OMG, the male and female Jewel cichlids havent even been together three days and they bred! I cant belive it. The last batch the female beat up the male adn ate the babies after a week of free swimming. I will show pics later, but there is ATLEAST 400 eggs. I want to make sure im not the only one seeing this! How many do they usually lay? She didnt lay near as much as last time!

jewel cichlids will produces hundreds of eggs in each spawn and they will breed whenever there is a mature pr in the tank. Don't bother keeping all the young because you won't be able to get rid of them. Just keep 6-10 of the nicest babies and destroy the rest.

That sounds so evil. guess you gotta do what you gotta do

My freinds who work at a lfs ( i know EVERYTONE tehre, managers, owners , you name it) told me they'll take what ever getsd to selling size. I will cull this time. Last time i raised baby cichlids ( convicts) i had over a 100 in a 20g flat hexagon. I will prob narrow it down to 15-20 or less. Picsw will be up tonight.

It might sound bad but keeping a small group of nice healthy specimens is much better than have an overcrowded tank consisting of hundreds of malnourished young who are only going to get bullied by the dominant individuals. And jewel cichlids are not big sellers. They are a bit like convicts. Shops can only take so many and there just isn't enough demand for them from the customers.
It happens all the time with big cichlids that produce 1000s of eggs. People try to keep them all and 6 months later they still have thousands of young and nowhere to keep them. The fish become stressed from overcrowding. Diseases occur and eventually they die or get destroyed because the hobbyist is sick of trying to get rid of them.
If you have a shop that will take them all then that is fine but most shops only take 10 at a time and they end up sitting there for months taking up space and eating food.

My camera has the pics on it, but it wont let me put them on the comp. I will work this out and prob ahve them on tommorow( i have a date tommorow though, so now promises)

I hope it's not with that jewel cichlid. You know how your mother doesn't like you dating other fishies

lol, nice one. Nope, with my girlfriend. The camera pics arent going ot happen today, too busy, plus my brother is goonna do it, cuz its not working right, and he has to go to work ( he works ar Panera Bread), so he dosent get off till like 11 tonight.

that's cool.
we look forward to the pictures when they turn up

Collin i defefinately understand all that. And yes bring forth the pictures

The eggs ahve lil black dots on them. i expect to wake up tommorow to find wrigglers ( its 11:20 pm). Dont worry, there will be pic's!

Yeah, they hatched. There are hundreds in a little pit in the tank. The parents will take turns gaurding. The female will swim away, shake her head,a dn the male will come over and take care of them for a while. This happens over and over again. Even when feeding time comes up. One will watch the babies while the other eats, then they trade off.

I GOT THE CAMERA TO WORK! Here are the pic's =]:





There were alot of eggs. I will get pics of them free swimming as soon as they start swimming.

They are free swimming, but i think the opposite is happening this time. The male is watching over the babies, and the female isnt. He has been for the last few days. Is this normal? She dosent have any damaged fins or anything. Also, i can get pics as the male wont let them out of the pot.

I got some actualy video's, and some pics. The fry finally got out of the cave.






This Video shows the pot they were in when the parents wouldnt let them out, and then the way the tank is designed ( 20g flat hexagon).

They have been learning from their past mistakes, becasue they are still a apair and there are still LOADS of babies.

Scratch that. About 2 days after that they founght again. SO i moved the parents into a 10g, where they have lived peacefully, and now they've bred AGAIN! I can belive it, they are more prolific than the convicts i kept. The fry from the last batch are still in the 20 with some guppies im working on a breeding project with. What can i do to prevent them from breeding?( yes, i too cant belive i just said that). I really like the fish, theya re very pretty, but i cant handle the breeding, fighting, breeding, and back and forth. Seriously, im about to EXPLODE. What can i do to make them stop?

It's horrible to say this, but I think the only way to stop them breeding would be to split them up.. But maybe.. just maybe, reducing the temperature by a couple of °C would work.

Congrats on all the fry tho, I hope they grow into nice fish!

Thanks, i'll try that. I mean, i love there color and the way they constantly flirt with eachother, but i really cant keep more fry, and also, i cant keep splitting them up, because i dont have another tank to put them in.