled. I have all my pairs in solo tanks for the putpose of keeping the fry with mom qnd dad for longer

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i have raised fry both ways,many parents will also chew/spit food so it breaks up for the young.i think if you leave them too long,with some species the young actually start to do damage to the parents
 
Just throw in some flake food and don't worry about crazy stuff.

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fishman09 said:
It really depends on the fry. My jag pairs fry had to be fed like clockwork or they all died. My la ceibas survived mainly on detritus but grew very slow compared to the half that I pulled. I have all my pairs in solo tanks for the putpose of keeping the fry with mom qnd dad for longer

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That's interesting you mention that because most people I have talked too say their fry grew much faster when kept with the parents. What do you have in the matter of decor in your breeding tanks out of curiosity?

virgil2090 said:
i have raised fry both ways,many parents will also chew/spit food so it breaks up for the young.i think if you leave them too long,with some species the young actually start to do damage to the parents
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aclockworkorange said:
You also have to watch out for the fry becoming so hungry that they actually start picking at their parent's fins and damage them.


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I completely agree. I am not saying keep them with their parents until they are 2", maybe just long enough that they take small pellets on their own without it having to be crushed. Although I have read of cichlids like keyhole's and oscars raising fry for 4-6months.

DIDYSIS said:
Just throw in some flake food and don't worry about crazy stuff.

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Flake food is terrible because it floats and it would never reach the fry. I could throw in ground up pellets but it tends to sink slow and end up being scattered among the tank.

aclockworkorange said:
I just raised my last batch of T. sieboldii on NLS wafers. Love them, I think I'll be using them from now on until they can take small pellets.


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That is a really good idea using wafers. It gives the fry an opportunity to eat over a long period of time which is optimal.
 
fishman09 was probably referring to them being fed natural 'detritus' food as opposed to feeding them proper food.

Flake is fine if you grind them between your fingers, it'll sink as a dust cloud.

Anyways, imo you should try it and see what happens. Don't think any irreversible damage would be done (at least to the parents) so long as you're diligent.
 
I take flake drop it in and it sinks slowly. Or put it into a water cup and pour it in or stir with hand into water. Works great for all my fish.

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