Jewel Cichlid Pair Should I Separate Them?

[Hunterprey]

I have a breeding pair of Jewel cichlids. They been together for almost 2 years and breed every 3 weeks. I added 2 smaller Jewel cichlids few months ago and the newer Jewels are bigger than the pair now.

I'm thinking of separating the pair for a few months to give them chance to get bigger. I think them breeding often slows down their growth. I don't really want to separate them cuz they're a good couple and the male is protective of the female. Will they pair up again when I reintroduce them to each other later on? Are they gonna catch up eventually in size if I keep them together? Thoughts?

Thanks in advance

 

[Akasha72]

unless they are fighting with the new one's I wouldn't disturb them. I guess it comes to the old saying of 'if it's not broken, don't try to fix it'
 
If they are breeding every three weeks they are getting enough nourishment

 

[Hunterprey]

Thank you. I don't really want to separate the pair cuz they're always together. It just feels like they're frequent spawning is really slowing down they're growth. Oh well maybe just give them a little extra food.

Thanks for response

 

[Akasha72]

are you varying their food or just feeding flake? It may help if you were to add things like frozen bloodworm, artemia, mysis, blackworms, red worms, white worms etc ... these contain more protein than flake and would replicate what they would be eating in the wild. Something from the freezer twice a week won't hurt
 
If you read this it says they are mainly carnivors and so feeding something meaty would be far better for them
 
http/www.seriouslyfish.com/species/hemichromis-lifalili/

 

[Hunterprey]

I feed them northfin cichlid formula as a staple also some Hikari cichlid gold, NLS, and fluval arctic krill. frozen bloodworm/brine shrimp once a week. The others are actually growing pretty fast. Just my pair a bit slower.

I moved them from my 75 to 180. It might help a little although I only feed them twice a day to avoid the tank from getting too messy. Would you suggest to feed more often?

 

[Akasha72]

my lot get fed twice a day too - they get tetra prima in a morning (with pellets for my cories and plecs) and 3 evenings in the week they get something meaty from the freezer. They seem to do really well on that routine so I think you could up the amount on the meaty stuff easily without causing them problems

 

[Hunterprey]

Might up my feeding a little then.

Instead of starting a new topic I'll just ask it here. I've been trying to feed my flowerhorn. He's only about an inch and a half. He only eat flakes and frozen food. I try to feed him Hikari cichlid gold but just spits them out, also fluval arctic krill and also spits them out.

Do you know of any good staple food for Flowerhorns that they can't resist?

 

[Akasha72]

I don't I'm afraid ... some fish are just fussy about what they eat though. Some also resist a change to their food. I've tried changing my lot over to New Era flake from the Prima but they just ignore it so I went back to the Prima

 

[Hunterprey]

Thanks tho and I just noticed my Flowerhorn started eating g Northern cichlid formula.. I might be OK now!