African Cichlid

[Fishyfanatic]

I would LOVE to try and breed my Yellow Labs or Acei's. Could anyone give me some insight on the best way to go about doing this? I've had mollies breed, but that was by pure accident. I have a couple other Cichlids that are large and are of breeding size, but I don't have a male and female of the same type to breed. And I really don't want to breed Cichlids just to be breeding. I would like them to be pure. That's why I would like to setup the perfect conditions to try and breed the Acei's or Labs when they get a little older and bigger. Plus, what size do they really need to be before they will start breeding?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Vip]

Well if you want pure fish then dont get a male and female from the same LFS or breeder as then you will be Inbreeding. They will start to breed at about the size of 3" and are pretty easy to breed. Sexing them isnt that easy as only in 80% of the cases the males have a more darker black line on there anal fin where as the female doesnt so that would be your best bet on how to breed them.

 

[oscarbreeder]

IME yellow labs pretty much breed themselvs as long as you have 3-4 females for every male. Like VIP said at about 3-4 inches they will start breeding. Hope ya got lots of room for fry..lol.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Right now we have 4 Labs. One of them we bought a long time ago and about 3 months ago we bought 3 young ones that have grown really fast. I haven't sexed them yet, but I asked for 3 females when we bought them. Then again, I know its hard for the lfs to sex small fish. The Acei's on the other hand are larger, probably 4 inches each. I'm not sure how you sex them though. Are there certain tank conditions that need to be met to encourage breeding? We have lots of plants, even a carpet plant that covers about 1/5 of the tank, lots of hiding places, and the water conditions are perfect (0 Ammonia and Nitrites, and 20 Nitrates, with pH about 7.9). The temp is stable at 79.8 to 80.

 

[thanew]

3 of my labs are preg as we speak.. its quite crazy my pH stays at about 7.9, temp @ 80 nh4, no2, no3 = 0 (plants and two filters work well) and some drift wood (clay pots are coming this weekend)

 

[mentallylost]

My female yellow lab was holding eggs about 2 weeks ago for the first time. She only held the eggs for 2 or 3 days though before swallowing them. I am not sure what actually sparked the spawning. I've had the pair 1 1/2 years now. In an attempt to get some of my other fish to spawn, I raised the tank temp 78 degrees to 81 degrees. The aquarium light stays on longer into the evening. And I started to feed them smaller amounts of food, 2 and sometimes 3 times a day. I did all of this in an attempt to replicate the longer, warmer spring to summer days.
So far the labs are the only fish in that tank spawn that I have noticed. I did do this in both of my tanks, and I should mention that it worked in my other tank too. My Daffodils have had 2 spawns in about a month. There's about 50 fry in there right now.
I am not sure what triggered the spawns, but they seem to like what I did. Hopefully my labs will hold the babies full term next time. But what can you expect from their first spawn?

 

[strmlnecustms]

HOW MANY HOURS DO YOU REPLICATE DAYLITE EXACTLY?12/12 OR WHAT? I THINK THATS THE ONLY PROB. IM HAVING WITH MINE PH STAYS 7.8 TO 7.9 TEMP APPRX.80 DEGREES. HOW LONG DO I KEEP IT LIKE THIS BEFOR I SEE SIGNS OF BREEDING AND WHAT DO I LOOK FOR?

 

[greenmaji]

strmlnecustms..
try to keep the CAPS down.. I resoponed to your moved post.. in planted BillyZ moved the question there.. I dont know were the origanal question is though..
I would think that your fish might need more buffering of the water.. a KH of 18 would help get your yellow labs. to breed.. a PH of around 8.3 would be ideal as well.. keeping your water in good shape is a given.. what is your KH and PH?