Spawned my Jade Eyed Cichlid pair

I am very happy and a bit sad!

I have a pleco tube I made myself in my tank and my plecs used this from time to time before I bought my Jade Eyed cichlid pair.

Was doing a big tank cleanout today and found eggs/wrigglers in the tube. I had already tipped the tube a little before I realised which makes me a little sad and feel I should have prevented this but did not realise they would have moved the eggs here the tube has approx a 2 inch opening and the female being half the males size just fits inside.

They must have spawned and moved the fertilised eggs into the tube.

Good news is the female picked some of the wrigglers up and alot also stayed in the tube. Keen to avoid disturbing them further I placed the tube close to the female at one end of the tank and carried on with maintanence on the tank as careful as possible.

The female and male are still thankfully guarding the tube and when I placed the tube back I got a little nip off the female (wish she had done this before I picked out the tube.

The annoying thing is that the tube often gathers dirt when the plecs dont use it and that is what the wrigglers looked like initially at the back of the tube so i though best tip that out!

Fingers crossed quite a few will make it:woohoo:

Congratulations on your spawning :woohoo: and I hope there are plenty of survivors.

By Jade eyed cichlid do you mean Cryptoheros spilurums or one of the other Cryptoheros?

They are Cryptoheros Spilurum.

It's amazing watching how well they parent the wrigglers

Do the Spilurum change colour when they are breeding, only I have Cryptoheros Cutteri and they are spawning they change colour and there eyes go black.

well done mike! Look forward to some photo's?!?

good on you. hope the female is successful. cheers jk :thumbup:

Update the fry are out of the tube I am still really shocked the female fitted in my pleco tube and chose to hide the young in there. The fry are now free swimming (lots of them) they appear to still have a small part of egg sack on them tho by their tummy mum and dad are guarding them well.

I dont have a very good camera but will try to get some pics at the weekend.

I am crushing up spirilina flake for them and it appears as tho the parents are mushing it up and spitting it out for the oung amazing to watch.

Yes they completely change colour the male especially has gone white with banding looks a little like a big convict cichlid and they no longer have the blue eyes which was actually what dre me to them lol.

I did read on the net tho that this happens and they stay this way until they stop caring for the young after approx 3 -4 weeks usually when they are ready to spawn again apparently.

They only have a couple of small community fish in with them a hoplo cat and a few plecs as I wasn't deliberately trying to breed them so I am hoping at least some of the fry will survive. My tank is four foot by 18 inches.

The plan is to grow the young that make it on in my 3 foot by 18 inch wide by 12 inch high tank that I was initially going to have a go at breeding my frog plecs in but i need to get it cycled first.

Any ideas how long sponge filters would take to cycle in my existing tank?

As the plan was to use enough water when doing a big water change to fill my 3 foot tank and run sponge filters to grow the young on but I was first going to cycle the sponge filters in my up and running four foot tank as I though they would cycle quicker and then be able to handle a larger bio load than will be needed when moved to the smaller tank as there will be less fish.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

just place your new sponge in 4ft for a week or so should cycle fairly quick
and how many have you got in 4ft if yu have 2 just add already cycled one into 3ft and put new one in 4ft with the 2nd pre existing if that make sense....

also maybe as a tip, i always have a very small sponge filter in my tank, just as a back up if needed in emergency cases. cheers jk :thumbup:

Thanks guys and I will do that when I get them I will buy 3 and leave one permanently in my 4 foot tank

thanks

Pics

Hi everyone,

Thought I would add pics of the pair and a pic of one of the young. I think there is approximately 15 to 20 in the tank and all just under a cm.

Difficult to photograph as I dont have the greatest camera but just wanted to share.

Thanks