# just found jewel fry - advice appreciated as going in hosp.



## dizzymoo (Jul 27, 2009)

Hi all, Briefly - i have a 4ft tank with 4 jewel cichlids in which i recently decided to keep instead of community fish, they are with 5 pepper corys & was with 2 batman platys (platys together only as heater on tank no2 broke & had nowhere else to put them) Anyway *** had the 4 cichlids about 2 mth ish from the same shop who struggled to sex them as apparently its hard??
Well 2 of the 4 are smaller, a gorgeous bright red/orangey colour with spots of red/blue & the other 2 are bigger much deeper darker purple colour with red/blue dots.

I noticed one of the gorg ones defending territory more so than usual so was keeping my eye on " her " ... Over the last 7 days both batman platys have been viciously devoured even though they all got on fine for 6wks ish & i noticed one of the bigger 2 jewels was staying close to her, shooing the other 2 away but couldn't get close himself . I've just noticed baby fry! 
Lord knows how many they are tiny little buggers & i dont want to get close to stress the mum out. The fry are actually right at the bottom of a sprout of elodea plant which has surfaced from the sand from when i had community fish in so they are on the sand at the side of the tank not on slate or anything so disturbing sand would cover them.

Thing is i'm going in hospital tuesday to have my baby by c-section so will be out of action for 4 days but then i still wont be able to do major fish work, So if anyone can help me today & tomorrow it would be really appreciated. 
Do i need to do anything? Move the fry or anything? I've nothing to seperate the tank with either. Do i leave them be in the 4ft tank with the other fish? I'm worried she will eat them if stressed or that 1 of the others will. My mum has 2 x 4ft trop community tanks so she is going to be seeing to my fish whilst i'm in hospital but she doesn't have cichlids, So is a water change still needed for now? Or am i best of leaving that an extra week? 
Gosh anything you can tell me to help would really be appreciated.

Thank you in advance  x


----------



## PGWald (Feb 2, 2008)

dizzymoo,

First off, best wishes for a safe delivery and quick recovery. Exciting times for you... new baby and new jewel cichlid fry!

Jewel cichlids will protect their fry for awhile and pretty aggressively. The loss of your platies is testimony to their tendency to defend with vigor, not only the fry but their spawning site once they set themselves on spawning.

I don't know what your mum has in the way of other fish or general tank conditions so I'm hesitant to suggest doing much to your current situation. Ideally, moving the other fish to different quarters and leaving the pair and its brood in your tank would be the best solution. Because it is certain the breeding pair will strongly defend their brood from all other tank inhabitants. The other two jewel cichlids will instinctively "know" this and stay away, if there are enough places to retreat to, e.g. rocks, caves, plants to hide in, under, behind, etc. The cory cats would benefit from lots of things to hide near, under, etc. also. If your mum has a tank with water conditions suitable for the cory cats, you could consider moving them.

If you intend to try raising up the jewel cichlid fry, your mum could simply feed them some finely crushed/powdered flake food until you're back home and ready to resume your fish duties again. If you have gravel and plants in the tank, there should be microorganisms on them that will provide at least a little nurishment for the newly free swimming fry.

But, getting another tank to move the non-parental jewel cichlids to would both increase their chances of survival and those of the new fry dramatically.

Congratulations on the new cichlid brood again and best wishes with your own new arrival. (I hope you get this - or someone else's advice - before departing for hospital!)

Jim


----------



## dizzymoo (Jul 27, 2009)

Hi Jim, Thanks I'm sat here eagerly waiting replies lol

My tank is 4ft long, 18" high & 15" wide, sand substrate, slates rocks, mangrove root ornament thing for hiding, needs more hidey holes hence only got 4 cichlids for now.

My mums 2 tanks are - tank 1 - basic community fish ie corys, mollies, tetras & a couple of female fighters. Tank 2 has - clown loach, bgkf , lemon tetra & a kissing gourami . Her tanks are both well in regards to conditions, Leaving the breeding pair in the tank with the fry would they not eat them as they got bigger? I'm currently trying to find something to maybe section the tank but having problems with this. I have a breeding trap would putting the fry in that be a wrong move?
She's had the fry underneath the filter & because of plugs/wires it wont reach to the opposite end of the tank so i turned it off earlier i didn't want to suck the blighters in. The male/dad is hanging close by but she wont allow him to close before seeing him off, the remaining 2 cichlids have found new home opposite end of the tank lol The corys have been ok so far not getting to close & the cichlid mum doesn't appear to be bothered by them either.

I know she can defo take the corys if i must remove them, I have a spare tank but its 2ft long & around 12" high & wide. I kept it for fry from the community tank, would this stress the remaining 2 cichlids out to much as a temp measure?

Thanks for the advice x


----------



## PGWald (Feb 2, 2008)

dizzymoo,

Sorry for not getting back sooner. I hope you (or your mum) can get this reply.

I would suggest moving the corys to one of your mum's tanks as a temporary measure. You could also move the two non-parental jewel cichlids to the spare tank you mentioned - presuming their water is prepared appropriately and the filter you use is seasoned with bacteria.

