My Firemouth Cichlids Have Had Babies

[methven]

Hi folks,

My two firemouths have just had babies - they are just a vibrating mass of tiny things at the moment. The mother is staying very close to them, and moves them between pits that have been dug in the substrate. The father (the King of the tank) keeps the other fish away.

I am feeding 'Liquifry' 2 - 3 times a day. And taking care that the parents are well fed with flake, alge wafers and occasional frozen bloodworm. I am also making sure the other fish are well fed so they aren't tempted. Water quality remains good.

One point of note - the babies arrived after I didn't change the water for 3 weeks (long story). The pH also dropped slightly due to recent addition of peat granules to the filter (to 6.4).

Tank: 180 litres
Fish: 2 x Firemouths; 5 x juvernile Tiger Barbs; 1 x Red Tail Black Shark; 1 x Bristle nose catfish; 5 x zebra danios

Questions:

1. How likely are the babies to survive? The feeling I get is that give either the catfish or the Tiger Barbs a split second, and they will be in there.
2. Should I be thinking about moving some of the tankmates?
3. How long does it take for them to grow?

Any advice gratefully received!

 

[severum boy]

Well, firemouths are very good parents and do a pretty good job of keeping other fish away from the fry. However, until the fry are swimming about, they do not need to be fed and any food you add until they can swim will be wasted. Just wait a couple of days until they eat their yolk sack and can swim around, then feed them. The diet will be fine for a few weeks, then they are best fed on dry powdered fry food. Once they get big enough to take slightly crushed flake, move them onto it. Start feeding 3 times a day, then when you feed the flakes, take it down to 2. The fry will only be tolerated by the male until a cirtain size, so when they reach it move them on to a different tank, or if they are 4cm or so, sell them to a relatiler.

The other tank mates should be well away in a corner from the pair; if they are not, the male isent doing a great job at keeping the teratory. Unless you see one or two individuals that are looking pretty bad from attacks by the pair, they can be left alone. Baring in mind your tank size, the other fish can probably be left in. How big are your firemouths?

 

[methven]

Thanks for the info / advice - very useful.

The two adults and their fry have taken over almost half of the tank - they seem to be doing a very good job so far!

The male is about 10cm long, the female 7cm. Here are some photos I took last night.

 

[severum boy]

Excellent photos, everyone looks happy. I dont suppose you have any full tank shots?
If you think the other fish are ok in the other half of the tank, leave them. But if they are not (and bare in mind the firemouths will be growing and so will the terratory) move them out.
But ignoring that, everything looks like its moving along well, keep updating!

 

[methven]

Update:

It looks as though the father is beginning to lose interest... Last night he had moved to the other end of the tank and left the female to it. This morning he was back with her, but again this evening he has moved to the other end of the tank and is 'hanging out' with the tiger barbs (who he used to chase if they came anywhere close to the female / fry). The number fo fry is about half that of yesterday.

Below is a photo from this evening. In the bottom left you can just see the female and some of the fry. The big male and the tiger barbs are all over on the right. Occasionally the male will move to around half way across the tank and have a 'flare off' with the female.

I don't fancy the chances of the remaining fry.

You mentioned in an earlier message that the male will only tolerate the fry up to a certian size... this small??!

 

[jayjay]

Congrats on the fry. Isn't there any chance you could remove the fry then? I love your tank by the way, what type rocks and plants have you used? I see the riccia, vallis, java fern but what are the others if you don't mind?

 

[methven]

Congrats on the fry. Isn't there any chance you could remove the fry then? I love your tank by the way, what type rocks and plants have you used? I see the riccia, vallis, java fern but what are the others if you don't mind?

Thanks. The rocks just came from LFS and I am afraid that I can't remember the name of the other plant in the tank - this is my first tank and at the time of setting it up last September I didn't pay a huge amount of attention to plant names other than what looked good!

 

[methven]

Update:

Few fry remain, maybe around 50. Strangely, the male and female have separated, but each is looking after a small group of fry each. The female remains in the back left of the tank, the male in the centre at the front. Both chase other fish away.

 

[angelmouse]

well done, really good photos, keep us updated
Angel

 

[Hobbit]

Do they chase eachother away too? Just a curiousity question. If you really want these to live and maybe gain store credit or something, you should consider moving the fry to another tank

 

[severum boy]

An adult male firemouth (an educated guess) should tolerate babies up to 1-1.5 cm. But the larger the male, the larger the fry tolerated. You should get an extra tank for thefry to grow them on to selling size. A 12 gal tank will be fine for about a dozen babies.

 

[methven]

An adult male firemouth (an educated guess) should tolerate babies up to 1-1.5 cm. But the larger the male, the larger the fry tolerated. You should get an extra tank for thefry to grow them on to selling size. A 12 gal tank will be fine for about a dozen babies.

Thanks for the advice.

When moving the fry to the nursery tank, should the mother also be moved, or just the fry by themselves?

 

[Hobbit]

depends on the size of the mom. I would probably say they're ok by themselves w/ the food u mentioned earlier. How big is the mother?

 

[severum boy]

The fry can just go to the nursery on their own. In one spawning of Vieja sinspilum the male had to be moved away and the female reared the young until I sold them at 1.5". But at the moment, im rearing Cichlasoma bolivense babies alone, so I guess you should make the desision based on whats happening in your tank.
Personally, I prefer to keep the babies seperate.

 

[Hobbit]

being cichlids though, if your looking for the most survivng fry, it depends on the parents, since cichlids have such personality. Some parents are mediocre parents, and you may lose quite a bit of fry, and some parents are so good, you wot lose any fry. I would probably give the fry their own tank, since the parents aren't working together