jairus

Looks absolutely stunning mate 

For now, watch this space

Hey guys, this is a post that I have written for one of the other forums and thought I would share it with you guys. Hope you find it useful. 

Hi guys, I have been reading quite a few posts on this wonderful forum with regards to keeping and breeding these wonderful fish and I thought I would inform you guys on what has worked for me. Just a quick background about me.I lived in Cape Town and relocated to WA. I have been in this hobby for the past 5 to 6 years and in that time I have run 8 Tanks in my home and garage. I a 2.2m tank which housed  my breeding colony of 15 wild caught Kigoma frontos`s , in my 1.5m I had my breeding colonies of aulonocara chilumbas, copadichromis azureus, copadichromis cyclicos, lwanadas, red empress, blue neons, chipokies and I have bred with them successfully for many years. I also have 2x 1.2m juvie tanks which in one I would keep all my F1 Kigoma`s and in the other 1.2m I would keep my peacock cichlids, then I have 450mm tank which I would keep my fry in until they are big enough to be introduced to the 1.2m tanks. In my other 1.5m I have my marine predator tank and in the 900 I have a coral reef tank.

Firstly, my apologies if the Topic is too long but I want to share what I`ve learnt with my fellow hobbyists.

Frontosa`s are found in depths of between 30-50m below the surface, so its only obvious that these beautiful fish love the darkness, So it goes without saying that you need to get to know your fish and when they are ready to spawn.( my Females bred like clockwork every 6 weeks). Frontosas don't like water with high flow, also its not ideal for breeding because you will just end up blowing the sperm away from eggs and therefor a lower success rate. When I get to week 5, my tank lights go off, and I would put a dark blanket over my tank to block all the light from my glass. After about a week I would then only put one blue light on and wow a female carrying a huge mouthful of eggs. At this stage you can either remove the blanket and stick black paper over the glass or you can leave the blanket on. Now for the part that im very passionate about, I let the females carry for minimum of 30 days to a maximum of 35 days. I start feeding around 25 days, I feed them a product called tetrabits, its high in protein, the females at this stage will not spit the eggs. I have 6 females, the smallest batch of fry  that I have ever gotten out of a female is 34, and the most was 48. So lets take the lowest amount, working on 34 x 6 females im sitting with 204 little buggers. I initially put them into a breeding basket in a 450mm tank in a breeding basket, with an airstone below them. At this stage I do not feed them until the eggsack is completely gone. Once eggsack has been consumed by fry I would the crush up the tetrabits into a powder form and add a pinch to the water. As for peacocks, I only strip them once the female has carried for 14 days and then follow the same process as what I did with the frontosa`s.  Im proud to say I have a 98% success rate with breeding, after all this is a hobby that you need to enjoy and share. Breeding is only a reward that your beautiful fish is giving you. LOOK AFTER THEM AND THEY WILL REWARD YOU, DONT DO IT FOR MONEY!!!!! Now for the controversial part, Im not a believer in stripping your fish early, and this is my reason. When a female grows and gets fertile, she will at first be new to the whole experience, and carry the eggs, she will either swallow after a couple of days or she will spit. This will happen for at least 2 - 3 cycles, thereafter her maternal instincts will kick in and she will carry full term. Now the problem comes in when, hobbyist see their females carrying they immediately want to strip at 5 to 7 days, this then gives messes up the females mindset and breeding pattern, and 90% of the time those females will never carry full term and will always spit after a couple of days. I personally will never buy wild caught from people because of this, I know many breeders that are struggling to breed their wild caught because their females just wont carry beyond 8 days . Guys there is really no rush, let you fish do their thing. The less interference from us the better. I hope none of you take offence to what im saying im trying to share with you what has worked for me successfully. 

and more

Some of my F1`s

Here are some pics guys

Hey Guys, my name is Jairus and I moved to WA from Cape Town South Africa in March this year. I have been actively involved in this hobby for the past 5 years. Sadly I could not bring all my wild caught breeding colonies of malawi cichlids. I was running 8 tanks back home, 2x 1.5m tanks; 2x 1.2m tanks ; 1x 2.2m tank ; 2 x 900mm tanks and 1x 450mm tank. Those tanks were homes to my 15 wild caught kigoma frontosa colony,7x aulonocara giant chilumbas;5x aulonocara blue neons;3x copadichromis azureus ;3 copadichromis cyclicos;4 red empress; 3 lwanda red tops;4x moba frontosas and of course loads of F1 juvies that i bred. I am so exited to have discovered this forum and cant wait to get to know you guys and learn new things from you and also share what I`ve learnt over the years of breeding. Im just in the process of resizing my pics then i will post them.