Rainbow Cichlid

[julesjules]

hi everyone I have a pair of rainbow cichlids they have there own tank I have only had them for about a month on sunday woke up to find eggs with two very busy parents guarding for all the world. Daft question having never had these great fish before should the eggs turn white? well some of them are a pale tan colour and quite a few look like tiny white golf balls. How long will it be before i will see babies?

 

[england]

hi welcome to tff, this is in the wrong section you you will find at some point it will be moved,
ok well rainbow cichlids, good choice, beautiful fish, is this there first batch ever? if yes you may find they will fail caring for them but around 10days or so they will lay again, tan is good, white is bad<fungus> they usually hatch in two day's at first egg with tail's, within 7-8day's free swimming, try not to keep peering into the tank as this may scare them enough to either stop caring or eat the eggs...

good luck

 

[Colin_T]

Besides what nelly has said, but don't worry if they eat the eggs because they will breed again in a couple of weeks. Many fish take a few attempts to get things right, it's a learning experience.

You should get yourself a micro-worm culture and some brineshrimp eggs. Then you will have something to feed the babies when they arrive.
The brineshrimp eggs need to be hatched in salt water. You add a small amount of dry eggs to some seawater or salt water (made from rock or swimming pool salt), aerate the mixture and after a day or so, the eggs will have hatched and the nauplii (baby shrimp) can be fed to the baby fish.

Micro-worms live in plastic containers (ice-cream buckets) and are fed on porridge (oatmeal). As the worm numbers build up, they climb up onto the sides of the containers and you wipe them off with your finger, and dip them into the tank for the fish. New cultures should be start every week or so.