Jewels

[nslide10]

jewels are survivors and can eat 30 times there own weight from my experience i started with a pair of blacks and pink within the year i had a 55g 2x30g and a 15g filled with convicts i had the smaller ones jam packed at least 50 per tank and the big tank had a nice comfortable space for all th fish inside until i got the dovi to clean house. really my jewels could live in anything and theyd always reproduce when i wanted by changin temp to 80 degrees f and cleanin tank. the males have a bigger forhead and the females have a orange patch on there belly they r real easy to sex and mate most times mating is accidental. i loved sitting up till 3 or 4 am watching them fight and chase each other and watching the parents defend there brood. i love this breed of cichlid they were very entertaining to me and i loved to breed them. i probably had bout 1000 babys easy in the 2yrs i had them and the lfs bought them primarily from me but only $.75ea i had to give alot of mine away to friends and any1 who would take them i started a jewej and black infestation

 

[stiffler69]

jewels are survivors and can eat 30 times there own weight from my experience i started with a pair of blacks and pink within the year i had a 55g 2x30g and a 15g filled with convicts i had the smaller ones jam packed at least 50 per tank and the big tank had a nice comfortable space for all th fish inside until i got the dovi to clean house. really my jewels could live in anything and theyd always reproduce when i wanted by changin temp to 80 degrees f and cleanin tank. the males have a bigger forhead and the females have a orange patch on there belly they r real easy to sex and mate most times mating is accidental. i loved sitting up till 3 or 4 am watching them fight and chase each other and watching the parents defend there brood. i love this breed of cichlid they were very entertaining to me and i loved to breed them. i probably had bout 1000 babys easy in the 2yrs i had them and the lfs bought them primarily from me but only $.75ea i had to give alot of mine away to friends and any1 who would take them i started a jewej and black infestation

Thanks for the info they are very entertaining and from what ive seen i beleive you when you say about the eating, at the moment myn are chomping on some river shrimp almost as big as them and having no problems at all ripping it apart and eating it, they seem happy enough in the 30 litre but i plan on moving the fish around, get my black corys and few endlers into the 30 and put the 6 juwels into the 60 get a pair and get rid of the 4 others and take it from their ill probably only try breeding them once then move onto another project but its interesting learning for yourself with different breeds of fish and learning the different breeding habbits, ive already successfully bred corys, bn plecs, platys, endlers, guppys etc so wanted to try something a little more adventureous and these fish look great and arnt too much to buy.

thanks.

 

[stang1]

You're not the first to impulse buy and you won't be the last!
Sounds like you've got it all sorted, so good luck with the breeding.
They are beautiful Cichlids, just a shame they can be so aggressive.
Take no notice of Waterbender, it's not the first time he's been rude. We're all "safe" behind a keyboard.

 

[tigermoth2]

I kept a pair of jewels back in the 70's. They were kept with a pair of convicts and a pair of tilapia. I removed the tilapia - they were bought as Egyptian mouthbrooders (small, 4" max.), but when the smaller one had reached 5", I realised I had been had! Sold them to a lfs which was very excited by them (larger one was over 9" by then.
Back to the jewels and convicts. The convicts were looking very amorous and so I removed the jewels into a temporary tank when we went off for a weekend. Returned on Sunday evening and the convicts were still looking amorous - they never did spawn.
The jewels had been very busy and produced a mass of eggs. These hatched and produced at least 200 fry. The male gave the female a major beating and I removed her to allow her to recover. His care of the young was very touching and he looked after the shoal for days. I knew that jewels had little value in the aquarium trade then - nobody wanted them because of their vicious reputation and I culled them quite drastically. The babies made better food than young kribs - they were easier to catch than young kribs. They made excellent live food but that's probably not so politically correct nowadays. Eventually I removed the male and started growing on the young. The fighting was continual and it was always the biggest one that seemed to end up dead. Perhaps he(?) was continually having to fight for survival. I gave away small numbers of these to friends and eventually I had to move house and sold the lot (about 20), including the parents, to a lfs.
That was my experience with jewel fish. Beautiful fish, vivid colours, superb parental care (one at least) and vicious!
I really liked them.
Bob W

 

[stiffler69]

Thanks for the info guys im hearing more about these and love how the look in the tank but i may have to rehome earlier than i thought, the reason been my corys layed hundreads of eggs on sunday and i dont have the room to home them and grow them on if i dont free up this tank so their maybe a for sale thread popping up this evening for these 6 little guys