# Demasoni questions



## Seamus Wick (Dec 11, 2011)

after not researching enough and getting the wrong types of mbuna for my 55 gallon tank, i brought them back and got 5 1-1 1/2 inch demasoni to try my hand at breeding (that was all the store had)

So far they're doing excellent, but i know its kind of small for a breeding group (i might end up with to many males)

can i just add in 10 more just like that, or is there some other way to do it?

how long will it take for these fish to grow to full size?

how do i get them to breed and when will they breed?

how many fry will they produce?

Thanks


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

They will breed with no efforts from you in 6 months to one year, depending on how old they were when you got them and how much they like their tank.

Adding 10 more is a good idea. Maybe even 15. Remember 50/50 chance of females, so if you want to end up with 9 females, and if you feel lucky, you start with 18 fish.

An average clutch is 8-9 fry since demasoni are small.


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## Seamus Wick (Dec 11, 2011)

ok thanks


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## beasterman1 (Sep 7, 2009)

I have been breeding Demasoni for several months now. Remember that demasoni are very aggressive toward one another. I started with 12 demasoni about 3 years ago, and the super dominant male killed the other 11 fish. I would recommend that if you are going to do demasoni, you do either 1 or 30. You will want to fill your tank full of rock to give plenty of hiding spots. These fish are also like a strict vegie diet, and if you feed meat, they can get malawi bloat really easily. They are beautiful, but to give them a good chance you will want to have A LOT of them.


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## brandonv (Jan 11, 2012)

They are awesome fish but definitely we have one dominant male that needs a large group of fish to keep him in check.

Breading - Add water and fish that are mature enough. I thought we had a sick fish when we saw the first one holding, so we looked it up. That fish yielded 15 when we stripped it. Two days later 7 more from another. All of the fry are living in a 40G tank right now (22) and easily have survived the two weeks and our growing fast. We have had the Demasoni for about 2 months. We have another holding now and will strip her after a couple of weeks is she doesn' t spit (18-20 days).

Have fun with them.


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## limpert (Aug 28, 2007)

No intention of thread jacking as this is on the subject of demasoni... will full grown demasoni grow as large as they look in this video? I know its a relatively small tank but these guys still look darn big for dems.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5jIOvup ... ature=plcp


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## TrashmanNYC (Dec 10, 2007)

limpert said:


> No intention of thread jacking as this is on the subject of demasoni... will full grown demasoni grow as large as they look in this video? I know its a relatively small tank but these guys still look darn big for dems.
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5jIOvup ... ature=plcp


Some of my males are that large.


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## limpert (Aug 28, 2007)

how long have you kept them?


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## TrashmanNYC (Dec 10, 2007)

I've had most of them about 2-3 years.


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## limpert (Aug 28, 2007)

would you say that their rate of growth is slow?


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## car0linab0y (Aug 10, 2009)

limpert said:


> would you say that their rate of growth is slow?


VERY slow if you ask me. Everybody else in the tank seems to grow while the dems don't.


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## limpert (Aug 28, 2007)

I want to see some pics of DJ's demasoni tank


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

I don't have full tank shots. Here is the avatar a little bigger.


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## brinkles (Jan 30, 2011)

All the trouble of keeping them is worth it if they look like that, nice fish!


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## limpert (Aug 28, 2007)

flawless :thumb:


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