[LeftHandedFishKeeper]

Holy Moly! I don't know how this is possible! My female Kenyi who held for around 26 days had 63 fry! They're incredible! I am beyond speechless. Has anyone had this many fry from just one brood before? The mother is just a regular 4.5-5.5" Kenyi. The second picture has 62 fry but I found one outside the fry cage and roaming around the tank.

 

[LeftHandedFishKeeper]

Essentially the day after the eggs were "fertilized" (24 hours after I saw her holding), I moved her to my 15-gallon "nursery" tank which has some rocks, a cave, some fake plants, and some real plants. Water conditions are top notch here and basically, for 26 days I kept the lights on sparingly and just let her roam around and relax. I'm not sure if there was any correlation between how "comfortable" she was to the number of fry that she was able to successfully develop, but for sure, this is extremely surprising and exciting for me!

I do have a question: When you try to get two African cichlids to breed, what is a good tank size that'll make it happen? I have never actually gotten an Acei fry (except that one time when I never even realized and found 2 alive in a crevice) and would like to have their fry some time.

 

[DJRansome]

60 is more like a peacock or hap brood size, but kenyi is a large fish and yours are mature.

I find acei are happier spawning when their tank mates are less intimidating. I'd still use a 75G but I would not mix them with kenyi if you want to encourage fry. Are they over 3 inches?

You could also remove extra males to improve your chances.

 

[LeftHandedFishKeeper]

Thanks for the reply! Yeah I mean the Kenyi is mature, but compared to my Red Zebras and Bumblebee, they are a lot smaller (and even my ZB and Bumblebees only have like 20 on average and just above 30 if it's a good brood).

As for the Acei, yeah, they're like 5"-6" long!

Unfortunately, I'm actually switching over to Tropheus (which are currently in my 37 temporarily) and then I'm going to move them to the main tank once all my Mbunas are rehomed.

 

[Ice Man]

I had 58 out of my 3" acei recently, She is holding again and "due " in just over a week, not entirely surewhat I am going to do with another large batch of fry, might just let her spit in the main tank and let nature take its course

 

[LeftHandedFishKeeper]

I had 58 out of my 3" acei recently, She is holding again and "due " in just over a week, not entirely surewhat I am going to do with another large batch of fry, might just let her spit in the main tank and let nature take its course

Holy moly that's a lot!

 

[Ice Man]

I have had poor survival rate though, can't work out why. Used to be able to raise Demasoni with out issue. I have lost nearly 40 of them over the Last couple of months. Water parameters are fine, regular water changes

 

[LeftHandedFishKeeper]

I have had poor survival rate though, can't work out why. Used to be able to raise Demasoni without issue. I have lost nearly 40 of them over the Last couple of months. Water parameters are fine, regular water changes

Yikes. I never had luck with Demasoni myself as well. They'll die one way or another.