Lake Victoria Basin, West African, Madagascar & Asian Species • Need some advice on Hemichromis B lifalili (Blood-Red Jewel)

[bhavik95]

but if i was to remove the cave there would be no cover for the fish?

and at the moment the slate rock is put up against the cave so its leaning on it and there is a piece of driftwood underneath where they can breed on

[DJRansome]

They like a slate in the corner. You wanted to encourage them, right?

[bhavik95]

so is my setup the way i have it right now fine?

but just that i need to move it away from the filter intake?

yeah i want to encourage them

[easywolf31]

3 1/2 week old Red Jewel fry in 40g & 5 day old fry with parents in 75g. I freed up a 55g and will move the new fry there in 5-6 days if I see the parents eating them or if the female gets pregnant again. If that happens 3rd batch will stay with the parents.

[bhavik95]

any help please

[easywolf31]

any help please

Remove right side cave, place left slate flat on the right side, cover intake with a sponge and measure your ph, kh and gh next. Also temperature and TDS if possible. Let me know once you've done half of that.

[bhavik95]

hi there so what i have done now is have the same setup as posted before but on the right hand side away from the filter but in between the slate and the cave i have now put a small piece of flat slate rock. is that better?

I've put a sponge filter over the intake and the temperature is around 26-27C.
i cant measure ph, kh,gh but i do have hard water coming out from the tap as i live in the UK

[easywolf31]

Hi, that sounds much better. The only small problem now is the hardness of your water. Do you think it's extremely hard? These Jewels like it acidy or under say 7.8 at least, but I don't really think that's the problem. Unless of course your hardness and alkalinity is over the top.

I think they may realize that if they breed you will snatch their babies or there will be no room in the aquarium with all the fish, or they will need to kill all the other fish. If they don't breed in a month or 2, than remove the other fish or place them in another aquarium. Not much else can be done I think. Good luck.

[bhavik95]

No i dont think my water is that hard i mean i keep red cherry shrimps in the same water as i keep the other fishes and jewels. i dont know if that helps

Ok hopefully now they feel more safe and comfortable to breed as i have covered that area up so only the jewel fish can get in and out and added quite a few plants around that area

i was also thinking of doing a 40% water change maybe tomorrow and getting some bloodworm pellets, do you think that would help?

[easywolf31]

They love frozen blood worms best but i see them going for the freeze dried blood worms very strongly too. There's blood worm pellets too lol?

[bhavik95]

yes there are bloodworm pellets, would it make a difference if i feed them that instead of frozen bloodworms?
atm i dont have any frozen bloodworms would need to go to the pet shop to get some :/

[bhavik95]

here is what the setup look like

https://ibb.co/btUi2a
https://ibb.co/mQe5Fv

if you can see on the second picture in the reflection you can see the small slate on the substrate does this meet their needs?

[easywolf31]

For the top slate, probably not, too exposed, If there is a slate under it, depending on the size, is it small? that may probably work. If I were you, I'd remove everything from that corner, place the big slate ONLY with about 10 gravel pieces on it. If they move the gravel pieces you will know they are looking to mate. So just put one gravel slate, the biggest one, on that corner, and not so high up lol. Just lay it flat, maybe on a 5 degree angle upwards only. They need some room to fan the eggs. So get all that #%$& out of there, looks like a Bombay slum or something the way it is all piled up and stuff.

[bhavik95]

LOL! yeah there is a small piece of slate under it.

if i was to remove everything from there and place the biggest slate flat wouldnt it be exposed as well?

[easywolf31]

LOL! yeah there is a small piece of slate under it.

if i was to remove everything from there and place the biggest slate flat wouldnt it be exposed as well?

Haha just do it you will not regret it. I meant exposed because it's really sticking out and very high.