# J. Dickfieldi Eggs, Finally!!



## thetim6 (Jan 24, 2003)

I was feeding my tangs just now and I noticed one of my julies was fanning a clutch of eggs!

I'm a little confused because it's only one fish, and it's one that I thought was a male. I have two smaller Julies and one big julie, which I assumed was the female.

One of the smaller ones is fanning the eggs, which look creamish in color, and the big one is swimming around as usual. They act like a pair sometimes, and the big one swam over to the eggs a few minutes ago and just wiggled and then swam away.

I'm trying to decide whether I should take the eggs out (submerged, of course) and put them into an empty tank with an air stone or should I wait until they hatch. I'll probably take the one who is fanning the eggs out too if I remove the eggs. *What do you think I should do?* Those with experience breeding any type of julie, chime in and tell me whatever you think I should know, pretty please!

The main reason for removing the eggs is my 55 gallon tank is a community tank and not only are there two comps and a brichardi, but also 3 upside down cats which I know for a fact will eat the eggs if given a chance. There only appears to be 20-30 eggs, the smallest clutch from an egg layer I've seen (it's quite possible they laid eggs yesterday and the cats had their fair share already).

Pics shortly :dancing:


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## thetim6 (Jan 24, 2003)

I'm getting set up for pictures and I just noticed the mouth of the guarding julie is bleeding/bloody.

So at this point I'm thinking they are fertilized :thumb:

Basically, it looks like the remnants of a fairly brutal cichlid spawning ritual! Nothing too bad though, I can just see her lips are bloody and her teeth are clearly visible...

And here's the pics:


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## thetim6 (Jan 24, 2003)

Well I decided to remove the eggs.

I'll guess we'll see in a few days whether this was a bad idea or not.


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## Darkside (Feb 6, 2008)

They should be fine as long as they're in an area with good circulation.


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## thetim6 (Jan 24, 2003)

I noticed about 5 of 40 eggs had turned white by this morning. The rest still look good, I'm debating on removing the white eggs but I'm going to try to do it without disrupting the others.

I'm expecting the eggs to hatch either tonight or tomorrow morning. I'm pretty excited! :lol:


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## thetim6 (Jan 24, 2003)

Update: The eggs are hatching right now! I got home from class, went to the beach, caught some rides and it looks like I got home right on time.

Pic:


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## Multies (Mar 9, 2007)

Congrats!
looks like 1 or 2 of your fry didt make it :? 
so how many fry can you spot?

Male occie keeps on going in his shell when i put my hand in(very unusual) 
i will take a pic though.


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## thetim6 (Jan 24, 2003)

Thanks *Multies*. I'm excited to raise the fry, somehow it just never gets old.

I was able to count the eggs yesterday, there was 40 exactly. I just counted fry that I can tell are alive, there was at least 28 :lol:. I say at least because some of them have started descending to the sand bottom and out of my sight. There appears to be 5 or 6 that didn't get fertilized or died, you can see they are the white ones in the pictures.

ps. No rush on the pic dude, I'm sure it'll be worth the wait :thumb:


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## Multies (Mar 9, 2007)

it will be very exciting to see them grow!
*** got tons of pics of my occies growing up and they grow so slowly..

btw, great pics! :thumb:


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## thetim6 (Jan 24, 2003)

Here's another update picture. They are finally starting to look like fish!


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## thetim6 (Jan 24, 2003)




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## Darkside (Feb 6, 2008)

Wow! Those are some pretty intense pics!


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## aaxxeell (Jul 28, 2007)

yeah nice photos mate, what camera did u use?


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## Multies (Mar 9, 2007)

Nice pics!
heres my occie fry
Day 9 after they spawned









seems like they are getting the stripes!


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## thetim6 (Jan 24, 2003)

Thanks everyone!

Aaxxeell, I used a canon rebel xt DSLR with an 18mm-55mm wide screen lens. The camera is sick, but if I had some nicer glass I can't even imagine the macro shots I could get.

Multies thats a great picture of the an occie fry. Kinda cool how the gold color of the egg makes it look like he is already coloring up. My fry are getting stripes already, you can look at them every couple hours and see a difference in the size of the yolk sac.

They still aren't free swimming but it shouldn't be long now. They are really packing on the size though which is a good thing because it means feeding them won't be that hard. I would guess they are about half a cm this morning.


