Hemichromis guttatus (Jewelfish)

Q&A about South American Cichlids

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dawnie
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Joined: Fri Apr 11, 2008 10:47 pm

Hemichromis guttatus (Jewelfish)

Post by dawnie »

I have two in a small (18") tank. She has laid eggs on a piece of pipe. Then they tried eating them. We moved the pipe to a breeding tank fitted to the side but I read in earlier posts they need to fan them. It also mentioned them eating the fry NOT the eggs. Have we done the wrong thing. This was all an unexprected surprise. BTW Did they start eating them after I noticed the eggs and watched for some time. The eggs by the way had little wiggly bits sticking up out of them.
Hope someone can help.
Cheers Dawn
Pam Chin
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Re: Hemichromis guttatus (Jewelfish)

Post by Pam Chin »

Hi Dawn,

It is probably not your fault!! Substrate spawners do eat their own eggs, and there are many reasons, theories, myths, etc. Some of the more common reasons, are the fish are young; and they just aren't quite sure what the next step is, the eggs were not fertile; they are young and practicing. They could have a fight. They may have felt threatened if there are other fish in the tank; they will eat the eggs themselves, rather then letting the egg stealers in.

The Good news is that it appears you have a pair, and a cool thing about cichlids, is that they are born to breed, so it will only be a matter of time before they do it again. The parents then will only tolerate the fry so long, heres the deal, once the male is ready to spawn again, and the female is telling him to get lost, because she is rearing the fry. The male will eat the fry, so there is nothing to take care of, and the female will more then likely spawn again. In the wild, the fry would have been chased off, away from the parents, in our tanks, there is not place to go, so they end up getting eaten.

If you are desperate for fry, you could steel the plaque of eggs and hatch them yourself. The key is to provide water movement over the eggs. This is easy to do if you have an airstone and extra air pump.

If you have more questions, just start a new message.

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