Have you seen the little fishies?

[howeird]

Sadly, the hundred or so baby jeweled ciclids are no longer in the tank. I don't think it was predators - Mom & Dad were keeping them under guard pretty well. They had plenty of food & air and the tank is clean, so I'm puzzled. Usually by this time a half dozen would be seen around the moss and in the parental cave. The adult pair have been in their dug-out cave under the rocks a lot, I suspect there will be another hatching.

Meanwhile, the male betta died. Pretty much killed off by the female, who is now 3/4 of the way transitioned into male. Fish do that sometimes, when a male is infertile, which this one seemed to be. So the dilemma is do I buy a replacement male, female or pair? The latter, probably. Let them duke it out.

Comments

[lironess.livejournal.com]

My understanding at least with Mollies is that a transitioned female is not always fertile either. So yeah I would take it out and get a pair if you are interested primarily in breeding.

I also thought that in ciclids the parents will eat the babies at some point after guarding them for a while. But then I was reading the fish keeper magazines a LONG time ago so I am kind of just repeating vague memories....Are the ones that were separated ok?

[howeird]

My other two experiences, the jewels were perfect parents. They routinely slurp the babies into their mouths and spit them out somewhere safer. I've always had 6 or so grow to be large enough to sell.

The ones I separated out died mysteriously after a few days. I have no idea what happened, they were there one day and little black dots the next.