Equipment Required for Breeding African Mbuna Cichlids

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brandonv26

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Oct 10, 2012
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I would eventually like to get into breeding my African Malawai mbuna cichlids. Currently I just have a 55 gallon main tank that I keep all my fish in. I am trying to decide how expensive it will be to get the equipment required for breeding (extra tanks, what size, filtration and such). So if youguys woul dbe so kind as to let me know what I will all need I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks
 
When I was breeding I kept a 10g with sponge filter for the fry when they are real small. Anything bigger and they will have trouble finding food. Once they got bigger I moved them to a 40 g breeder running a penguin bio wheel 350. Oh I also used a little 50 watt heater in the 10. I kept gravel and caves in the 10 but bare bottom in the 40 because I usually had 60-80 fry in at a time so it made cleaning much easier. Just used some lace rock and clay pots for them to hide out in. Make sure you keep up on the weekly water changes as I have found that if you let go much longer you'll start losing fry.
 
So basically I would need multiple 10 gallon fry tanks depending on how many I need and then I would need a grow out tank for the fry? How large is the grow out tank typically?
 
brandonv26 said:
So basically I would need multiple 10 gallon fry tanks depending on how many I need and then I would need a grow out tank for the fry? How large is the grow out tank typically?

That all depends how big you want to grow them. In my 40 they slowed way down once they got about an inch and a half. And at that size they're still not usually showing much in way of color so you won't get much selling them. That's the reason I stopped because I had no room for a bigger grow out tank and it just wasn't worth all the upkeep for the return I was getting. If I had room I woulda set up another 75, but I think you could get away with a 55. I know you can get them cheap when petco does there dollar per gallon sale
 
Is there any money to be made in breeding or is it pretty much just purely for enjoyment? And is one of those things where in order to make money at it you need to big very big or forget about it?
 
brandonv26 said:
Is there any money to be made in breeding or is it pretty much just purely for enjoyment? And is one of those things where in order to make money at it you need to big very big or forget about it?

You can do it on a small scale, many people do. It can be a time and money consuming venture but just build it as you go. The biggest thing is to have a passion for it and genuinely enjoy what you do.
 
At the moment I have a 55 gallon main tank, a 10 gallon empty tank and a 29 gallon empty tank. Would this be ok to breed with or do I need more?
 
I buy all my fish from Tonysafricancichlids.co.uk and I spend about £30 for a male & 3 females ? So I guess I've spent about £450 on fish,in my 90 gallon.So I'm thinking he makes loads from breeding Africans...
 
brandonv26 said:
At the moment I have a 55 gallon main tank, a 10 gallon empty tank and a 29 gallon empty tank. Would this be ok to breed with or do I need more?

That would be fine to start out with. Just consider getting a grow out down the road because if your selling them small you won't make much money off them. There is money to be made though if you've got a good system going. And honestly if your just selling them to the LFS it's even harder to make money.
 
At the moment I have a 55 gallon main tank, a 10 gallon empty tank and a 29 gallon empty tank. Would this be ok to breed with or do I need more?

Really depends on how many different species you are trying to do. If the answer is only one and you only have a single breeding pair, then yes these tanks are going to be adaquete, but don't expect to make much if any money in terms of net gain (in other words, you'll spend as much, if not more, on equipment, food, etc, than you will earn for quite some time). If on the other hand you are thinking about multiple species, the answer is no, this is not an adaquete number of tanks. Basically you will need a fry tank (10 - 20gal) per breeding pair, and a growout tank (29 to 55 gallon) per breeding pair. If you have multiple females to males, then you will need multiple fry and growout tanks, as the females will be producing offspring at different times.
 
That would be fine to start out with. Just consider getting a grow out down the road because if your selling them small you won't make much money off them. There is money to be made though if you've got a good system going. And honestly if your just selling them to the LFS it's even harder to make money.

oh alright, most of mine would have probably ended up going to the LFS. How long can they remain int he 10 gallon tank before they need to go to a grow out tank?
 
brandonv26 said:
oh alright, most of mine would have probably ended up going to the LFS. How long can they remain int he 10 gallon tank before they need to go to a grow out tank?

Depends how many fry there are. I typically had around 30 or so and kept them in there til they were around 1/2-3/4 inches. And that was with water changes every 2 days or so. Also a lot of times I would move them simply because I had another holding female and nowhere else to put her.
 
Rlavassor86 said:
Depends how many fry there are. I typically had around 30 or so and kept them in there til they were around 1/2-3/4 inches. And that was with water changes every 2 days or so. Also a lot of times I would move them simply because I had another holding female and nowhere else to put her.

Oh and as for time mine typically was between a month to 2 months before I would move them.
 
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