# Breeding Advice - Paralabidochromis chromogynos



## tycoonbob (Feb 19, 2012)

Hello everyone.

About three months ago I set up my third aquairum, a 55g with ~25 Ps. demasoni (along with a single ABN Pleco). My intention with this tank is to breed them, but they are still too young. I'm playing around with the idea of breeding a second species, Paralabidochromis chromogynos. I have taken a liking to this species, along with several other Vics. I know these fish grow to about 4.5 inches, and I assume a good ratio would be 1m/5f?

What is the smallest tank I could house a breeding group in? I am thinking a 3ft tank, like a 30 breeder or 38 gallon. Would that be too small? 
I would use pool filter sand (30-50 lbs, probably) along with an Aquaclear AC110 for filtration (possibly an AC70, if I go with a 30g breeder). Plenty of rocks as well.

Aside from the tank to house the breeding group, I plan to grab 2 20g tanks and split 1 in half, and the other in thirds (silicone cut plexiglass). This will give me 2 10g and 3 ~6g area to separate fry (both Ps. demasoni and P. chromogynos) as needed. I will only need to keep fry until 1.5-2 inches, then they would be sold off to a cichlid organization I work with locally. Would 2 20g split like this be enough to grow fry? I would use sponge filters in the 2 20g tanks, with no substrate.

So yeah. Am I going about it the right way? What should I change about my plan?

Thanks!


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## AlphaWild (Apr 9, 2009)

I'm not certain about the 3' tank...mine are pretty aggressive with each other. I kept mine in a 75g tank and lost both males and females to aggression. After I do some re-arranging, I am considering adding my chromos into my demasoni tank, as they seem to be on par aggression-wise. I hesitate because in the past, I have used a higher protein diet to condition my chromos for breeding, and I wouldn't want to do that with the demasoni. I have raised several groups of chromo and demasoni fry together in the same tank with no problems, so I don't think your dividers are necessary, unless you are trying to seperate by size.


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## tycoonbob (Feb 19, 2012)

The idea was to separate by size and species, since I don't know if I will be able to tell Chromo fry from demasoni at <1". Never worked with fry before.

For my main Chromo tank though, I will have plenty of rockwork, without a doubt. I can do a 4ft tank if necessary, but was hoping to get by with a 3 ft. Any other thoughts on that?

It's definitely shocking to hear you lost your Chromos when they were in a 75g. Were they by themselves or were anything else in there? You say both males, so did you have 2m/10f or something similar?


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## AlphaWild (Apr 9, 2009)

I ended up with a colony of 3M/4F, so that ratio didn't help. I lost 2 females within several days of having been stripped. I suppose the constant male attention was too much in that weakened state? Even when I lost the 2 males, they didn't get beat up much, just stressed to death. I'm down to a pair of adults now, and a bunch of juvies coming up to be my next colony. They've always been in with various other species, usually mbuna tankmates, and the chromos have always been tank bosses.

You won't have any trouble identifying chromos from demasoni from day 1. The chromos start out plain silver, and the demasoni look like, well, little demasoni. Blue with bars.


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## cichlid-gal (Apr 27, 2012)

tycoonbob said:


> The idea was to separate by size and species, since I don't know if I will be able to tell Chromo fry from demasoni at <1". Never worked with fry before.
> 
> For my main Chromo tank though, I will have plenty of rockwork, without a doubt. I can do a 4ft tank if necessary, but was hoping to get by with a 3 ft. Any other thoughts on that?
> 
> It's definitely shocking to hear you lost your Chromos when they were in a 75g. Were they by themselves or were anything else in there? You say both males, so did you have 2m/10f or something similar?


I have my P. chromogynos group in a 125G tank. I wanted a species only tank of these guys but after having a couple of females chased out the back of the tank and finding a bunch of others in tatters...I decided to add some other fish to this tank. Months later with lots and lots and lots of rockwork, removal of extra males so that there are only 3 in the tank now, and a couple of other aggressive type species, my P. chromogynos group seems to be holding on well with not much in the way of tatters showing up and no one jumping ship.

I'd like to tell you that these guys are easy and a 3ft tank would work great but I just don't think that's the case from my experiences with them. Beautiful fish, stunning both male and females but pretty tough on each other. Males vs males, males vs females, and females vs females and they pay no mind to the other fish in the tank...just each other. Most everyone that visits my house likes this tank the best...the mix is good. I have Mainganos and Cynos with the Chromos. The tank is pretty full of fish.

Set ups need some space and some other fish to help spread aggression out. I'll try to get a pic of my current setup so you can see what I have that is working.


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## cichlid-gal (Apr 27, 2012)

Here's a quick video of my group today...I still have females holding off and on but I've been growing up a couple of spawns for extra girls for my guys so haven't pulled any in a while. Just click the link to view.

http://s1064.photobucket.com/user/dstiles57/media/P1150746_zps4d866087.mp4.html


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