New/young GBR pairing up

[FWmom]

My first pics were posted in a "show us" thread, before I was sure of gender. We are still working on that issue, because the coloration is not true to type. Both seem to have pink/purplish bellies. With new behavior, I believe we have a male & female, just not sure which one is which. Now, a couple weeks later, the two have been experimenting on territory and swimming/sparring together. After I placed a few extra rocks and plants OUTSIDE of the tank, they started to occupy the corner behind those plants. It was a high-traffic area for the other fish, so I moved the outside plants and rocks to the opposite corner, added a flat stone and surrounded the area with extra plants. They moved over a couple hours after exploring, both started digging a sandy spot together, and have been practicing defense from the curious on-lookers (one diamond tetra and crazy glofish.) They are very small yet, 3/4", but progress made each day. Today they enjoyed a first feeding of bloodworms. Have had no feeding issues, however our Ph is rather high 7.4. Have no plans on fussing with it, so who knows whether eggs would survive. I just thought the outside 'planting' would help others who are trying to encourage front of the tank breeding. They are not phased by the camera, or me peering in to see what's going on.

This is Pinkie, the girl (I think) and the sandy pit created below the large rock in the far right corner of the tank. Red topped plants are outside of tank. Blue Boy(?) is not visible, but close by:

 

[trkchezz]

Did you see a huge change with adding the plants to the outside of the tank?

 

[FWmom]

Did you see a huge change with adding the plants to the outside of the tank?

I realize now, a previous attempt at digging a pit was made in the same area, but I just thought it odd, because I didn't see them do it the first time and they didn't seem to hang around. Seems like they stay at the front more now, with lots of time together behind those outside plants. I've just started feeding frozen bloodworms.

 

[Kelly5978]

Pinkie is beautiful! Good luck! Those would be gorgeous babies

 

[FWmom]

Pinkie is beautiful! Good luck! Those would be gorgeous babies

Mahalo (thank you)!

 

[FWmom]

So five weeks later, the two had split up shortly after I had claimed a pairing. Each on opposite corners of the tank. I began adding cichlid flake food, smashed peas and frozen blood worms into the rotation of community tank feeding just for variety. They would meet up at the front of the tank only at feeding time a couple minutes then chase each other to their corners. Just as I had resigned myself to thinking they must be same sex... I found them harassing the flame gourami together (odd behavior I had not seen before) then saw eggs behind them!

Now I'm full of questions... which one laid the eggs (I didn't witness that) and is this Pinkie fertilizing or just fanning the eggs? I read somewhere that white eggs are unfertilized. Females will lay eggs without a male. Is this true? I 'm not really eager to get into breeding, but with such a strong drive to do so, should I cut back on the rich food and not encourage the behavior?!?

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

Looks like a male and female (pinkie is the girl) to me. Sometimes they will break their pair after they spawn put will pick up again at a later date. It's not uncommon for male cichlids to be a little rough after spawning when she's not ready. You can keep feeding the diet you are. I'm surprised they take peas actually. White eggs are unfertilized or molded. They could have been fanning or fertilizing. IMO just leave them, if you see an increase in aggression remove one or the other.

 

[FWmom]

Dawn Patrol. Here is my ever evolving confusion... Pinkie (foreground) has changed to blue with a clear black spot, Blue Boy's (background) pink belly swelled up in the past week (could it be brine shrimp pellets & peas?) and has less blue on body, more faded blueish spotting over the black spot. What gender indicators are best to go with? BTW, they seem to be guarding the eggs quite well so far.

 

[FWmom]

Here's a slightly better pic of Blue Boy, s/he does not want to turn to the side, facing off to the camera at all times. S/he seems to be hovering over or close to eggs more, Pinkie is guarding the perimeter.

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

You have they sexes right. There's no one way to tell I judge by a number if traits

 

[phishfriend]

Great looking fish!!!

 

[FWmom]

Welll, no surprise, they made a meal of it by dinner time yesterday. By the morning they stopped guarding and harrassing the others. I had read they would probably eat the eggs a few times before figuring it out. Such is life.

 

[PockX]

Welll, no surprise, they made a meal of it by dinner time yesterday. By the morning they stopped guarding and harrassing the others. I had read they would probably eat the eggs a few times before figuring it out. Such is life.

Yeah, they're get it right eventually. Otherwise you could remove the eggs (suck them up) and put them in a different tank or and egg if you didn't wanna wait.

 

[JRcichlids]

isit hard to artificially hatch the eggs ?

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

isit hard to artificially hatch the eggs ?

typically no, if you have the right equipment.

 

[JRcichlids]

whats the right equipment ? isit the same for angelfish eggs ?

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

Don't know I don't like angels, but Your going to need a small tank, a sponge filter and methelyene blue. Without the blue you won't have any survivers. Make sure the tank is big enough to put whatever they lay on into the tank. Mikrogeophagus ramirezi eggs are very sticky and trying to remove them from whatever they are laid on will kill them

 

[JRcichlids]

ok any additional aeration like airstone ?

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

Wouldn't hurt

 

[FWmom]

I had a second spawning last week, but in their community tank they were freaking out by all the fish invading their space. It got to the point they were totally ignoring the eggs and facing off with each other. I got a floating breeder box and faced the slits toward the filter outflow, dropped the spawning rock inside with some moss. Unfortunately, I didn't have anything to treat the eggs for fungus, so almost minute to minute, I watched them turn white and fuzzy, one by one. The pair now seem to be more chummy than ever and really colored up. Next time I hope they pick a better spot out of traffic, or I may do some tank shifting so they can be on their own.