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Kitumba Spawning Log

97K views 179 replies 44 participants last post by  GJx 
#1 ·
I just measured my fish. I always thought my largest female was 4-5". I was wrong. She is measured from nose to tail at 6.5"... Now the alpha male is at least 2" more than her so he is about 8.5-9"

Well, the reason why I pull them out is that there were spawning going on. She dropped her tube 2 days ago. And this afternoon, she did lay her eggs. Here is a picture of her holding.


This is almost exactly a year after I bought the group from Steve Perryman. She has total including this time 5 spawns. The earlier 4 spawns were not full term. She split her eggs from 2-10days. So after a 5 minutes debate inside my head, I decided to strip her. Here is a picture of her eggs.


I crushed a few eggs cause my female jumped out from my hand while I was striping her and damage a few eggs. And some eggs appear to have some white stuffs on them. They are not fungus. They are actually some string like stuffs attaching the eggs while she lays them. They do come over after a gentle rocking back and fore in the water.

Well, I still have to take the damaged eggs out but I don't want to bother the fish anymore tonight. I will take them out first thing in the morning. What an exciting night.

Wish me Luck, I will keep updating this thread.
 
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#53 ·
Hi Charles,I just saw this topic and congrats on the fry,they're really cute!But I have a question.Do you have to put stripped eggs in a special container or can you just put them in a ten gallon with alot of lighting to keep them warm,I never have had any fry but I was wondering incase I would be in this situation such as yourself.Thanks.
 
#54 ·
I don't think they are like chicken eggs that need something to keep them warm. They do require the same temperature as the community tank. What they need is water movement so they won't get fungus.

I put mine egg tumbler in the community tank. Some other ppl will use a 10 gallon so they can also treat the water with meth. blue to reduce fungus. It is up to you.
 
#56 ·
That was a short answer. I did not mean any offend...

Anyway, you can buy or self-make egg tumbler. You can even use a floating tank with a air line to make water movement. I don't think light does much unless you are using a high high watt light fixture. I read somewhere that fungus don't grow with intense light. In general, 77-79 degree is best.

If you have your first spawn, you might want to wait and see what happen. Usually, they will lose the first time, however, I had a burundi female which hold the first time and every time till now and she was only 3" when she started. I lost 6 spawns before I decided to stripe her eggs during 1 year time. So, you might want to wait.

Wait my log from the beginning, you can see how I stripe her eggs... pretty much self-explain everything.
 
#60 ·
Oct 1 2004

Frys are a bit over 1" mark. I got a jumper just the other day so I am down to 6 frys. They are fine, showing excellent color, and nice stripes. I was worry that perhaps they will not have as nice stripes as the parents but I was wrong. At the stage, I can see the mask forming. They are for sure showing different face mask than say Burundi frys at this age.

The only different they are from their parents are they are not shy at all. They will come out to the surface and eat. They will not get skittish when you come close. And THEY ARE EATING MY XENO. FRYS in the same tank with them. I have 10 xeno half an inch frys there and I am down to only 7.
 
#61 ·
these frys are well over 1" mark. They are swimming in my 75 gallon with juv. faoi, adult sandies, and a pair of zebra mloto brevis. They survive quite well. And they are fast enough to get to food. Here is a couple pictures of them.

Picture taken on Oct 07 2005



Here is the male. And the female is holding again. She is the same mother of those frys. But I am letting her hold this time.

Picture taken on Oct 13 2005

 
#68 ·
Nov 05 2005

My alpha female finally hold full term. This is her #8 spawn. #1-6 spawn, I let her hold and she lost all. I striped 30 eggs on #7 spawn and only 7 survive out of 30 eggs. Here is a link for the spawning log.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/view ... hp?t=87722

And since I got some frys from her already. I decided to let her hold the #8 spawn. And this time, I found 10 frys in her mouth on actually 28 days. She spawned on Oct 09 2005, and I striped her on Nov 05 2005.

Babies in the bucket


Since they sill have a bit of egg sack left, I put them in a tumbler for a bit.
Here is a picture of them in the tumbler.
 
#70 ·
From my experience...

Not feeding for a week - does not help. They will spit/swallow whenever they want. I actually see the holding female eats with her eggs. She will roll them and push them way down in the porch inside the mouth and then she will pick at the very small piece of food. In this spawn, I feed them as schedule; 5 days a week, evening time, and 2 days no food.

Crushed coral pieces - changed to crushed coral sand. I found pieces of sharp edges inside the mom's mouth with the eggs before. One less problem to deal with.

Powerhead gone - I have noticed that my alpha (every change he breed) he will pick the part with the least water movement.

I did everything and each time those females were not holding full term. So, this time, I follow what Big Jon was suggesting - to keep NO light at all. I did not turn on the aquarium light at all for the whole 28 days; with excepting of picture taking which is max 10 minutes. And it helps.

I don't know rather it is the age or the experience of motherhood or the NO light concept helps, but it did.

As of now, the smallest female is having her tube down. This will be her third time spawning in my tank. I will keep updating...

BTW, I don't use light unless friends want to see the fish.

I dont know if i answer your question, but i hope my log will help you.
 
#71 ·
Nov 6 2005

This entry is for the smallest female. I mention earlier that her tube was down a couple days ago. This is her third spawn. She just finished spawning with the alpha today. Her last spawning was on July 17 2005 and I striped her on the same day. So her turn around time is 112 days. I will do the same for her as for the alpha female - letting on hold and keep all the light off as much as possible. I do keep my schedule feeding (5 days a week once a day) and water changes (once a week 20-25%).

Will get a picture of her when she is settle.
 
#72 ·
Nov 07 2005

As expected, she lost almost all her eggs. Her mouth is just a bit bigger and only notice maybe max 4 eggs in there. This is just like her last spawn. On her last spawn, I notice her mouth was very small a few hours later so I striped 8 eggs from her. During her last spawning, I stopped counting at egg # 25 so I know she had a good amount of eggs laid... None of her eggs survive in the tumbler during her last spawn. At this moment, I would not strip her this time. See if she actually are going to hold even with a hand full of eggs.
 
#75 ·
Dec 01 2005

I have not updated for a while. Smallest female lost all her eggs. This is her third spawn since July 2004. Better luck next time.

Here is an update on the 2 batch of frys from the alpha male 9" and the largest female 6.5" in the tank
.
The 6 frys born on July 15 2005 (eggs not frys) are now pushing 2" They are pigs and not skittish at all. All 6 of them have very nice solid stripes and nice blue on them. You can look at the earlier pictures and decide for yourself.

The 10 frys born on Oct 9 2005 (eggs not frys) are now almost 1". I have a few pictures of them. All of them also have solid stripes. I so far did not see any white spots on them at all. No deforms either.

Both batches are from the same parents. First batch is stripe from day 1 and second batch is held full term.

This is the only picture with flash


These are pictures without flash


 
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