It's likely the parents would eventually eat the fry - most probably when they are ready to spawn again. But, they tend to have somewhat large spawns so you may run out of space before then. Many aquarists remove the fry as soon as they can be safely moved to grow out tanks and then raise them further to either sell or trade off or to feed larger predators. You'll have to make that call at the appropriate time. Moving the fry to a breeder trap temporarily would be okay but you probably wouldn't be able to house more than a dozen or so in most traps I am familiar with for too long and I'm guessing the spawn is MUCH larger than that.

I hope that helps.

Best of luck with all your new arrivals!

Jim


----------



## dizzymoo (Jul 27, 2009)

Hello, 
Blimey its been nearly a year since i posted this & woo have things have changed, Now *** found this site again i thought i would update for anyone still interested.

The fry i was enquiring about at the time all disappeared during my 4 days of not being at home so i can only guess they were eaten, As it happened days later another lot of fry was spotted & i left them alone to do their own thing , The breeding pair overnight attacked & killed the other 2 cichlids as i came down in the morning to find just the breeding pair & a floating head :?

Problem was i was having severe difficulties with healing from the section i had & it resulted in me selling all the fish including the breeding pair to a friend & i had to put a halt on the fish keeping as i couldn't physically keep on top of them whilst i recovered (slowly) .

*** since moved to a bigger house & have room for more tanks  So .. i now have 4ft tank in the living room with 10 jewel cichlids, 5 are red jewels & 5 are yellow, All a very dull colour when purchased until a week after getting them home & the colour has started to show nicely they are also in with my new female bushynose/bristlenose plec (not sure which is the correct term)

I also have a 4ft tank in my dining room with community fish, ie.. variety of tetras, clown loach, platys, corys & a gold male bushy/bristlenose plec.

I have a 3ft set up arriving tomorrow evening with fish (as yet unsure what as i don't intend keeping them). I also have a small 10l fishless tank in my kitchen set up for fry or quarantine purposes.

I do however have room in my living room for a 7ft/8ft tank!! So this is being looked into for the cichlids 

Its been a tough year but happy to have my fish again & to be back.

Sorry for the long waffle but thought it would be nice to update now *** found you all again


----------



## Dewdrop (Nov 20, 2007)

Welcome back dizzymoo & congrats on your baby :thumb: (now about a year old? boy or girl? bet you have your hands full :lol: ) and congrats on the new house, tanks, & fish too.

Sounds like your first round of breeding with the jewels was a good learning experience. It's hard to beat experience as a teacher :wink: .

 Hope you get a nice unexpected surprise out of the fish that comes with the 3 ft. tank  . They might turn out to be something you actually like & want to keep :drooling: :wink: . What are your current plans for the 3ft. tank :-? ?

Glad you got fish back & found your way back here :dancing: . Thank you for filling us in & updating too =D> . Keep us informed on the progress of the tanks & pics would be great too :fish:


----------



## dizzymoo (Jul 27, 2009)

Thank you , I had a boy (Jaxon-Ted) & he will be 1 on 17th nov .

I vaguely remember the 3ft tank comes with silver dollars & some sort of loach but what type the chap was unsure of & a large plec he said, As yet i have no plans for the 3ft so i'm just going to see what happens once its set up. Depending what comes i'll be giving the fish away or swapping with lfs for a bulb seen as the community tank has gone & i haven't a spare.

Will get some pictures tonight or tomorrow & add them on  & then the new tank when it comes


----------



## Dewdrop (Nov 20, 2007)

Cool...looking forward to the pics.
I've never seen the name Jaxon spelled that way. I like it a lot :thumb: . On the subject of babies haha I had a new granddaughter :dancing: born on my birthday (May 14th.) this year (Hailey Jane). She's a *real* JEWEL :wink: .

If it's going to take a while to get the 7-8ft. tank, I would put the fish from the 4ft. into the 3ft. and do malawi mbuna in the 4ft. (as long as the 4ft. is as big as a 55g. tank). That way you could already have a start with them & maybe have the sex ratios worked out by the time the bigger tank comes to be.

What type of cichlids did you have in mind for the 7-8ft. tank?


----------



## dizzymoo (Jul 27, 2009)

Aww congrats on your precious jewel  What a birthday present!

I like quite a few diff type of cichlids , jewels, yellow labs, blue dolphins, convicts, dempsey and more just not sure on their names, I've been searching online last night for a larger tank & as yet struggling to find one close enough or willing to deliver for the extra. So its going to take some time which i might aswell start getting what i need for it now.

The 3ft tank has arrived,with a large internal filter stuck to the glass inside, An interpet similar size to fluval 3+ internal, several stones & plastic plants, 3 silver dollars, a yoyo/pakistani loach, a young guppy & a plec which i'm not sure if its a common or bristle nose, I thought common at 1st but a fellow fish friend has just said it looks more bristlenose. Now i have 2 bristlenose/bushy nose whichever is which im confused now. 
1 is the dark what i'd say " normal " colour & the other is a gold one which has the bristles so i was told this one is male.
These 2 are now together in a 4ft community tank & the newb being much bigger has the cichlid tank .

Pic is of new plec  
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid= ... .648307218


----------

