|
Odd Couple Factoids |
|
Male |
Flowerhorn x Jaguar hybrid |
|
Female |
Jaguar cichlid |
|
Dither Fish |
Three polypterids, 1 climbing perch, 1 un-IDed cichlid, a
dovii (wolf cichlid) plus another male flowerhorn x jaguar cross |
|
Basic
Diet
|
Koi pellets and goldfish |
|
Breeding
Quarters
|
55
with UG filter, flat slate, cichlid-proof plastic plants |
| Temperature |
78
F |
|
Water
|
Did
not check pH. Just aged water. |
|
Water Changes |
Two-thirds once or twice a week |
| Behavior |
Chasing other tank inhabitants |
|
Pre-Spawning
Clues
|
Pit dug in the gravel |
Prologue:
I like cichlids because of their personalities --
the North, Central. and South Americans especially. They come in an assortment of
colors, sizes, and behaviors. We get some strange cichlids from
various sources. We mix them in various 55 gallon tanks where most eat
like professional gourmandizers. Some would not be approved by
most members of the American Cichlid Association or Midwest Cichlid
Association.

Speaker Details at
MCA EXPO 2007 Speakers
Investigate MCA EXPO 2007 at
www.midwestcichlid.com/expo07.html
LA
Our male star just under 6 inches -- with a cool red eye.
Male Star: He's a gift from one of our flowerhorn fans.
He's a cross between a flowerhorn and a jaguar cichlid. Over time,
he (the fan) gave us three of these white elephants (cool looking but not
commercial fish). Since there's three gene pools involved, you
never know exactly what to expect.
LA
Our female star a bit under five inches.
Female Star: She's a little shy. You can't see her
chewed upon tail from this angle. Two days ago, there was also a
foot-long channel cat in their tank. He was not impressed with
cichlid aggressiveness. He just bulled through their nest site and
ate half of all the food that went into their tank. We gave a
customer from Minnesota an offer he couldn't refuse two days ago and the
albino channel catfish
now lives in Minnesota.
LA
Here's where we decided there was a spawning plan in progress.
Pre-Spawning Behavior: There's three inches of b-b size
gravel in this 55. This piece of slate is in the left (open) end
of the tank. The right side contains an algae-covered stern end of
a ship that went to Davy Jones (not the singer) locker years ago.
When "in the mood" our American cichlids like to dig nests in the
gravel. They dug this one down to the filter (which messes up the
filtration process). I started filling it back in before I decided
to take this pictorial record. Anyway, these pits denote
pre-spawning behavior.
LA
So we wiped off the algae, vacuumed the gravel, and finished filling in
the pit.
LA
For two days the slate remained gravel covered
LA
The pair alternated between hanging together and chasing away
the other fish.
LA
They now owned the left hand half of the tank.
LA
But they couldn't control the much larger polypterids.
LA
I made a one-inch hole down to the slate. Two hours later, they
had uncovered the entire slate.
That was yesterday. Sept 3,
2007
LA
The polypterid on the right makes it impossible to feed nightcrawlers to
the male (or female).
LA
I may have to take out the three polypterids. They ignore the
cichlids. Sept 3, 2007
Conditioning Foods: Pre-spawning foods included Kloubec Koi
Pellets (shaped like little goldfish crackers) and small feeder goldfish
-- sort of an all-purpose large predator diet. We've tried to
introduce nightcrawlers but temporarily ran out because the polypterids
ate them all first. For some reason, adding nightcrawlers to the
mix tends to increase spawning behaviors (and results).
LA
They've dug out their spawning slate plus part of their under gravel
filter.
LA
Since we saw no breeding tubes, we 98% re-covered their breeding slate.
Finito: And then someone sold
the female jaguar, so the whole process was moot. LA
The saga continues at Odd
Couple Spawn II
© 2007
LA Productions
aqualandpetsplus.com
3600
Sixth Avenue
Corner
of Sixth & Euclid Avenues
Des
Moines, IA 50313
515
283-0300
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