Excessive Breeding

[Quatro]

Greetings,

I checked my tank tonight and found 1 Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos holding and 2 Ps. Saulosi holding.  I did not notice anything last night so it all happened today.  I usually see someone holding once a month.  3 in one day, I'm shocked. 

Anyone else experience a sudden population explosion?

[PaleoFishGirl]

Wow, congrats! You must have left the Barry White on last night

[Quatro]

Wow, congrats! You must have left the Barry White on last night

I guess so.  My concern with it is that I only have 1 male Ps Saulosi.  He must have eaten his wheaties this morning.   

[mseguin]

My guess is one pair breeding, the other female stealing some of the eggs for herself. Either that or one very virile cichlid

[beowulf]

My guess is one pair breeding, the other female stealing some of the eggs for herself. Either that or one very virile cichlid

He must be french Canadian.

[mseguin]

and Catholic

[sniggir]

lol

[FishBuddy]

Greetings,

I checked my tank tonight and found 1 Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos holding and 2 Ps. Saulosi holding.  I did not notice anything last night so it all happened today.  I usually see someone holding once a month.  3 in one day, I'm shocked. 

Anyone else experience a sudden population explosion?

Hey Quatro, I had 3 fish holding all at the same time too (happened four times now).  Doing massive water change (ie: 50 to 75%) normally trigger their breeding instinct   Especially when the water temperature is above 80F and I added cold water to the tank during a water change.... 

In the summer, I normally do massive water change as the tank creates a lot of waste.  Also, I can see that the fish are really active after the massive water change.

[Quatro]

Thanks for the replies.  I did do 2 large waterchanges a couple weeks ago but haven't changed it for 1.5 weeks now.  While watching them tonight I saw the 2 holding saulosi circling each other in breeding fashion.  Very odd.

[darkdep]

I had this happen about a month ago, every female in the house seemed to get pregnant at the same time

Very cool that your cyaneorhabdos spawned!  Still haven't got mine to

[Saltcreep]

I had this happen about a month ago, every female in the house seemed to get pregnant at the same time

Very cool that your cyaneorhabdos spawned!  Still haven't got mine to

Not touching that

[bitterman]

Not touching that

I was thinking the same thing.. He does have daughters j/k

On a side note, I with my Mpimbwe would go nuts spawning like crazy! If I get enough breeding then I could get those nice custom 55 gallon breeder tanks

So consider yourself lucky.

Bruce

[darkdep]

I'm not complaining.  I'm gonna have one hell of a fish sale in the fall

[bitterman]

I'm not complaining.  I'm gonna have one hell of a fish sale in the fall

I'm not complaining either. Getting my Mpimbwe to breed after only having them 2-3 months was very good! Now I am watching the fry grow!

Bruce

[hummer]

About two months ago I had six females holding.  3 Victorians, 1 red empress, 1 afra, and 1 duboisi.  The afra and empress did not hold the eggs long enough but i had to move my tank; didn't even know about the duboisi until i threw everyone into buckets.  Imagine my suprise while pouring them back in seeing 2 baby duboisi.

[Quatro]

Unfortunately the Saulosi are no longer holding.  The Mel. Cyan. is though    and even better my new group of Lipochromis Matumbi Hunters (endangered species) is already holding.   

[babblefish1960]

That is great news about the matumbi, good luck with them and don't forget to make some space for some extra holding tanks. This is the largest reason people go mental with multiple tank syndrome, must grow out all the babies!

[RoxyDog]

one of my m. cyaneorhabdos is holding also, and a l. caeruleus "Nkali" (white labs) but I don't wanna take all the rock work out to catch them.   

[babblefish1960]

This situation would leave one at the mercy of nature itself, with all the stripping going on, it makes one wonder what the fish ever did without us!   Any fish that survive the community experience by going through the cycle of life under these conditions gets my vote as a wiley and worthwhile representative of its species.

For it to outsmart all the other predators when so small itself makes for a very crafty fish...almost as if it was born in the wild where everyone else in the lake thinks you're lunch.  Certainly they won't all survive every time, but the ones that do are the fish worth keeping.

[RoxyDog]

I agree, I usually leave them in the tank, but not one baby has made it yet.  there was a baby-eating yellow lab who stalked them all!  but he's gone now so maybe this time...