Spawning FMs

[Raetak]

I have two firemouths in a 55 gallon. I'm trying to spawn them. I had them in a community cichlid tank before I moved them into the 55 by themselves. There is blue gravel, plastic pots and a big 2" wide PVC pipe in there.

How do you sex them??

What is the ideal conditions for spawning them?

Thanks for your time.

 

[fish_n_vw]

I condition with a "meaty" diet, do a 50% w/c with cooler water to drop the temp around 4 or 5 degrees. And tfhen watch them go to work. Sexing is pretty tough untill they are adults. Some say fins but I have not noticed much diffrence with my pair. My pair are 7 years old and now retired but I have gotten thousands of fry from them when they were breeders. The size diffrence was a dead give away for me. My male is 6 1/4 inches and female is 4 1/2 inches. So very big difrence. There a little tougher then convicts but not by much. I also used a single rainbow cichld to help them with there bond as a dither fish. I had only 2 (I think) succesfull spawnings with out a dither, and dozens with one. So you can try that. I don't know how to link a youtube video. But if you search anthonys firemouths defending fry. You can see my pair a few years ago.

 

[Water]

How do you sex them??
Simple, Vent them. Fins, body shape etc are not always accurate.

Just flip them both over and look at their sexual opening, Males will have a V shape while a female will have a U shape.

What is the ideal conditions for spawning them?

What I did for my pair was feed them "conditioning food"(High protein diet) and when I did water changes, I added cooler water and sprinkled it to imitate rain. How big is your pair anyway?

 

[Raetak]

Well I'm pretty new to spawning cichlids. I just a few weeks ago spawned convict for the first time, which was totally cool.

I am pretty sure that I have two MALEs, after observing them for a little while...

-.-" I'm gonna buy a few more and see if I get a pair or two out of it. Pretty cheap, $4 each.

Thanks for the help I will post an update when I have a pair and they spawn.

P.s Would blood worms provide this protein boost you are referring to?

 

[Water]

Yes, any type of live food would work. (Excluding feeder goldfish/rosey reds etc)

 

[Raetak]

I can only get frozen will that work just as good?

 

[Water]

I can only get frozen will that work just as good?

Yes, any type of live food will work, That includes Live, Frozen, freeze dried whatever lol. Good luck.

 

[Raetak]

:] lol I gotta check... You never know, it might like cause it to get a disease I can't say much less spell.