# 90 Gallon, newbie, eggs. Help



## MYC1313 (Nov 4, 2011)

Ok so here is the long and the short of it. 
My wife keeps Red Eared Sliders at our store. A customer brought in a turtle that we adopted but it was getting beat up by her turtles. We decided to bring it home so I bought a new tank for it and it was small enough that I decided to keep a JD with it. I have never kept fish before but it did pretty well. We took the turtle back to the store so now I had a 20 gallon long tank with a single JD. 
I decided that I loved cichlids and did a tiny bit of research before I found a deal I couldn't refuse on craigslist for a 90 gallon including a Fluval 405 filter. Purchased. Next thing to come was building a DIY BG. After a week of prep, a month of building, created what I felt was my masterpiece.










So being new and falling hard for the hobby, I cycled the tank (probably incorrectly), seeded it with the filter that I had, and added my JD. Then I began a spree of purchasing fish which I probably shouldn't have but now the tank holds 1 JD, 1 EBGJ, 2 Salvini, 1 Arowana, 1 FH, 4 Silver Dollars, 3 Bala Sharks, 1 pair Electric Blue Crayfish, and 2 Chinese Algae Eaters. 
Obviously falling hard for the hobby, did a little more research and decided my end goal was to breed Salvini, & find, keep, and breed Festae. I found another deal on CL for a 180 gallon aquarium including 2 FX5's. This tank is just sitting in my garage waiting for my basement to be finished. I then went out and bought a 40 gallon aquarium intending it to be a growout/breeder. Purchased 10 Festae fry online which have arrived and are flourishing. (BTW is a AC110 on a 40 gallon aquarium too much?)










Now comes the fortuitous problem...
Everything is great, 180 waiting, 90 with perfect water and fish that are getting along fairly well, 40 with 10 Festae fry eating well then...










I originally had thought that my 2 Salvini were coloring up beautifully but that they were both male. They had locked lips a couple times but I really didn't think anything of it. Apparently it turns out that one is male and one is female and that they have paired up and laid eggs. What do I do? This is what I wanted but I thought it would be after doing more research on CF, having more experience with cichlids, and being more prepared. Keep in mind I do have a 20 gallon long, should I start cycling it? Am I supposed to move Salvini or eventual fry? 
I'm happy but I'm lost, what do I do? I'm only about 2 months into the hobby and basically all the info I've gotton has been from here. PLEASE HELP!


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## mlancaster (Jul 24, 2009)

Hi *MYC1313*,

Congratulations of the eggs. I am glad to see you have become as obsessed with aquariums as most of us here have. I first wanted to say the first picture of a tank you posted is amazing. You did a great job decorating that tank and your cichlids will love it.



MYC1313 said:


> (BTW is an AC110 on a 40 gallon aquarium too much?)


An AC110 is great for a 40 gallon tank especially if you are trying to grow out cichlids. They will grow much faster with clean well oxygenated water. However, if you end up with fry in this tank, you will have to cover the intake with some sort of sponge or fine filter bag and likely turn down the flow rate.

I unfortunately do not have a lot of experience breeding CA cichlids, so others will be better able to help you. However, I would probably not feel comfortable keeping a breeding pair of salvini in a 20 long. Since it looks like the eggs are on your built in background, I personally would leave them there and see how it plays out in your community tank. If they make it to the wiggler or free swimmer stage and the 20 gallon is cycled, you could siphon them out of the tank and try and raise them in there on your own. Either way I would not worry too much, if they bred already they will likely do it again.

Keep us posted. If you can get any pictures of you fish, I would appreciate it.

Thanks,
Matt


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## CjCichlid (Sep 14, 2005)

Since the majority of your fish are all still relatively small, I would just leave everything be until you get the 180 setup and are able to move everyone into their permanent homes. Being that this is your Salvini's first spawn, they will most likely not do the best job at parenting. Let them get a few practice rounds in before attempting to keep any of the fry. If you do end up getting free swimmers and fry, your other fish will most likely be able to pick them off...

Or, if you want to keep spawning aggression to a minimum you could simply remove the eggs by just siphoning them out. It's up to you...


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## bernie comeau (Feb 19, 2007)

You can remove wrigglers or free swimming fry by siphoning them out. If you set up your 20 gal., I would use filtration material from filters on already established tanks, so that it is ready. If you use any kind of external filter (box or cannister) you need to wrap some spunge around the intake so that fry does not get sucked up.