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## aroussel (Mar 5, 2003)

I enjoyed reading this post. Great pictures!!!! Congrats on your fry!!!


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## Multies (Mar 9, 2007)

are you going to take out the fry after they are free swimming or are you going to just leave them be.
*** got older ones in the tank right now and they are much bigger then those guys.
and the ones in the pic are much bigger now too. looking more fish like.

i almost got him yesterday..
i got him out, but when i dropped the shell to catch him.. he went straight for it! so no pic yesterday


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## thetim6 (Jan 24, 2003)

Thanks aroussel, Keep checking back too because I plan to update this thread frequently with pics.

Multies, I took them out a few days ago, before they hatched. I put an open air hose right above the eggs to help keep fresh water moving through them. The tank is a 2 gallon. It has trumpet snails and a sponge filter that has been running for a few months so they will probably have a lot of food available in the tank.

After they put some size on I will move them into a rubber maid container with a sponge filter. If I buy another tank, it will eventually become a display so It's more practical for me to just use rubber maids to grow these fry out. But for right now having them in a 2 gallon gives me the ability to constantly have an eye on them.


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## thetim6 (Jan 24, 2003)

As promised:










I can count 20, but I'm hoping there's more.


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## aroussel (Mar 5, 2003)

thats pretty awsome! Thanks for sharing!


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## thetim6 (Jan 24, 2003)

Hey I'm just glad you all have been enjoying the pics, makes it worthwhile to keep taking them. :wink:

The fry are free swimming now and they are eating crushed flakes voraciously. I have also noted some pretty aggressive attacks between the fry! They already have a lot of attitude and when they decide they don't want another one near them, they chase each other! This isn't playful chasing either, but their parents are far from the most peaceful fish so it stands to reason.

I also just realized this thread is worthless without a pic of the parents! I'll try to get one and host it tomorrow along with an updated picture of the fry.
_

P.S.: The thread loads really fast for me. Will you guys let me know if any page loads slowly? I can resize the pics (to thumbnails.) I would really appreciate it!_


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## Multies (Mar 9, 2007)

congrats!
*** noticed that too today with my occie fry. ALL of them seem to have ripped tails if you look carefully. largers one are fine.

and yes they load fine for me. 
and note, male moved his shell and will not come out.. need a new strategy to get him out.
this is getting pretty annoying cant do it at night either since they will be sleeping in shells.
hes very timid when im here but very aggressive once i put my hand in :lol:

btw great pics! keep em coming!


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## Multies (Mar 9, 2007)

YES!!!
i finally got my male pic..
but it sucks hes very close to 2 1/2. like 2 2/3 ish. but still very big


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## Furcifer158 (Feb 16, 2008)

Multies did you put you occie in a bag for that pic? :lol: 
if so that cracks me up :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: 
it's cleaver whatever you did

Jon-e


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## Multies (Mar 9, 2007)

man, why does everyone think that!
it was plexi glass!


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## Furcifer158 (Feb 16, 2008)

did you just lay him on it?


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## Multies (Mar 9, 2007)

with water and the ruler


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## Furcifer158 (Feb 16, 2008)

o still looks like he is in a bag


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## thetim6 (Jan 24, 2003)

Sweet Sean! That's a huge occie for sure, I've never seen one that big in person. Do you know what variant he is? Is that blue really blue or purple? Most of them I see are purple is why I ask.

I couldn't get any good pics of the fry this morning. It's hard to get the focus just right because they are so small, and I don't know if the focus is dead on until I blow the pics up on the computer.

Here's a few I snapped of the parents, they are pretty photogenic and so much easier to dial in the focus perfectly!

This is the smaller one that was guarding the eggs, I'm assuming male? He never leaves this spot, literally he sits there all day, except to eat.









This is the bigger of the two, assumed female.









They don't hang out together and they are not very social like some cichlid pairs can be. The male stays in his spot and the female swims around the tank. The other small one I have I believe is also a male and there are no signs of fighting so I'm suspecting I might have a trio. The two males are very tolerant of one another, but neither of them ever leave their spots except to eat.

Next time I'll take a pic of the other male. He must think he is a shell dweller, he stays in the giant queen conch shell I have in the tank.

p.s. Anyone who was wondering why multies posted that pic of the occie, it was because of this thread http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=168395&highlight=, and his commitment to finally catching the little bugger haha. Also, the male pictured in that thread is NOT the one pictured above, but the female pictured is the same female as above.


