Hemichromis gutattus (Jewel Cichlid) spawn

[chriscoli]

A pair that I got from Sam has finally successfully spawned.

I had one pair in a community tank and although I see them spawn regularly....no fry. I put another pair in a heavily planted 29 with some blue tail goodeids and a few other much smaller fish and they spawned within a day or two.

So far, they've got free-swimming fry, but I'm already seeing the numbers drop (probably not a bad thing considering how many there were to start with).

I removed everyone except the parents and the goodeids, who seem to be able to get out of the way fast enough. So far I haven't seen any of the goodeids predating on the Jewel fry.

We'll see if any make it......

 

[zackcrack00]

Good job! I really like Jewel Cichlids, and if I had gotten a 40 Breeder instead of a 29 standard for Christmas, I would've gotten a pair of these! Congratulations!

 

[chriscoli]

So, after several spawns of these, I finally moved one of my pairs to a 15 gallon, with plans on putting yhem into a 20 long so that they could spawn. Well, after the move to the 15, the male decided to beat up the female a bit and I didn't have their 20 ready yet.....she went into hiding under some wood and plants at the back of the tank so, she seemed at least protected in the short term. Then a few days later, I saw her out again and healing her ragged fins nicely and getting along with the male. A few days after that, both parents were herding around a swarm of fry. So, they didn't make it to a 20 long yet, but it looks like I might have a successful spawn. Fry have been getting freshly hatched baby brine shrimp, decapsulated brine shrimp eggs, and golden pearls. They definitely have the largest full bellies when I feed the baby brine shrimp.

 

[Leffler817]

Congrats! They are such a cool fish. I foolishly kept a pair in a 10 hex and they cranked out fry. That was the first fish I bred and was able to trade juvies to a LFS for credit!


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[chriscoli]

Nice! They are gorgeous fish!

 

[festaedan]

congrats, they are stunning! If your losing fry it might be the filter intake, that alsways happened with the texas hybrids.

 

[chriscoli]

I was losing fry because they were spawning in a community tank. Now that they are in their own tank, they're doing well raising fry.

If you are having problems losing fry to the filter intake, you should consider using a prefilter on it. Or, as I am doing right now, use a Mattenfilter.

 

[chriscoli]

So, after talking to Anton and sharing some pics of the parents, he believes that these may be what he considers to be the real H. lifalili from the Congo. He's calling them H. cf. lifalili "Moanda"

This is a pic of mine that I sent him, and he shared a pic of his back with me...I'd swear it's this fish's sibling.

 

[chriscoli]

Also, these are from the same batch that Sam had, so anyone that got Jewels from him in the past year or so has these.

 

[JasonC]

Amazing colors on that fish!

 

[chriscoli]

There'll be some in this week's auction!


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[mchambers]

Beautiful fish!

 

[mchambers]

How big do they get? The articles I found suggest that they are fairly small, about 4".

http://www.borstein.info/profiles/west_africa/hemimoanda.html

For an exhausting debate about exactly what these fish are, see:

http://www.cichlidae.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=8441

 

[chriscoli]

Yep, these stay fairly small......but can clear a big tank when spawning. They've occupied 2/3 of my 6ft tank with their last spawn.

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[gravel_digger]

congrats on the successful spawn. that pic is stunning i love the coloration of these and was actually looking at some this past weekend at HOT