First attempt....

Well as some of you know I posted pics of my one of my females and commented on the CT female being huge with eggs. Some of you suggested putting her in with a male to see if I could get a spawn going. So last week I set up my breeding tank put the male in for a while to get used to it then added the female Saturday afternoon (inside a glass chimney) and so far.......




nothing

The male at first just swam around the chimney constantly flaring at her and showing his beard, this has calmed down some what and now hes just swimming around the tank and occasionally having a face off with her through the glass. Im not sure how shes supposed to react and I cant tell if she has breeding bars because she has a light pinkinsh white body colour. And the male, lazy sod that he is hasn't even thought about building a bubble nest lol. So unsure where to go from here, feeling a bit sorry for the girl being stuck in the chimney for the weekend. I am assuming I shouldnt let him and her get to one another unless he shows signs of building a nest ?

Atm it looks like he'd rather murder her than mate with her lol

put her back in her usual tank for now hun

want the male to have alteast started a bubblenest before even considering letting her out.

if you've another male to try with then it's worth doin in a few days, if not any bubbles made by others you could steal? sometimes it only takes a few adopted bubbles for a male to get busy

Ahh ok Kel thnx, I only have the one male so I will put her back in her usual tank and give her a break. I was hoping that letting him see her would get him fired up but after 2 days and no result I think its time for a break.

Cheers for the advise

Hey Magzmoir ,,,

Try introducing her for ten minutes a day for a week or so ,,
Then leave the chimney in !
You may have a little more success then !

Thanks turtle I'll give that a go

I have another 2 females to try him with just in case hes a fusspot and doesnt like the one Im offering him now lol

atm Ive moved them both back to thier own tanks gonna give the breeding tank a water change and leave it with the filter running. Will it be ok to set up the chimney in the males own tank and just pop the female in there for 10 mins each day then move them both to the breeding tank if he starts blowing nests. Or should I just keep him in the breeding tank the whole time ?

Hun, dont give up with the first girl yet. Mine took days before he would take any notice of her.. Just keep trying

yes you could do that while your sorting breeding tank just don't let her out in his

if he makes a nest transfer as many bubbles as you can over once you move him too

will speed things up loads

letting the male see the female for a few mins daily for atleast a week while heavily feeding them both is best way to condition them prior to spawn tank, and starting the full breeding process

Thanks guys I'll let you know how I get on.


On a side note one of my electric yellow cichlids is holding a mouthfull of eggs, I just noticed last night so I'll have fry just not the ones I was aiming for

Right had a brain wave last night (gimme a round of applause cos it doesnt happen much lol). Cleaned out the breeding tank and filled it up, put my 3 females in it and pushed it right up against the side of the males tank, switched off his filter (hagen stingray 5 witht he nozzle pionted at the back wall to reduce surface disturbance). Put lights out and went to bed, got up this morning and Voila the boy was building his bubble nest right in the middle of his tank.

Watched him for a while and he seems to prefer my little dark female to the other 2. In fact every time the one I tried introducing him to before comes up to the glass he gets really aggressive flaring his beard and trying to get through the glass at her lol. Little one comes up and hes all flirty and following her around.

Think I will see what progress he makes with the nest, it wasnt very big and he seems to forget about it the minute he sees the female he doesnt like come over to the glass. might remove the other 2 back to the community tank and see if that makes him more focussed.

You could pop her into your chimney and see what he does then.. He may get even more interested with her in his tank..

Good luck hun, oh and congrats on the baby cichlids

Hope it works out for you

I think I'll try that Teri, Im going to have to move him to the breeding tank at some point but I want to make sure Im getting the female hes interested in right first.

And thnx the Electric yellow cichlid mum is just swimming around looking like she has a mouth full of chewing gum atm it'll be about another 2 wks + before she releases any fry. Im thinking about throwing my tetra's into the big community tank and making the small one a nursery tank for her, that way the babies wont be in danger of being chomped when its release time.

If you put the male in the breeding tank and wait for him to have built a nest, then you can try one female at a time in the chimney to see which he'd rather.

It seem's he's made his choice. Little dark female seem's to have what he wants.

Great idea about the nursery tank for the cichlid mummy and her brood.
keep us posted when the release day finally comes

Well he changed his mind lol I put the dragon PK female in and he built a nest in the breeding tank. Ive let her out and they have been embracing for about 45 mins now, thing is I dont see many eggs dropping (Ive spotted about 6 in total since I was sitting watching). Have I perhaps not conditioned her enough ?

The male seems to be ignoring the ones that I have seen its the female going down and taking them up to the nest. Is this normal ?

THey take a few wraps before any eggs are realsed, then its a few at a time.. midway through there's usually around 15-25 dropped per wrap.

males can sometimes take a while before he catches on to put them in the nest

give him an hour after female is removed, if he's still not touching them then panic!

lol ok they been in the tank together for about an hour things arent hectic I was expecting a lot more eggs but maybe they are just being a bit slow. Atm she doing a pretty good job of gathering what has dropped and putting them in the nest lol

Going to go back and watch them for another 15 - 30 mins and see how they are doing .......feel a bit like a voyeur tho

can't help watching, we all do it! lol

so fascinating!

It really is ! Im getting quite excited lol

The females dropping a lot more eggs now and both of them are collecting and taking them up to the nest.

congratulations daddy has got the hang of it!

they are still at it .....thats about 3 and a half hours now

yea some are really quick and done in half an hour then you get others who take ages :s

I bet the eggs are falling thick and fast now!

They are lol daddy is gonna have his fins full if all of those hatch

Ive taken the female out now, he started chasing her around and beating her up so I figured the sweet lovin part was over.

Gonna post some pics of dad and the nest

Do I leave the light on or can I switch it off as normal ?

Pics as promised -