jewel fish not breeding

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bhavik95

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Aug 21, 2014
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Hi there i have a pair of jewel fish and i bought them home from the pet store and they laid eggs the next day. this was about 3-4 months ago now and have bred since that.

i dont know why or whats causing them not to breed and i dont know what else to do i have tried pretty much everything.

i was wondering if i split the male and female up e.g put on of them in a large breeding net in the same tank and then release it maybe 1-2 weeks later. would this work?

thanks
 
Have you done everything you can to recreate they're natural environment? Have you tried wcs with different temps? Are they healthy and eating well?

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By creating a natural environment if you mean have natural plants and giving them a place to hide then yes there are natural plants in the tank and i have put in a castle ornament in the corner of the tank and a slate piece and a tilt where is a dark hiding space behind it where them seem to hang around on and off.

as for different temp what kind of range are you talking? atm my tank the heater is at 24C but it may vary during the day im guessing. but how high or low should i go?

yes they are definitely eating well they jump at the food when put in. the female has very bright red colour and the male has bright dark colour so i dont know whats going on or what else i can do :/
 
hi thanks for that i had a read of that and it seems like im doing everything right but just not sure as to why they are not breeding.

i turned the temp of by a degree and i might increase it till 27? would that be alright?

other than that i dont know what else i can do to encourage them to breed
 
Do you have a big flat rock ?

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Laying flat on substrate? Do you have sand?

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Jewels are substrate spawners so you need to lay the rock down on the bottom of the tank. That might help induce them to spawn again. They may have been spawning inside that castle and just not having much success at it. I'd take out all the decor like that castle and replace with rocks and large stones in the shape of caves so that their only best choice for spawning is that flat rock on the bottom.
 
So would you saying to lay that rock flat behind the castle?

i mean i dont know i havent really seen any breeding behaviour so not sure if they are breeding on the castle.

when they first bred they laid eggs on a small piece of driftwood in the middle of the tank surrounded with plants and its not moved but they are not showing interest in that again

i was wondering would any of these work?

Ancient Egyptian Pot Vase Aquarium Fish Cave Ornament Decoration | eBay

Large Opening Rock Cave Cichlid Spawning Fish Cave Aquarium Ornament Reptile Den | eBay
 
I was saying to get rid of the castle and put the rock down flat on the bottom.
Here's an interesting article that might help you. Notice what the fish are spawning on in the tank. Tips for aquarists: The complete guide for - Breeding jewel cichlids


I believe I have mentioned this before: Usually, when a pair does not breed again, there are conditions in the tank that don't meet their needs. If memory serves me, your fish spawned right after purchase which can easily be because of the water change they experienced and not necessarily because of anything you had done. Since you have not been able to get them to breed again, THAT is usually either a water issue, a set up issue or a conditioning issue. One of those is the reason. You must address each one, one at a time, to see what the cause was. (y)
 
Thanks for that! But don't you think if I remove the castle they will feel a bit open and less protected or am I thinking too much?

As for the water issue I don't know what it can be all my fish seem healthy all eating well and have been doing normal water changes. So I don't know what I can change about the water?

As for conditioning I feel them flake pellets and live/dried freeze food I don't know what else I can do on that part either :/

I will try to move the rock flat down and remove the castle to see what happens
 
Thanks for that! But don't you think if I remove the castle they will feel a bit open and less protected or am I thinking too much?

As for the water issue I don't know what it can be all my fish seem healthy all eating well and have been doing normal water changes. So I don't know what I can change about the water?

As for conditioning I feel them flake pellets and live/dried freeze food I don't know what else I can do on that part either :/

I will try to move the rock flat down and remove the castle to see what happens
That is why you replace the castle with rock formations as caves for them to feel protected. (y)

There is another possibility that you will only know if you address all the other issues and still have no success: the fish are spawned out. That means that the female has expended all her eggs and there just aren't any more to spawn. Despite popular belief, fish have a finite amount of eggs they produce over a lifetime. Once they are done, they are DONE. :( If you bought the fish as a breeding pair, you may have gotten a pair that the breeder had bred out and there was just that last spawn left. If these were young fish when you got them, that's a highly unlikely scenario and the other 3 things I mentioned are more the cause.
 
That is why you replace the castle with rock formations as caves for them to feel protected. (y)

There is another possibility that you will only know if you address all the other issues and still have no success: the fish are spawned out. That means that the female has expended all her eggs and there just aren't any more to spawn. Despite popular belief, fish have a finite amount of eggs they produce over a lifetime. Once they are done, they are DONE. :( If you bought the fish as a breeding pair, you may have gotten a pair that the breeder had bred out and there was just that last spawn left. If these were young fish when you got them, that's a highly unlikely scenario and the other 3 things I mentioned are more the cause.



Ok that's fine I will try that and if not rock formations would plants help covering the rock that's there?

Thing is it's defo not that has I bought these from a pet shop and then happened to be paired up there so I got them. Also I have seen both the male and female breeding tubes but they aren't fully erected only very slightly and then the day after they go away so I don't know what that means
 
It means you missed the spawn. Tubes only come out when they want to spawn. Either the other fish in the tank got the eggs or they did. :(

Plants are not going to help all that much. They can't go and hide inside a plant. Caves.....are the answer. (y)
 
No but I mean like one day the tubes will slightly appear and then the next day they are gone and the day after they reappear so I don't think their breeding turn over is thats quick :/

That's fine i'll have a look for some rocks to build the caves does it have to be aquarium rocks or can I put garden ones in as well?
 
No but I mean like one day the tubes will slightly appear and then the next day they are gone and the day after they reappear so I don't think their breeding turn over is thats quick :/

That's fine i'll have a look for some rocks to build the caves does it have to be aquarium rocks or can I put garden ones in as well?
As long as they are aquarium safe. Even clay pots will work. ( Right now I have an adult male Angel hiding in a pot from his female who is picking on him. :eek:) PVC pipe will also work. Just depends on how elaborate you want to get.
As for the tubes appearing then disappearing than reappearing, it sounds like something is missing or wrong. That is not a typical occurrence with fish. When they want to breed, they show it.. When they don't, they don't show it.
 
Ok that's fine i'll go and have a look at some clay pots then!

But what could be missing or wrong? It's like they partially show their tubes and the next day it's gone and then reappear the day after. Is it what you talked about or something different?
 
Usually, tubes come out, they spawn, the tubes go back in and don't come out again until the next spawn. In and out then in then out then in then out is not "normal". I have no plausible reason why that would be happening. :confused:
 
Yeah that's what I mean!
I've never seen this myself as that's why I'm confused as to why they aren't spawning and why they are doing that! And that's why I don't know what to do :/

I seen the male flashing but the female just doesn't seem interested but the breeding tubes don't make sense
 
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