Breeding Jewel Cichlids

[Tropical_Dave]

Hi there, im hopeing some of you can help me, i'm trying to breed my Jewel Cichlids but so far no luck.
i bought a tank last year with a mixture of fish including the Jewels, definately male an female pair. they were always swimming together and had their own little territory. i was warned they might get a bit aggressive towards the others especialy if they got broody. next thing i know my Parrot fish had the crap kicked out of him over night, fins all shredded etc, i straight away took him to my local fish store and they quite happily looked after him fow a couple of weeks. i seperated the 2 Jewels into their own tank, just the 2 of them in a 40L tank. months have gone by and still no little fry, dont think she has laid any eggs at all
ive tried a few things, put a mirror on the side of the tank to make them think they have some neighbours, they went crazy! the male was very angry to see his reflection! haha
someone even suggested making them think it was monsoon season and that might get  them going but if anything i think it stessed them out a bit so i have left them alone for a couple of months now, been feeding them good quality frozen food and they seem quite happy, got some great colours on them too! so if anyone has any other suggestions to 'get them in the mood' i would realy appreciate it.
 

 

[techen]

The first thing I'd look into is tank size, 40 Litre tank for Cichlids will not work. I'd be sourcing a 150l+ tank for them to be at least happy with the room. So, With that I doubt very much they'd breed in such a tiny tank.
 
Also, Try testing the water. Water needs to be near prefect for fish to breed. 
 
Although am not great with cichlids, I believe they need a good rock formation . Something along these lines 
 

 
Although only doable with a large tank. So yea, Start with a new tank :3

 

[Tropical_Dave]

thanks for your help and advice i'll get looking for a bigger tank then

 

[Tropical_Dave]

they're breeding! got a whole load of eggs in their little cave both mum and dad are standing guard fanning the eggs, ive got my filter pumping in plenty of bubbles to keep the water oxygenated im soooooo excited lol

 

[FlyingSquid]

Just wondering but aren't Jewel Cichlids and African cichlid, I was recently told they were not but I had always believed them to be African cichlids.

 

[CoryFever]

Jewel cichlids are African, but they are not from the Rift Lakes (Malawi, Tanganyika, and Victoria). They have their roots in West Africa.

 

[Tropical_Dave]

they are African, from the river Nile, Niger and Congo but apparently they can also be found in north and south America.
http/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_jewelfish

 

[Tropical_Dave]

quick update if anyone is following, mum and dad have been watching the eggs very well, fanning and guarding them. alot of the eggs have little black dots visible now so im hoping they should be hatching in the next day or 2 as ive read it takes 2-3 days to hatch.
i'll update again tomorrow

here's a couple of pics i took when i first noticed the eggs on 26th January

 

[Tropical_Dave]

they've just hatched! woohoo

 

[Tropical_Dave]

so far so good, the little fry will be 2 weeks old tomorrow (or later today i should say as it is gone midnight lol).
the eggs were laid on sunday 26th january, hatched on the 28th, were free swimming on the 31st and now on the 11th of feb id say there is still a good 200 or more fry and are all eating and growing well all being well they should be moving into a bigger tank this week

 

[dougie]

Congratulations. Any pics of Mom & Dad too?