Brichardi's Have Just Had Babies! Advice Needed!

[Kev_A]

Completely unplanned!

I didn't even realise they were male and female, I had them in my 240L community tank but they were very aggressive towards my other fish so I but them in my 25L to seperate them and decide what I wanted to do.

Nothing there yesterday but went to feed them today and there's approximately 30 fry! and they appear (although very small) to be free swimming, is this correct?

I'd like to keep them and grow a little to sell but the last time I had dealings with Cichlid fry was with my Kribensis pair, I just left them to get on with it but after around 30 days the parents ate the babies, I don't want the same to happen here.

The parents don't seem too bothered, they're just swimming around the tank as normal, should I net the fry and put them in my breeder net in the big tank or is there something else I need to do?

Kev

 

[River Dog]

I would leave them to it, I had several generations of Brichardi in the same tank. You will find that the parents will let the first lot of fry, help protect the second and so on. I think you need to get a larger tank as 25l is not enough for them. I raised fry using crushed flake and powdered Prima.

(just a footnote, This should be in African / Old World Cichlids section as Brichardi are inhabitants of Lake Tanganyika.)

 

[Kev_A]

I would leave them to it, I had several generations of Brichardi in the same tank. You will find that the parents will let the first lot of fry, help protect the second and so on. I think you need to get a larger tank as 25l is not enough for them. I raised fry using crushed flake and powdered Prima.

(just a footnote, This should be in African / Old World Cichlids section as Brichardi are inhabitants of Lake Tanganyika.)

Cheers for the reply!

Yeah I know I need a bigger tank, the 25L is more of a sick bay/quarantine but as I said, I was actually thinking of getting rid

Would something like a 60L be sufficient? I have limited space and money at the moment.

So there's definately no need to seperate either?

 

[Kev_A]

Anyone?

 

[dthoffsett]

20 or more gallons would be better if you intend to leave the fry in there long-term.

Here's a great article on them. [URL="http/www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/n_brichardi.php"]http/www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/n_brichardi.php[/URL]