First time successful Sciaenochromis Ahli spawn. Now what?? Pictures Included!

[Bryanm70]

I have just successfully bred my Electric Blues and currently I have my female residing with her fry in a 30 gallon tank. I'm positive that there are over 50 fry in there and I would like to maximize the survival rate. Any advice or comments would be appreciated. The 3 pictures are of the Male, Female and fry

 

[Bryanm70]

Whoops might have been the wrong topic to post under. Might have to be moved to freshwater breeding :/

 

[Cichlid-dude]

Just make sure you keep the water prestine and feed the fry at least 3 times a day. You can take the mother out and put her back in your main tank. I left a mother peacock in with fry for a week once and she ate half of them.

 

[Bryanm70]

Eek! Alright I'll do that. I'm hatching baby brine shrimp now, so they should be ready to feed when I get off work tomorrow.

 

[MABJ]

Beautiful fish and nice job

 

[Bryanm70]

Beautiful fish and nice job

Thank you

 

[Bryanm70]

Okay...I've decided to keep the mother in the tank with the fry until she starts eating them, but she hasn't so far. She won't even eat the occasional flakes I throw in for her to eat. What's going on? Sometimes she swims as if she's experiencing new-tank-syndrome. Water parameters are fine and my fry count is still over 50. What's wrong???

 

[MABJ]

The bio load from 50 fry + 1 adult may be huge. Please move her like suggested lol.

 

[Bryanm70]

The bio load from 50 fry + 1 adult may be huge. Please move her like suggested lol.

I'm running 70 gal filtration on a 30 gallon tank so I think it's sufficient for now since the fry are so small. The reason I haven't moved her is because my tank space is limited on my other tanks as well. I guess I'm just going to do 25% PWC every other day to ensure optimal water quality...She seems to be doing so well with her fry and I think she'd be happiest with them, I'm just confused as to why she's not eating. I plan on getting a 100-125 gallon tank within the next month to fix my tank space problem. She is still young @ 3.5 inches and will have many more spawns to come, so I guess I'll just have to wait until I get my next tank and hopefully they all survive until the new tank is cycled (Going to seed it) :/

 

[Lady_Alia]

Maybe she's still holding a few?

 

[Bryanm70]

Maybe she's still holding a few?

I'm not sure if she is because I've seen her stretching her mouth a few times already. I'm going to feed her bloodworms tomorrow and see if that helps.

 

[Lady_Alia]

I'm not sure if she is because I've seen her stretching her mouth a few times already. I'm going to feed her bloodworms tomorrow and see if that helps.

I was just asking cuz I had a yellow lab that would spit out most of the fry but would always keep a few.

 

[Bryanm70]

She finally ate today! Yayy. She's just acting really skittish :/

 

[Bryanm70]

Just an update to anybody who's interested. I left the Mom in with the fry and she hasn't eaten a single one (Still counting 50+). The mom is eating flakes, pellets and I've fed her bloodworms twice. The fry are eating BBS and egg yolk. Did a 25% WC 2 days ago and I'm planning on doing another tomorrow. My only concern is that the Mom has a mysterious white spec right under her dorsal fin which I suspect might be ich. I would include more pictures, but I sold my digital camera on Tuesday (Plan on getting a better one soon) and the camera on my phone doesn't show the fry (They're still transparent for the most part). All currently seem to be happy and are always excited to eat during 3-4 of their meals a day. Yesterday I witnessed two of the fry playing tug o war with a stray bloodworm and it was the most hysterical thing! I'm so happy that my babies are doing well and I plan on adding a 100+ gal tank to my garage very soon!

 

[MABJ]

Very nice! That sounds fun. It might not be ich, but why not treat it early? Would treating hurt the fry?

 

[Bryanm70]

Very nice! That sounds fun. It might not be ich, but why not treat it early? Would treating hurt the fry?

Thanks! I am going to dose some aquarium salt with my next PWC and the temp is already about 83 degrees F, not sure if I should raise it any higher. This happened to her before in my main tank and I raised the temp to 86-87 and did a large PWC with a handful of aquarium salt and it went away after a day or two. I waited a week before turning the temp back down to normal, but now it's reappeared. She's still eating and swimming normally (haven't seen any itching on the rocks going on). I wouldn't want to use any chemical treatment to get rid of whatever it is, because that might hurt the fry but I'm not positive either...

 

[MABJ]

How long ago in the main tank? It may never have officially left her. But yes, treat early and well and it may not put you through hell.

 

[Bryanm70]

It was after her first unsuccessful hold, she got stressed spat her eggs and the white mark appeared. I feel as if stress triggered it again, because after she spat she didn't eat for about a day and I had removed all the rocks from the tank to thoroughly clean the substrate and she literally spat 5 seconds after I removed the last rock. I didn't want to squish any fry so I just added one large rock and there were 10+ fake plants already in there, but she still didn't seem comfortable until I added a fake wooden log. That is now her den and she watches her fry from there.

EDIT: To answer the question, about 1 month and a half ago

 

[Bryanm70]

treat early and well and it may not put you through hell.

I like that saying...I think I have found a signature

 

[MABJ]

lol! I made it up on the spot, it seemed appropriate.

And ich sometimes goes through cycles where it lives in your gravel. It may never have officially died off, but I don't quite know.