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## Desi&lt;3 (Feb 13, 2008)

The babies look good and cant wait to see more pix!
:drooling: opcorn:  :thumb:


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## rrich741 (Apr 18, 2008)

awsome


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## thetim6 (Jan 24, 2003)




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## Hyperion (Dec 2, 2007)

nice fry man. Can you post some pics of your whole tank? What else do you have in there? I noticed a calvus in one of ur previous pictures.

Keep the updates coming too. I plan on breaking down my 20 gallon and starting a 40 or 50 breeder with some Julies in it and im really leaning towards J. Dickfeldi's


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## thetim6 (Jan 24, 2003)

Sure Hyperion, I'll take a picture of the whole tank. It's a standard 55 gallon (4'x13''), but the fry were separated, I'm growing them out in a 2 gallon. Inhabitants of the 55 are 2 comps, 1 brichardi, countless multis, 3 dickfieldi, 5 tiger barbs, a Siamese algae eater,a rubber lip pleco, and 3 syno. nigriventris (upside down cats.) The pH is at 7.5 and my tap water is excessively hard.

I'm trying something new with these fry. Usually, I would feed 3x per day and change out 50% of the water every other or every 2 days in a bare bottom tank. This time I'm using a planted, sand bottom tank with a weekly water change. I'm hoping the plants will soak up nitrates, which I believe hinder fry development. The fry are growing steadily and stay plump from eating. I'll move them to a rubber maid with some java fern and java moss in a few weeks.

_J. dickfieldi_ is a very beautiful fish and it is well suited to a community tank, even a pair, with other tough cichlids. Brichardi and comps are good tankmates for julies because they are all tough, and comps are the best because they diffuse most bouts with their armor scales. In a big enough tank you could probably keep dickfieldi with anything.


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## thetim6 (Jan 24, 2003)

To my surprise, there are actually some fry left in the main tank! It's hard to tell how many but there is quite a few.


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## Desi&lt;3 (Feb 13, 2008)

Lucky my little guys never survive!


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## Hyperion (Dec 2, 2007)

Thanks for the update.

Im really bummed about having to break down my 20 gallon with my multies in it. I was hoping that i would have more time between moves to move, set it up, and then b4 i move into my new place i would have time to let the new 40 or 50 gallon cycle and let the new Julies get settled in then move the multies.

We'll see what happens in t minus 10 days, haha.


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## Desi&lt;3 (Feb 13, 2008)

Hope everything works out ok!


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## thetim6 (Jan 24, 2003)

Upon closer inspection with a flashlight I discovered quite a bit more fry in the main tank than I first suspected.

There is at least as many fry in the main tank as I have in the 2 gallon, 20+!

I'll try to get some pictures up in a little while.


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## Hyperion (Dec 2, 2007)

No pictures?


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## thetim6 (Jan 24, 2003)

Sorry about the wait everyone.

I got a full tank shot hyperion, but I'll try to get a better one when it gets dark outside so there will be no reflection. I got a few cool closeups I thought I would share with you all as well, so I hope you enjoy them.


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## thetim6 (Jan 24, 2003)




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## Rick_Lindsey (Aug 26, 2002)

OK, those juli babies take the cuteness award! Doncha just love watching baby fish grow up?

-Rick (The armchair aquarist)


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## Hyperion (Dec 2, 2007)

Thanks for those pictures man, I really like your tank. I'd really like to get a setup going with some julies, L. Meleagris, and maybe even some comps in the near future.

Did you start off with just a pair of julies or did you try the 5-6 and wait for pairs method?


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## thetim6 (Jan 24, 2003)

Rick_Lindsey said:


> OK, those juli babies take the cuteness award! Doncha just love watching baby fish grow up?
> 
> -Rick (The armchair aquarist)


It is really cool to see them morph from fry to juvies to sub adults, etc. Raising fry is one of the most rewarding parts of keeping cichlids for me.



Hyperion said:


> Did you start off with just a pair of julies or did you try the 5-6 and wait for pairs method?


I bought 3 because they were already 2.5-3" and 10$ apiece. It took over 6 months for them to spawn, but I noticed courting behavior within weeks of being introduced to my system. If you can get small ones and have the ability to get some credit for refunding fish, I would definitely recommend getting 4 or more to get a pair. If they are already large expensive fish that you can't refund, try picking the smallest and largest fish in the tank. Chances are fish in the same tank at a store are from the same batch of fry, so any differences in size are due to either competition or sexual dimorphism. Julies happen to be sexually dimorphic in that females are typically larger, but other than that it's really hard to sex Julies. That's how I got lucky, I picked the two smallest fish and the biggest fish out of the tank when I bought my dickfieldi.


