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How to Breed African Cichlids
It is easy to breed you cichlids if you take care of your cichlids by keeping the aquarium clean and maintain the conditions required by the particular cichlid that will keep the cichlids healthy. Keep the water free from pollutants, by purchasing a heater to maintain the temperature, by carrying out regular water changes, maintaining a good water chemistry and by providing a well balanced diet. It is important that your cichlids is healthy because only healthy fish will want to mate. During the incubation, female cichlids do not eat and it will last until 4 weeks. Only good healthy fish will be able to endure such abstinence from food. It is helpful to get several females for each male, as this way, male bullying does not get restricted to just one female. Aggressiveness of tank mates can cause stress among the weaker fish. It is important to a cichlid breeding that your fish is not stressed.
Diet is also one of the important to have a successful cichlid breeding. Proteins is advisable nutrients in time of cihlids breeding. There are different ways of cichlid breeds: Open Brooders, the spawn on open surface like rocks, or on the substrate. Shelter Brooders have two types, the Cavity Brooders and Mouth Brooders. Cavity Brooders a cichlids lay their eggs in caves and in depressions. Mouth Brooders who carry the eggs and the fry in their mouths. Open Brooders lay eggs as much as 10,000 while the Shelter Brooders lays only 300. Rocks and plants can be used to provide them with hiding places. Mouth brooders benefit the most from the hideouts because they will need more than usual protection when they are egg-laden.
The female releases the baby fry depends of the number of factors like her species, age, and the state of her wealth. Water quality may also determine when the fry get released. An inexperienced females are not likely to carry the eggs for the full term on the first time. After the first time, they will breed successfully. There are fish do not mate because they are overfed, the hungrier they are the more their aggressive tendencies are likely to show up, and more likely they will be to mate. The water temperature should be 76C and 78C and alkaline, hard water will aid in cichlid breeding. The maintenance of a steady temperature will aid in the hatching of the eggs. There are several ways on raising and harvesting of cichlids. A best method is allow the mother to spit out the fry naturally in a separate tank. The survival of the fry is almost certain in this case unless the mother consumes the fry in such a case it would be good to transfer the mother to another tank once she has released the fry. There are fry who already eat flakes and brine shrimp if they already absorbed the eggs sacs. The fry will grow faster if their is a good water conditions, good feeding and have a good diets.
I would like to say… how do you know the difference between male and female? i have a cichlid like the yellow one you have in the picture, i have a just plan peach one, and then i have another that’s black with a blue stripe going down the center.
thanks
how do i know which is male and female.
telling males and females apart is really easy…. just watch your tank! males make nests in the gravel or sand. they will make holes under rocks. so if you see your fish moving the rocks around in your tank and clearing holes they are making spots to breed! meaning you have a female thats ready in the tank… simply do more water changes! the best time for breeding is when your water is all new…. meaning when you just set up a tank! another way to tell the sex is males have more spots on their back fins but this may be hard to tell depending on the color of fish… so its much better to just watch what your fish are doing. and wait. females will soon have eggs.. i had my tank set up for 2 weeks and got a mouth full off babys! i am guessing i have 2 males. but you really cant tell till you get them home. unless you buy them from a person who already watched the fish and knows which ones are males and females. i bought one pair from a guy so i knew when i set up my tank i had a pair…. but they wernt the pair to breed!!! so good luck!
I would like to say…most of the time the male will have small circles on the anal fin resembling eggs, but that is not always 100% correct. A sure way to find out is to breed and see who has fry. Good luck with your tank
I would like to say…that the males have egg spots on their anal fin,they are bigger and more colorful and the females are less aggressive,smaller,less colorful,and they have none or one tiny eggspot on their anal fin.
hey i won’t to know how to tell the sex of a African Cichlid I am not realy sure how to tell if they are female or male.But I have a 150 gallon tank and a 30 gallon,please i need info how to tell
How do you tell the difference when sexing them?
I would like to say…what if you like a fish but cant find another like it to breed can different species breed
the male have a color spot on thier anal fin female dont
The female usually has a lighter color then the Males- It will brighten up when they mate up. Convicts usually have a pink tint on the belly representing a femal. As for African the females are usually smaller then teh males and also are lighter in color until they breed. I had one that was light pink and turned almost completly red once she started to mate. The male is a little bigger and very red with yellow tints on his tale. If you spend some time at your LFS and really observe the tanks you can pretty much determine who themates are. Jus be patient.
well i dont really know how to tell the diffrence between male and female. but i do have a question ……
is it ok to keep a bottem feeder in the tank if you want the fish to breed….. ? ….
I just noticed that my electric blue johanni has a mouth full of eggs. I have a net incubator that goes inside my tank. I was just woundering if some one could tell me when i should put my fish in the incubator to release the fri
I would like to say…I have a 200 gl tank with 7 african Cichlids. we bought them from a local aquarium in July of 09 and they were very small about 1″ – 2″ when we bought them. They are now 3″-4″and have always dug holes under the rocks and hide out there. How big will these fish get and I have yet to see any mating or fry. Tank temp is 79 and water is added weekly. Is it just a waiting game for them to mate or are they not old enough yet?