New fish and surprise eggs!

[severum mama]

Well, I've once again managed to get some extremely nice fish from my local club that I would never see in a pet store.

Yesterday I picked up a breeding trio of Protomelas sp. steveni Taiwan. The male is a big boy at around 6" or so. Females are quite a bit smaller at around 4". According to the research I've done, the males max out at around 7".

The fish were bagged separately when I got them(tip: ALWAYS bag bigger fish like this separately). They spent most of the afternoon in a styro cooler, and when I got home I unpacked my cooler to start tanking my fish, and noticed that one of the females had gotten freaked out enough to spit eggs into the bag. For the second time this week (the first time being my Otopharynx lithobates), I needed an egg tumbler. It's easy to make an egg tumbler from some sponge filter parts, airline tubing, and a few other things I had laying around, so I had one up and running before too long. I collected the eggs out of the bag and they're all still tan as of today, so hopefully I can get some fry going.

 

[Seryiouz]

You definitely got more than you bargained for....sweet. Question; I'm starting a new tank and was thinking about adding some Otopharnx Litobathes but I hear they poop more than the average cichlid...would u recommend me to go w/this fish?

 

[severum mama]

Well, their decently large size would make them more messy than a smaller species, but there's nothing exceptional about their waste production. I have an adult reverse trio in a 55 with no other fish. The dominant male breeds with the female. I stripped some eggs from her this week and got them in a tumbler as well.

 

[Seryiouz]

Yeah, that's a stunning fish right there nice!

 

[severum mama]

Thanks, he's a pretty big boy at around 6 inches or so.

 

[Robynleigh]

What a gorgeous fish!!!

 

[Seryiouz]

How many do you think you could get in a 55 gallon tank at that size?

 

[severum mama]

What a gorgeous fish!!!

LOL, thank you. I like both of these species a lot so far. My O. lithobates should go free swimming in a few days, I'm so excited. Right now they are teeny tiny fry with egg sacs attached.

 

[severum mama]

How many do you think you could get in a 55 gallon tank at that size?

I don't really know, as my intent from the get go was to breed this species and not to stock a display tank. The females stay smaller than the males but my subdominant male is almost as large as my dominant male. Ideally I wanted to have a trio or 1M/3F (and I thought I was getting 2 pair, but one turned out to be a different species- they all looked gray in the bags at the auction so I don't blame the seller).

If you aren't interested in breeding and you just want to stock pretty fish, you could probably get away with more. I currently keep all my rift lake cichlids in species tanks, so I'm not the best person to answer stocking questions about them.

 

[Robynleigh]

LOL, thank you. I like both of these species a lot so far. My O. lithobates should go free swimming in a few days, I'm so excited. Right now they are teeny tiny fry with egg sacs attached.

So jealous!! My cichlids are still juveniles

 

[severum mama]

Quick update--
A couple of my Protomelas eggs turned white. Seeing as how they spent hours getting sloshed around in a bag, I'm not terribly surprised. I will need to remove them from the tumbler today so they do not spread fungus to the other eggs.

My Otopharynx babies are still in the tumbler absorbing their egg sacs. They are starting to move around more which is really cool to watch. I lost one egg out of the ones I stripped, then lost one fry on Friday. I have not lost any fry since that one but I know I still have a long way to go with them. The fry will go into a growout tank once they are free swimming.

 

[absolutangel04]

Glad to hear you have some progress!

 

[CichlidLady0312]

Cool looking male!!!

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