Help with rearing fry and other questions.

[kentc13064]

I have a 175 gallon tank that is home to 20 Tropheus Ikola Kaiser. The fish were bought as juvies and have matured well in the year I`ve had them. My substrate is crushed coral and there is a significant amount of rock work in the tank. Filtration is a Eheim canister as well as a Fluval FX4 . I also have designed my own undergravel jets and have 2 Hydor Powerhead sthat provide good circulation.

I have zero experience with Tropheus mating and raising fry.etc. As stated, the fish are just over a year old and the males are fully colored-out and are fairly easy to distinguish from the females. Over the past month I`ve observed the dominant male doing the mating dance shimmy in the company of a female tank member. The other thing I`ve noticed is a female who stays off to the side when the tank lights go on and dpesn`t seem to eat. She is not beaten up and looks healthy.

Could she be holding eggs/fry? Lets say she is holding, capturing her in my tank will be a chore and them Im guessing I`d need to purchase an egg tumbler and strip her? If she spits the fry naturally I assume they`ll become dinner for the adults?

What do you guys do?

Thanks!

[brianyelick]

I always let them be for at least 10 days. Then at that point catch the holding female and either strip the eggs and use a tumbler. Or what I do is catch them then put them in a separate 20g to spit the fry . I continue to feed flake food because I noticed all my wc females eat the flakes while holding. I leave the mom in the tank for about 5 days after she spits the fry the first time. This method works for me

[mikevxr]

Must admit my Ikola only started breeding successfully at around 18 months of age, had a few false starts around 9 months of age but eggs not being fertilised resulted in them disappearing after a couple of days. If I’m after fry I leave female till about day 28 then remove her to a small tank to release but to be honest once they start breeding and your removing females it’s easy to get overrun with fry - so I usually leave mine to spit in the tank as there’s always a few that seem to survive in amongst rocks.