Cichlid Fry!

[monandant]

My butterfly cichlid x, has managed to keep her eggs secret from us and now there are loads of tiny fry! (100+)
She is madly protecting them and the green terror seems to be protecting them also, (her below and terror above her), but we have a convict, blaackbelt, peacock, dwarf and jewel that all want to eat them! Not to mention the silver sharks. WHAT DO I DO?? Help please!

 

[xx-miss-limber-xx]

My butterfly cichlid x, has managed to keep her eggs secret from us and now there are loads of tiny fry! (100+)
She is madly protecting them and the green terror seems to be protecting them also, (her below and terror above her), but we have a convict, blaackbelt, peacock, dwarf and jewel that all want to eat them! Not to mention the silver sharks. WHAT DO I DO?? Help please!

Do you have a breeding net? Or anything that you could use as one for the time being? like... somthing to seperate the fry from the other tank mates... even an spare tank somewhere?? I used a tupperware pot once pegged to the inside of the tank so it gets the water warmth.....

Other than that... well done. I have heard its quite hard to breed cichlids

Hopefully they will survive... alhtough I dont know what you are going to do with 100+ cichlids lool

Sorry I know my advice is simple, but I thought id try and help.

xx

 

[monandant]

My butterfly cichlid x, has managed to keep her eggs secret from us and now there are loads of tiny fry! (100+)
She is madly protecting them and the green terror seems to be protecting them also, (her below and terror above her), but we have a convict, blaackbelt, peacock, dwarf and jewel that all want to eat them! Not to mention the silver sharks. WHAT DO I DO?? Help please!

Do you have a breeding net? Or anything that you could use as one for the time being? like... somthing to seperate the fry from the other tank mates... even an spare tank somewhere?? I used a tupperware pot once pegged to the inside of the tank so it gets the water warmth.....

Other than that... well done. I have heard its quite hard to breed cichlids

Hopefully they will survive... alhtough I dont know what you are going to do with 100+ cichlids lool

Sorry I know my advice is simple, but I thought id try and help.

xx

Thanks so much, i was thinking an ice cream container or something! Someone suggested putting perspex in to divide the tank, but should the mum be with them too? Shes so proud, last time her eggs got eaten

 

[xx-miss-limber-xx]

Anything that keeps them seperate but keeps the water warm should be OK for the moment until you can get to your LFS and get something more permanant for them... like a breeding net or a divider or seperate tank? but im not sure whats the best way to seperate them.. and im not 100% sure on the mother situation, I know some mothers eat their own fry... so sorry I cant help on that part either.

Hope I was of some help. Im no expert but no one else replied so i thought id tell you what I knew from past experience with guppies when i was about 10 lol

Good luck x

 

[didz04]

Anything that keeps them seperate but keeps the water warm should be OK for the moment until you can get to your LFS and get something more permanant for them... like a breeding net or a divider or seperate tank? but im not sure whats the best way to seperate them.. and im not 100% sure on the mother situation, I know some mothers eat their own fry... so sorry I cant help on that part either.

Hope I was of some help. Im no expert but no one else replied so i thought id tell you what I knew from past experience with guppies when i was about 10 lol

Good luck x

Hi, if you want a net in the same tank with the fry in there, i think is not a good idea because my convict fry that were in the net got eaten somehow, then i saw the mother who saw her babies through the net trying to save them but grabbing them and pulling them so the fry got squished. Also the other fish figured it out that the fry are in there and ate them too.
Hope this helps.

 

[Teuchter]

This is perhaps not what you want to hear, but I thought I'd pass on my experience. I had several broods of yellow lab cichlids in my tank and most of them got eaten at first. What I did was to make sure there was plenty dense plants and rock crevices for the fry to hide in, where the bigger fish did not see them or could not get to them. From the latter batches (which probably started out at 20 - 30 fry) about 5 survived to maturity. I now have three generations of yellow labs!

Having found a few fry in my cannister filters (a great hiding place) I would advise perhaps putting a fine mesh over the suction while your fry are very small (or check very carefully each time you clean the filter!).

It may sound a little cruel to some people, but that's probably the way it goes in the wild too. Anyways, I wouldnt be able to keep hundreds of them!

Hope this helps - good luck!

 

[yvez9]

If you want to keep all the fry, go get another tank and put them in there. the mother will defend them in the tank until they get eaten or too big (the parents sometimes turn on their own babies at first). This will cause agression issues with your fish i'd imagine.

The mother won't really care if you take away the babies and she'll probably have more anyway.

If you plan on caring for the fry in order to sell them, i'd get another tank. If you want to keep them, I'd just let them be and whatever survives stays. That's what I do otherwise you'll have hundreds of fry and teenage cichlids that will eventually destroy everything!

I know it's exciting the first time but keep in mind the breed very often.