Anybody keep Neolamprologus pulcher/brichardi?

[mistersprinkles]

I'm looking into a breeding colony of brichardi or pulcher (daffodil) for my 29 gallon tank.

Anybody have any experience keeping these fish? Any experience is appreciated. I understand subsequent generations will assist with rearing new fry and they will not eat the fry.

I want to keep these fish alone with nothing else.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[henningc]

I've kept them and water parameters make or break the effort. They react very poorly to swings in P.H. so be alert. I'd suggest doing multiple small water changes and testing the tap water prior to adding it. These are super beautiful fish and a single speices tank is not only attractive for you, it is the best way to house these animals.

Good luck.

 

[toddnbecka]

A 29 is way too small for them. Once they start spawning the tank will quickly become overcrowded, and you'll wish something would eat the fry. I had a 55 with a pair of a closely related species some years ago. The fry do indeed help guard the smaller ones as they come along, and the size of their territory increases with their numbers, until the whole tank is theirs. So I moved them into a 38 of their own. They kept spawning, and in a relatively short time the tank was so overcrowded that new broods of fry were becoming stunted as they grew. Most ended up in the red bellied piranha tank at the lfs for feeders, then I lost the adult female and no longer had the problem.

 

[mistersprinkles]

A 29 is way too small for them. Once they start spawning the tank will quickly become overcrowded, and you'll wish something would eat the fry. I had a 55 with a pair of a closely related species some years ago. The fry do indeed help guard the smaller ones as they come along, and the size of their territory increases with their numbers, until the whole tank is theirs. So I moved them into a 38 of their own. They kept spawning, and in a relatively short time the tank was so overcrowded that new broods of fry were becoming stunted as they grew. Most ended up in the red bellied piranha tank at the lfs for feeders, then I lost the adult female and no longer had the problem.

I plan to sell the fry at a very small size to my LFS. Also, if there was a new spawn while there were fry growing out, I would vaccuum up the eggs.

At any given time there would only be the parents and 1 generation of fry in the tank. once that generation hit 1" I would sell them off. Any new generation that came into the picture while I was already raising fry would be siphoned out of the tank and used as feeders elsewhere.

At most I would have maybe four adults and some small fry at any given time.