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## Furcifer158 (Feb 16, 2008)

great pics


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## thetim6 (Jan 24, 2003)

Furcifer158 said:


> great pics


Thanks *Furcifer158*


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## thetim6 (Jan 24, 2003)




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## Multies (Mar 9, 2007)

They look like julies!
how many are there?


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## thetim6 (Jan 24, 2003)

I can count 20 in the 2 gallon and there are still at least 10 in the 55 gallon.


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## thetim6 (Jan 24, 2003)

Hey everyone! I just snapped a few pics to update the thread. The fry are starting to grow fast, but they are still only about 1/2 inch. I think their numbers are around the 20 mark, but it's hard to count them because of java fern and willow moss in the tank. They are still in a 2 gallon, but they will be going over to a 20 long next week when I get some time, I still need to buy the 20 gallon and set it up.


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## thetim6 (Jan 24, 2003)

OH YA, I forgot to mention that in the 55 gallon which is heavily stocked including 3 upsidedown catfish, there are still at least 5 fry, probably more. Just goes to show you that julies really are great parents. The fry in the 55 gallon are a bit smaller than their siblings in the 2 gallon.


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## Furcifer158 (Feb 16, 2008)

nice  
keep on with the updates, love the pics as always too :thumb:


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## aaxxeell (Jul 28, 2007)

lookin good mate, how many fry are still kickin?


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## thetim6 (Jan 24, 2003)

Thanks for the compliments Furcifer158 and aaxxeell

I just counted 15, but it's impossible to count them all at once because there are so many places to hide.

I'm guessing there's about 20 in the 2 gallon, so that's 50% of the eggs I counted that survived. Not too bad considering they have been in a 2 gallon for one and half months.

There's also a few in the 55 gallon, I'm going to leave them and let nature take it's course.


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## thetim6 (Jan 24, 2003)




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## thetim6 (Jan 24, 2003)

Bump for lots of hits with no comments. If you don't mind, let me know what you think about the pics and also if they are loading ok.

I found one baby in the 55 gallon that is easily 1 inch long.

I'm planning to move the babies into a larger tank soon. Stay tuned, I'll post more pics when I get them moved.


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## Darkside (Feb 6, 2008)

:thumb:


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## Reel North (Sep 23, 2006)

Awesome

Photos

:fish: :dancing: :thumb:


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## Hoosier Tank (May 8, 2007)

thetim6 said:


> I'm planning to move the babies into a larger tank soon. Stay tuned, I'll post more pics when I get them moved.


Awesome "juliettes"!!! Are they still in the 2g... what is the next size, up to a 10g?
Keep the pics comin opcorn:


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## thetim6 (Jan 24, 2003)

Thanks guys.

Hoosier tank, yeah they are still in the 2 gallon. I'm thinking about buying a rubbermaid instead of a glass tank. I'm thinking 30-50 gallons with a giant sponge filter and java fern/java moss. They will be moved by the end of the week, maybe even today depending on how I feel after work (I'm roofing for the summer, pity me lol.)


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## thetim6 (Jan 24, 2003)

I ended up buying a 20 long and moved the fry into their new tank yesterday. I counted the juvies as I netted them from the two gallon and there are 24 exactly in the 20 long. There are also 6 confirmed juvies still in the 55 gallon. I don't know if I'll leave them or move them but for the time being they are staying in the 55. So thats 30 total, all over 1/2 inch, some as big as an inch.

I'll take some pictures later, maybe even tonight.


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## Hoosier Tank (May 8, 2007)

CHA-CHING!
They go for $10-$14 each around here when they get to be about an inch long!!!


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## thetim6 (Jan 24, 2003)

Hoosier Tank said:


> CHA-CHING!
> They go for $10-$14 each around here when they get to be about an inch long!!!


I hope you are right, Hoosier Tank. It sure will be nice if my cichlid hobby pays for the _Centropyge loriculus_ i bought yesterday morning... :lol:

Sorry for the delay in getting pictures up, my computer monitor broke last week so I haven't had web access.

Here are some updated pictures:


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