My rainbow cichlids spawned!!

[HermsTheWord]

My first spawn ever! So, uh, now what? Do I take the fry out? I really don't have room in my house for another tank to raise them, though I suppose I could wrangle up a 10-gallon tank. Anybody want some fry?

Right now, parents and babies are in a 55-gallon tank with a bunch of tetras, a gourami, 3 german blue ram juvies and some cories. The parents are shooing everybody away from the herd, though I've seen one unfortunate fry get gobbled up. What to do?

 

[HermsTheWord]

One more dumb newbie question

What am I supposed to feed the fry? And how?

 

[dogofwar]

Congrats!

I'd just let the parents practice raising the fry. Chances are a few will make it.

The fry will eat powdered flake. You can get Golden Pearls from YFS or Kensfish, I think.

Matt

 

[mchambers]

I agree with dogofwar. They may survive: I had a pair raise about 50 fry earlier this in a 29 with some corydoras and tetras (black skirt and serape).

Also, I've got some sort of quite small plastic tank (maybe 2 gallons) that you are welcome to have. I think you'd have to put an airstone in it. The fry would be fine in there, I think.

Hikari First Bites are another food option. You can get them almost local stores and the big chains.

 

[HermsTheWord]

Thanks for the info

I guess I'll probably leave them in the tank for now and see what happens. When do the fry become old enough to be separated from the parents and, say, offered up in a CCA auction?

 

[mchambers]

Probably two months. They grow pretty quickly and are very hardy. If they don't get eaten in the next 10 days, you'll have more baby rainbows than you can count or need.

 

[Becca]

Congratulations!

I'm starting to think that I might be the only Rainbow Cichlid keeper who has never had them spawn. I've had my pair since June... maybe they're just too young, or perhaps they can't get over the fact that they're siblings.

 

[mchambers]

Patience, Grasshopper. I'm pretty sure yours are a male and a female.

My rainbows, which are siblings to yours (as I recall), just laid eggs for the first time about three weeks ago. Yours will start spawning soon, I bet.

 

[Becca]

Patience, Grasshopper. I'm pretty sure yours are a male and a female.

My rainbows, which are siblings to yours (as I recall), just laid eggs for the first time about three weeks ago. Yours will start spawning soon, I bet.

Holly seemed to consider me lucky not to have a few hundred Rainbows swimming around :lol:.

They have a 150 to populate - they'd better get busy!

 

[mchambers]

You could play Barry White to them, but I really don't think it's necessary to get them in the mood.

 

[hollyfish2000]

They are good parents, although the swarm will diminish a bit day by day. The parents will retrieve them by mouth and then spit them out someplace safer, so don't assume the fry are being eaten by the parents. If you have a lot of hiding places, at least a few will manage to survive even without being pulled. Not sure you'll find a lot of buyers in CCA, though. I think I saturated that market with my various offspring!

 

[Forester]

I have had four for over 6 months and they haven't spawned.

Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

 

[festaedan]

Congrats, have you tried grounding up some pellets, put them in a plastic container with water, and shoot the mixture at the fry with a turkey baster. Thats how I feed my fry. It scares the crap out of the parents the first few times but they'll get used to it.

 

[Becca]

Congrats, have you tried grounding up some pellets, put them in a plastic container with water, and shoot the mixture at the fry with a turkey baster. Thats how I feed my fry. It scares the crap out of the parents the first few times but they'll get used to it.

I keep chemistry pipettes around (you can buy 50 "disposable" ones for about $5 on Amazon, maybe less) for feeding fry, filter feeders, micro fish, etc. They are great because you can control how much you're feeding a bit better than with a turkey baster. You can also reserve a few for measuring out medications, etc.