Salvini eggs now fry

[salvini55]

Ok so my adult female salvini has a new spawn site and laid a new batch of eggs! which is exciting for me cuz its been over two months since her last and i was thinking she wouldnt do it again in light of recent events.

She has put her eggs on the cieling of her cave and im wondering if she will be able to fan the eggs properly? ( I watched her all morning laying eggs upside down!!!)
I angled the output of my canister filter in thru the back of her cave to maximise water movement to try and help her out with the fanning.

Also her mate died last august and she has had maybe 7 or 8 batches of unfertilized eggs so far. Ive added three male juvies and a female juvie in the last two months and the biggest male is about 2.5 to three inches. What is / is there a way to get thoes eggs fertilized even tho she has not selected a mate yet?

thanks
kev

[worldfish]

Hi kev,

I would remove the  outtake of the filter right away and let her do her thing. She should be able to fan her eggs by herself no problem. If she has not chosen a mate yet well then you might have to wait. IF there is to much water flow the eggs will get lost.

Cheers

Tim

[salvini55]

Hi kev,

I would remove the  outtake of the filter right away and let her do her thing. She should be able to fan her eggs by herself no problem. If she has not chosen a mate yet well then you might have to wait. IF there is to much water flow the eggs will get lost.

Cheers

Tim

thanks for the advice, the output is far enough away as to not blow away the eggs by the time it gets to the cave it will be a gentle breeze lol.

if i took a male and the eggs and put them in there own tank would he fertilize them or just eat them?

[Fishnut]

Those eggs are no good because nothing has fertilized them so it won't matter how much she fans them, they won't develop and all turn white.  Simple biology.

If she hasn't chosen a mate, that means she won't permit any other fish (male or otherwise) close to them.  A lone male in a tank will eat the eggs...guaranteed! He has no attachment to them since they aren't his.  He'll simply see them as a food source.

By changing the way the water flows, you have also changed the nest site.  Cichlids choose nest sites for a reason so if you change it they may not think it's a suitable nest site anymore.  Cichlids will sometimes destroy a nest if it's no longer perfect.  In your present situation, the change of flow really doesn't matter so I would leave it.

If she has a mate, you would definately know because he would play a big part in helping with the nest selection and perfection/cleaning, plus he would take part in the spawning.  I have seen many species of cichlids spawn including Salvini and it's all the same behavior.  In the case of a chosen male, the eggs get fertilized right away. Don't worry, if she does this again when a male is involved and she managed to lay them like that, she will be able to fan them like that. 

Sometimes females will just spontaneously spawn.  My angel fish did that just a few days ago.  She is the only angel in the tank too.  The eggs didn't develop and all turned white.  A day later they were all gone.  I'm not too sure if she ate them or she just let the other fish in the tank have a snack.

Just wait for one of the boys to develop into a mature fish for her to choose a mate, then watch the babies develop.

[salvini55]

all the eggs are gone and were unfertilized... oh well... the juvies are starting to mature fast and getting great colours hopefully i wont have to wait much longer!

[salvini55]

well the wait is over!!!!!!! My female has selected a mate. Ive divided the tank so the aggression is not a problem. Ill try and get a pic tonight. maybe they will spawn soon!

here are three pairing pics and a tank shot hehe hope yall like it

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[salvini55]

well its been 5 days since the female selected a mate and she is laying another batch of eggsright now! this time i know they will be fertalized... well i hope so. This batch is alot different from all the previous ones, the eggs are much smaller than im use to seeing. I always thought that a larger fish would lay larger and fewer eggs. So i guess she is going for quantity this time hahaha.

anyhow, ive never had to care for fry befor and i plan to let nature take its course this time round to see what happens. (not going to remove any or mother/father)
If any one has any fry tips that would be much apprieciated

[attachment deleted by admin]

[salvini55]

got home from tremblant yesterday and found hundreds of fry cool. Ive been gone for 6 days and the male has jumped over the divider and i havent been able to catch him and put him on the other side. is it important for him to be with the female or is it ok to leave him on the other side of the tank?

Also, i now have a second pair of salvinis that formed a bond while i was gone! so if anyone wants salvinis soon let me know


Photo up one post

[Fishnut]

What a change!!

The first thing you should do is get a DIY brine shrimp hatchery going.  I'm sure there's directions in the DIY forum, but if not, do a quick google search for an easy brine shrimp hatchery.  The Baby Brine Shrimp (BBS) are fantastic food for the fry.  Don't panic though, there should be tones of infusoria in the tank for them to graze on, as well as food crumbs that mom leaves.

Don't worry so much about Dad.  Chances are he was chased relentlessly by the female to stay away from the nest.  Some females will let the males help, some think of the male as a threat...especially if he's a youngster.  If it's possible to leave him where he is, then leave him.  Your female will do a fantastic job of guarding the fry.  Just make sure you leave her in peace because if she ever feels that the nest and fry are threatened, she'll eat them.  I used to have a pair of angels that were like that, so I just put paper over the glass so they couldn't see out, but I left a small peep hole so I could watch them .

You could let the female raise them or you could take them out and put them into their own tank.  Just make sure it's well established.  Her purpose is essentially to protect them from predators, that's it.  The fry are perfectly capable of finding food for themselves in an aquarium environment.  If there are no predators, they'll be fine without her.

Good luck!

[salvini55]

thanks fishnut!

[sas]

Congrats on the fry, what a nice surprise to come home to!
Nice looking tank by the way.

I feed my fry with the San Francisco Bay Brand frozen Baby Brine shrimp,
when they are very tiny. I'm not good with messing with hatcheries and whatnot, and
I find this a handy food to keep on hand.
The blocks are tad too big but they are easy enough to break into smaller
chunks.
Be careful though to not overfeed since this will foul your water quickly.

[salvini55]

thanks for the compliment, im feeding them cichlid pellets mashed up into powder and freezedry brine shrimp and they seem to be enjoying it... i have some tiger barbs that squeese through the divider and hang out in the red plant above the nest picking off stray fry and the numbers are declining fast... im going to net a few fry and put them in my cherry shrimp tank and see how they fair.

[Fishnut]

Ugh...damn Tiger Barbs!!

Maybe next time, give Mom and Dad a tank of their own.  See why most of us have MTS (Multiple Tank Syndrome)? 

[salvini55]

Got home from work today to discover that the second pair of salvinis have also laid a batch of eggs. My 55 gallon is turning into a night club, neeeeed space! hopefully someone takes my fish so i can free up some room!

some bad news too, I did a WC in my 10 gallon cherry shrimp tank last night and when i got home today they had all died. It looked like they were molting and then died. Maybe bad water from all the rain were getting?

[ottawa_fry22]

Nice to see that you like the Salvini cichlids.  I work at Big Al's on Innes and I have seen a couple of them there for a very long time and they are not happy, always nervous.  Would be nice to see them go.   

[salvini55]

I wish i hade the space for more... but two breeding pairs in a 55 is enough for me lol. Ive been in and out of the store recently and didnt notice them.

[salvini55]

since im here i thought id update. The first batch was thinned out to a few by the tiger barbs so i took the barbs out and put them in my 33. The next day when i got home from work the parents of the second batch ate the fry... I guess I freaked them out and they eat the babies. I had the remaining fry in a hatchery (maybe only 7 or so) but they seemed to get stuck in between the frame and the netting and passed away... prolly for the best because i will be moving the 55 to a diff room in a week.