# Breeding jewels advice



## sim2905 (May 17, 2009)

Hi all

I have a recently acquired a 180ltr tank containing 14 malawi cichlids which i believe to be 4 yellow 'labs', 2 blue zebras, 3 livingstone cichlids, 3 blue 'haps' and two others that i haven't identified yet and a large plec.

The tank also contains a pair of jewel cichlids and this is my problem.
The jewels have just laid eggs this morning and both parents are guarding them well but i'm worried about what to do next. If i leave them in there i'm worried that the eggs or newborn fry will be eaten despite their best efforts to guard them. I have access to another small tank that i can get up and running tomorrow to move either: 
-- All other occupants of the tank--
--Eggs and parents--
--or just the eggs--
but will doing that do more harm than good?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Simon


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

The jewels and the africans should be separated, as jewels are infamous for killing all other fish in the tank when spawning.

The 180 litre is not really large enough for the africans, you'd be better off with a 75G 48" rectangle tank (or larger) for them.


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## sim2905 (May 17, 2009)

thanks for the quick reply but it doesn't really help my problem.

I need to know if moving any of them or disturbing all the inhabitants will stop the parents guarding the eggs.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Since your primary focus is preserving the jewels and their fry, you might want to try posting in the West African forum. That's probably where the experts hang out, LOL.

If it were me and I didn't get any replies, I'd move the Rift Lake Africans to a 75G and leave the Jewels and eggs where they are.


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

I've kept W African Jewels with SA/CA Cichlids and they have done fine together... including breeding pairs of Jewels. I've heard they hold quite a reputation of being prutal fish, but this simply hasn't been my experience with the 14 or so I've kept as adults...

The Jewels should do fine guarding the eggs... if you wish to raise the fry you may want to take them out and raise them seperately... If you leave the fry with the parents most will probably get eaten by tankmates but some will probably grow up... The pareents will defend the fry as best they can and may damage tankmates in the process of doing so...

I've kept adult breeding pairs of Jewels with adult breeding pairs of Dempseys & Convicts, as well as single Green Terrors, Oscars, Salvini, etc, etc... The adult Jewels seemed to be subdominant to almost every adult SA/CA tankmate I put in with them...

I don't keep Rift Lake Africans so I cannot offer any advice or comparison to them...


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

Double Post


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## sim2905 (May 17, 2009)

Thanks for the advice.

If i take the rock with the eggs on and the pair of jewels and put them in a small tank on there own, will the move upset them and stop them looking after the eggs?

Thanks again, this is the first time i have had fish breed and i really want them to succeed.

Simon


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

Generally, the mom tends to the eggs and the dad defends the territory. She will fan the eggs and pick out any that get fungus on them.

You can remove the rock with eggs safely. I've only done it a couple of times and it worked each time. I was told not to let the eggs ever come out of the water during transfer. To do this I put a container in the original tank, filled it with water from that tank, then moved the rock into the container, then submerged the container (with rock) into the new tank and moved it into place.

The times I did this I waited until only a few hours before I expected the eggs to hatch and did not move the parents into the new tank. I'm not sure how the parents will react to the rock being moved and then being added to the new tank. Parents will often eat the eggs when overly stressed.

If the parents are not beating up on the tankmates too bad... I would leave the eggs & parents in the main tank until they hatch. Then siphon out the babies and put them in the new tank. Doing it this way has just seemed a lot less risky to me and has worked very well for me many times.

Congratts on the eggs...


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## mncherie1 (Mar 27, 2009)

I have a pair myself and I used a divider to keep the parents and eggs away from the others, that worked well. I did move a stone with eggs once and they did end up eating the eggs. They now have their own 29 gal and can do as the please. 
Let me know if I can be of further help.
My first fry is almost 1 inch long now :thumb:


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