An air driven spunge filter is often used for a fry tank. Since your 20 gal. is not an established tank, you would have to wrap filtration media from your other filters (from an established tank) around this spunge.......or you could cycle the tank, though not likely it would be ready for this batch of fry.


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## MYC1313 (Nov 4, 2011)

Thanks guys, I think I'm buying another 40g breeder (LOL?) off of CL, and I'm going to seed a new AC HOB with filter media I already have. Then I guess I'll try to wrap the intake so the fry don't get sucked into it. 
Off topic, I'm starting to run out of excuses with the wife about why my tank multiplied so quickly, any excuses y'all have used that go over pretty well? I always let her know that it's HER turtle's fault that I got into the hobby.


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## MYC1313 (Nov 4, 2011)

Ok so after doing some reading I felt that my Salvini had failed to fertilize this time. There were more white eggs than brown and they started to fall off the cave. Today I decided that just in case, I should give the tank a good cleaning so that if they decided to spawn again they would have a clean tank to do so. As I was cleaning, I noticed that there was tons of poop in their area, on closer inspection, I realized that they were babies! Wigglers? What now!?!?!


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## dright21 (Nov 12, 2011)

What I have done in the past with my Convicts which I know aren't Salvini's but they both are CA Cichlids. I have taken water from the original tank that the parents and babies have been in and put it in my 'fry tank' as I call it then I siphoned the fry out into the new tank with the old water. That way the water has already been cycled. It worked for me when I did it. Good Luck and keep us posted.


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## bernie comeau (Feb 19, 2007)

dright21 said:


> I siphoned the fry out into the new tank with the old water. That way the water has already been cycled.


Using old water itself, makes little to no difference. Bacteria are primarily on surfaces. You need filtration material from an established tank (or even possibly a lot of decor or gravel from an established tank, though less likely to be as effective as filtration media) to avoid having to cycle a tank.

Of course convicts are a very hardy fish. Especially if you do a lot of water change, you may very well get away with out cycling the tank. But salvini fry..... I doubt you will get large numbers with higher ammonia and nitrite.


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## MYC1313 (Nov 4, 2011)

Ok....so wow! I decided that after the Salvini situation I should pay closer attention to my fish. I noticed that what I thought was a male Jack Dempsey was really defending territory right next to the Salvini. On closer inspection, there are wigglers in there also. It's in a really dark part of my background so I guess I never noticed. So a regular female Jack Dempsey, and a male Blue Gene Jack Dempsey, whats next for these guys? Also, I thought this wasn't supposed to be possible? 1 pair breeding Salvini, 1 pair breeding Jacks, 1 FH, 1 Arowana, and all the rest. 
F.Y.I.
I just bought a 46 gallon bowfront to seperate the Salvini in.


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## mlancaster (Jul 24, 2009)

Wow *MYC1313*,

Congratulations; must be something in the water.

Thanks,
Matt


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## MYC1313 (Nov 4, 2011)

So today I took the Salvini pair and the free swimmers and placed them into my new 46 gallon bow front. I have some driftwood that I want to put in there that I got when I purchased my 180 gallon. The driftwood was in the 180 when I purchased it, it has been dry for about 2 weeks now and I soaked it for about 2 hours. When would it be safe to put into my aquarium? Will it change the parameters of my water?


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## bwestgsx06 (Sep 21, 2011)

Any updates to all this? Basement finished and 180 in?


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## MYC1313 (Nov 4, 2011)

So the basement is still under construction but we're expecting it to be done by July 4th. The 90 gallon now has slightly different stock but the trio of Salvini are still in there and they continue to spawn every time I remove fry. I now have the 90 gallon, a 46 gallon bowfront, 40 gallon breeder, 39 gallon tall, and 20 gallon long. I trashed the 180 gallon and bought a new 210 to set up in the basement. The very first batch of Sal's still aren't big enough to sell but they're really fun to feed, they're like little piranha's tearing away at basically anything I put into their water. 
The 90 gallon is a really weird tank because the Sal's have claimed a 1/3 of it and all of the other fish won't dare cross that imaginary line. They're pretty aggressive fish but it seems like they know better than to confront the breeding Sal's.
The Dempsey's ate their wigglers and haven't bred since. 
My EB Crawfish bred and I moved the berried female to the 39 gallon tall.


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