Pelvicachromis Pulcher spawning

Okay guys, go easy, it's the first fish I've bred, and hopefully the first of many.
(I also have white cloud mountain minnow fry) Hopefully I'll be able to breed L144 when I finally find a sexable female.

Anyway,

My pair of pelvicachromis pulcher have brought babies out of their cave after only two weeks in their tank.

Tank:

Fluval Roma 125 with Fluval U3.



Water Conditions:

Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
pH 7.6
GH: 12
KH: 6

Fish:

6 Harlequin Rasboras and a pair of pelvicachormis pulcher.

They were conditioned on freeze dried brineshimp and various frozen foods.

I knew the had spawned after much diplaying and courting and going in and out of their cave. They spawned in the terrocota plec tube, and I was able to watch the eggs develop by shining a torch into the cave.


Dad defending spawn sight.



Mum after spawning.



The first babies came out on sunday night.

Fry at two days old eating algae etc of their cave:



Close up of fry at two days old:


Four days old:





The Swarm!



The fry are being fed on finely crushed flake, crushed freeze dried brineshine, and natural stuff in the tank.

I think I have been quite lucky with this pair, they have been excellent parents, chasing the harlequins away when they get to close, not being aggressive to each other, and round up rebelious fry!

YOU ARE DOING WELL and congrats.....they are great parents. cheers jk :thumbup:

Hi all,

I think I have been quite lucky with this pair, they have been excellent parents, chasing the harlequins away when they get to close, not being aggressive to each other, and round up rebelious fry!

Click to expand...

Congratulations, Kribs are usually very good parents, so good that you may find that you have trouble over time getting rid of the fry, as you tend to end up with a lot of sub-adults to move on.

If you do want to increase fry survivorship you can change to a sand substrate (fry tend to fall between the grains of gravel and the parents can't move the gravel around), add some "Java" moss to the tank (very good for snaring small food particles) and get Micro-worm & Grindal worm cultures (from EBay, try "Ste12000" if you are in the UK).

cheers Darrel

Thanks for the replies, I had worried about the fry getting stuck between the gravel, but the parents just suck them out og the gap and spit them back out with the rest of the babies! :lol:

Very cool. :thumbup: Congrats with the spawn and Good Luck with the fry. :yes:

One week old fry.

(sorry for the rubbish pics)

UPDATE: 2 weeks old

A quick pic of a two week old fry.

Fry are now two weeks old all devolping brilliantly, I have about 40-50 fry.

Hello,

Agree with Darrell, maybe in future or also for your apisto tank, use fine silica sand as a substrate. Well done again and lovethe photo updates. Keep this up...cheers jk :thumbup:

Thanks for your reply. When I set this tank up I didn't know I was going to end up with these fish, I had never kept cichlids before, but when I saw them in a local small shop I had some store credit for (they were only £5 for a pair anyway) I couldn't resist them.

I am lucky in that my grandparents own a B&B with an indoor pool so I'm going to borrow (steal) :lol::lol: some pool filter sand for my apisto tank

:lol: make sure you clean it properly and do not use used sand, it has to be new. My Apistos love the sand . cheers jk :thumbup:

Haha yeah there is a fresh bag in the pump room think I might 'borrow' the pH meter too :whistle:

A short video of the fry eating freeze dried brine shrimp

Sorry it's on its side I don't know how to rotate it, or how to embed it properly into the forum. :dk:

[ame="http://s1082.photobucket.com/albums/j376/James165/?action=view&current=028.mp4"]028.mp4 video by James165 - Photobucket[/ame]

Update

Update at 3 Weeks!

Water changes are carried out twice a week to a volume of 20 litres.
Fry all developing well, very pleased with their progress.


Fry.



Swarm! With blury mum in the background.



More fry with mum.

excellent, fry look good and thanks for the update. good stuff..cheers jk :thumbup:

Fry now over four weeks old, progressing fantastically! Parents moved to different tank to make way for some young lemon bns.

Nice progress, they are growing well!
Love the little lemons too!

After taking my pair of P. pulcher out of the 125 fry tank so i could put my lemon bns in there on tuesday, this is what I see yesterday.







A bog wood hole full of eggs. It was only four weeks ago they spawned last! What am I going to do with them all? :lol::whistle:

5 and half weeks.

I've counted over 50 fry.

The fry are getting harder to photograph as they cover the whole tank now.

Pics

6 weeks old!