baby cichlids

[browns9174]

I had my first batch of baby cichlids arrive a cpl days ago. There's about 10 of em in a 90 gallon tank with 10 huge cichlids. Is there anything I can do to prevent them from being eaten cuz I will not be able to catch them.

 

[Slade]

Make sure you have rocks with hiding places. If you have another tank to hold them, they're not hard to catch if you remove decorations and rocks during a PWC.

 

[browns9174]

Thanks, I may try to catch em cuz I wanna keep em. Do u know how long it takes for them to get big enough to not get eaten?

 

[Slade]

Depends on the size of the largest adult. If its small enough to fit in a mouth it will get eaten. Offhand, I'd guess 6-8 weeks or about 3/4" is big enough, but I might be corrected. And like I said above, make sure there are hiding places.

 

[kay-bee19]

These days I rarely net any of my mouthbrooding females yet each year a very few fry beat the odds and survive to become full-fledged members of the tank (if they make it to the length of a paper clip they've grown themselves off the menu in my tanks).

I'm not sure why but yellow labs and red zebra fry seem to be more successful than my duller colored fry (acei's, bb zebra's, etc and those fry better match the rocks and substrate, go figure).

I think 20% of the mbuna's in my 125gal were born in the tank and have never met a fish net before.

 

[Island_Emt]

Congrats on the fry! Toss some small diameter PVC in there....gives the fry some quick hiding spots.

 

[browns9174]

Hey thanks that's an awesome idea n I will for sure try it!

 

[browns9174]

Just an update, my fry are all still alive n doing well in the big tank. There starting to get bigger.

 

[mdawg75]

ya what Kay-bee said , I love a good Texas holey Rock for fry, find a nice pice that is really textured right for little fry to hide in. Good luck