Rainbow breeding observations

[hollyfish2000]

I have two pairs of rainbow cichlids in my heavily planted 58 gallon. 1M and 1 F are older, my original pair off Aquabid, and have gold eyes. The second pair, 1M and 1F are their offspring, which I raised separatedly. They both have red eyes. (this is helpful in telling them all apart.) The original pair has been pretty dysfunctional. They've never gotten the hang of co-parenting and one always drives the other away once the eggs are laid. Usually it's the male driving the female away. The male does a good job of taking care of fry, but if I don't intervene, they all eventually disappear. The younger pair has also had several broods, but they work together and co-parent (but still end up losing all after some weeks).

Now the pairs have switched!! The "big daddy" is on the right side of the tank with the little female, and the "little boy" is on the left side with the "big mama." This is where it gets interesting -- the big mama drove away her new mate just as she did with the old one. He's tried very hard to be involved and has the scars to prove it. She's really a terrible mom, though. At least half the eggs went bad and by this morning,when there should have been wrigglers, there was nothing. By contrast, the pair on the right co-parented the eggs and now have a thriving, enormous cloud of wrigglers attached to plants in the back corner. I'm thinking I may try and remove the two without babies at this point (no small feat) and see if the "good parents" can succeed in raising some of their own. I'll keep you posted.

 

[jonclark96]

Good luck with getting the pair out of your tank. That is no small feat without completely uprooting everything.

The pair I got from you is still going stong for me, although they haven't bred in a while. Interestingly enough, I am pretty sure they both have red eyes.

 

[Spine]

Good luck with the fry Holly. I'm interested in some if they make it.

 

[chriscoli]

Wow, you've got Rainbow Chichlid social drama! I'll have to check out the eye color on mine. My pair tend to spawn about every 2 to 3 weeks, so if I leave them alone to spawn in the tank, I would eventually see the cloud of fry around the parents, but none survived more than a week or so...then I realized that dad had developed a taste for them and was snacking on them on the side. He was really subtle about it, too.

They usually lay their eggs on top of one of those fake cichlid caves, then mom moves the wrigglers into the cave until they are free swimming. If I remove the eggs early (by removing the whole cave while the eggs are stuck to it) not many survive, even if I just put it into a breeder net in the tank. So this time, I let mom move them into the cave as wrigglers and then I took the cave out. So far this batch is doing better but we'll see...

 

[hollyfish2000]

The one time I raised my own I simply used a brine shrimp net to grab some when they were about a week free swimming. I had pretty good luck with that approach. We'll see what happens.

Yeah, getting the one pair out is tough, especially when I don't like disrupting the pair trying to deal with the babies. I may wait and remove them later . . .

 

[mchambers]

Turkey boasters also are a good way to remove fry!

 

[Tony]

Holly - Is there any way to drop in an egg crate divider down the middle? I remember the tank is really thick, but if there's a way, this will halp you catch the two without bothering the parents too much. I use a divider all the time when I'm trying to catch Africans out of my big tanks.

 

[hollyfish2000]

I don't have egg crate, but that's a thought. There just is so many plants in the way, etc. I do have a giant net, though and with the right help (hint hint) probably could do it. Don't need to right away, though. I'll see how things develop.

 

[hollyfish2000]

the "good" parents are hanging in there and doing a great job of moving the wrigglers around. The "bad" parents are lurking and I'm probably going to try and get them out this weekend. I do have some regular styrofoam. I may insert that in the middle and try to block them off. Not egg crate, but might work if I can wedge it between plants.

Stay tuned.