# Amphilophus trimaculatus breeding log



## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

On December 1st I acquired a breeding pair of trimacs from a friend of mine. They were naturally formed from a group of fry. Their mother is wild caught from the rio Naranjo and their father was an F1 who's parents were collected by Andres Ryan in Mexico while he was on his honeymoon.

They are in a custom 70 gallon tank that measures 50"x19"x16" tall. There is a divider in place along with a large flat rock on the floor of the tank on her side.

He's about a foot and she's about 7".

Their diet consists of mostly tetras cichlid sticks (doromin) and occasionally live fish bred in my fish room.

They have settled in quite nicely though my impression is the male is more comfortable with his new surroundings than the female.

The previous owner kept and bred them in a 75 which is why I chose to put them in something similar.

I will get a video posted of them later tonite when I'm home. I plan to pull the divider tonite and sit and watch them for a while...


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

Just got home.... They've got ick, I'm assuming from the stress of the move. No nets were used thank God... That's all I need is an outbreak in the fishroom... They've been treated...

In lieu of this unfortunate news I've decided NOT to pull the divider... She's obviously stressed enough... I will shoot a vid of them though as they're one of my favorite cichlids.


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

Video:


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## CiChLiD LoVeR128 (Mar 22, 2006)

The video has a problem. It says something like address is not understood or something like that.

Very nice! Cool fish! Good luck with them!


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

Should be good now... Just tried it and it worked


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## duds (Apr 16, 2010)

CiChLiD LoVeR128 said:


> The video has a problem. It says something like address is not understood or something like that.
> 
> Very nice! Cool fish! Good luck with them!


I think the link is for mobile devices (it won't play on my browser). Try this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU7VrAp9 ... ature=plcp

Awesome looking fish!


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

Thanks Duds, you beat me to it! Nice nics, did they spawn for you? I'm actually on something like the sixth or seventh generation of them, I've got a pair now, need to get them out of the community and spawn them again... They're a fun fish!


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## CiChLiD LoVeR128 (Mar 22, 2006)

Very nice!


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## duds (Apr 16, 2010)

TheFishGuy said:


> Nice nics, did they spawn for you? I'm actually on something like the sixth or seventh generation of them, I've got a pair now, need to get them out of the community and spawn them again... They're a fun fish!


They never did spawn for me, and unfortunately i had to sell off my tanks and give away the fish about a year ago for a move. For now I'm living vicariously through all of you who post pics of your tanks. When i can get back into the hobby there's a solid chance I'll be getting back into nics, they're pretty great.


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

That stinks man.... Sorry about that...


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

Well, the ich is gone... With that I did about a 1/3 water change with water about 5 degrees cooler...

If there's time tomorrow nite I might pull the divider and sit and watch for a while...


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

As I type I'm sitting comfortably in the fish room watching the trimacs go through the typical pre spawn dance with each other. The divider is down and once it was taken down they immediately started their antics. I'm here simply as a referee just in case things get too rough. I've got my iPod and a nice tall captain and 7up


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgRtaIrj ... zQ&index=2


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG48--ed ... zQ&index=1

The theory of the lip lock in these larger cichlids is the female is testing the male to see if he's a strong enough to help create the next generation of cichlid. While this works great in the rivers and lakes of central and south america it doesn't always turn out to well in the aquarium. If the male is too strong he'll kill her. If he's too weak she'll kill him! In the breeders aquarium there's just no room to run. When things like this go on in my big tank chases rarely last longer than 10'. Typically the aggressor gives up since the point has been proven. That or they're like little kids and get distracted by the next new shiny thing they see!


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

Congical visit is over. After roughly an hour and a half she had enough of his ****. Lol divider back up but I'm feeling confident. They were all over each other then lip locked for easily twenty minutes. After they let go of each other she slowly swam away. I knew at that point she had enough. I guarantee if I were to let them go for a few more minutes he'd start chasing and stressing her out...


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

Male is dead.


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## smitty (May 7, 2004)

TFG what happened. Wow what a blow. Wish you better luck in the future.


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

Don't know what happened, possibly got bound up and couldn't poo. Hind site is 20/20. 
He wasn't eating or eating well a while ago and then stopped all together a couple weeks ago. 
I hadn't noticed any poo for a while on his side of the tank... 
His color started to wash out and that's when I decided to pull him and put him in a 30 when I got home from work that day. 
I started treating with epsom salt using a one cup per 100 gallons ratio...(it's a dieretic)
After three days I started to do 10% water changes daily... Then his eyes started to fungus over...
So I started treating with melafix which usually kicks pop eye or fungus quite easily. But it didn't
After three days treatment I did a 50% change then started treating with melafix again and a little salt.
Then after three days I did a 50% change (this was yesterday)
After the water change he flipped over and started to head stand... There's no bringing em back from that... Two hours later he was dead...
It was a change in water temp or lack of treating the water... Honestly that's never happened to me in 27 years of breeding cichlids... :?

But there's good news, I've got a line on one of his sons that's currently 3"... :dancing:


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## smitty (May 7, 2004)

So you still have a chance at producing real pure bred Trimacs. Good luck with that. By the way are you going out to Denver in July for the convention.


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

What convention? ACA?


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## smitty (May 7, 2004)

Yes, the ACA.


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

The OCA puts on a much better event for way less money. Plus that's in the same place every year, an hour from me... There's nothing the ACA can offer for me that's worth spending all that money in travel and their outrageous attendance fees...


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## smitty (May 7, 2004)

We heard that at the ACA convention last year about how much better the OCA convention was. Tommy and I said that we would make it out there this year for the OCA. I will be checking there site for the info.


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

It's always the weekend before thanks giving and it's always at the strongsville holiday inn


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## Shifty (Jan 18, 2009)

Sorry to hear TFG! I know that even with this son, it can take some time to get them up to size to breed.


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

If he's indeed only three inches he should be ready to spawn in a few months...


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