Flowerhorn/jaguar breeding! :d

LOUIE ACES

Anyone ever heard of such a thing happening!?!? Because i got em...been coming home to the usual fighting chasing around the tank for the past week and yesterday when i came home i couldn't believe my eyes...my jag and fh sectioned off a quarter of the 150g tank and laid eggs! Its day 2 right now and a good number of them have turned white which i know means they went sour but there's still a lot left....i can't wait to see what these bad boys look like if they make it.

Anyone have any advice as to increase my chances of seeing these guys survive and flurish??? Help!

rrcoolj

It's defiantly possible in fact it happens all the time with all sorts of central american cichlids. Let the parents do their job or better yet cull the babies. There are far too many unlabled random hybrids out there the hobby doesn't need anymore. If you do decide to keep them please be responsible and don't give them to a local fish store or someone who might.

LOUIE ACES

i'm gonna try to keep them but i don't know if any are going to make it. once they're swimming and eating i have to relocated them to my other tank or else they'll take over my 150G and that's already stocked with 24 fish. even if 5 make it i'll be happy. as far as selling them to the LFS, i never thought about it but if they were gonna offer me some serious cash i'd at least consider it. it's not like i'm releasing them into the wild and contaminating mother nature with a man made species to wreak havoc...idk i have to see if any even live.

rrcoolj

You have 24 fish in with a flowerhorn and jaguar cichlid pair? Your fish must be young still. Those are bother very aggressive large growing fish. What other fish do you have in the tank with them? A spawning pair of cichlids are lethal let alone a large growing species. There is no problem with keeping the fry for YOURSELF or people you know won't sell them. I doubt a LFS will offer you a ton of money for those hybrids. You would probably be lucky to get store credit. But even if they offered you 1000 dollars still it would not be wise. Having hybrids in the wild is completely different. In the wild they would likely not survive and they would probably be eatin by predators. In the hobby, ignorant fish keepers who might see "jaguar" at a local fish store and it is really a jag/flowerhorn will think they have a special fish and breed and distribute fry which would pollute the species in the hobby. Maybe you like the whole hybrid thing.Ii don't... When I go to the LFS and want to but a red devil or a jaguar or a jack Dempsey, I expect to get what I paid for.

LOUIE ACES

i agree with you there. i don't want to "pollute" any gene pools. i would hope that they would sell them as jag/FH hybrids but you're right, they might not specify and confuse people. but at the same time if i raise them and more live then i expected what am i supposed to do? flush the rest down the toilet!? i have to get rid of them and i can't just destroy them. right now the tank has the following:

1 jag
2 flowerhorns
4 convicts
2 firemouths
2 salvinis
3 oscars
1 red terror
2 green terror
1 common pleco
1 polypterus
1 tire track eel
2 blood jewels
1 jack dempsey

i know its a lot but there's a ton of hiding spaces and yes about half the stock are still small. the jag is about 8", the bigger breeding FH is 6", oscars from 4-7" and pleco 8". everything else is small.

rrcoolj

If they look good certain reputable people might buy them. But like I said cull or killing them is probably your best bet. That or leave them as feeders most will probably be eatin by those tankmates. Actually all your fish are small in the sense they are all half grown. Oscars and jags reach 16", flowerhorn reach 14" and that common pleco will get 2ft+. My suggestion, as hard as it is narrow your stock now while your fish are still small and easy to give away. Aggression will start to appear as the fish mature and you don't want to wake up with half the tank belly up because the jag or flowerhorn decided the whole tank was his that night because it does happen. When your fish are big they will be harder to give away. The bioload on that tank must be INSANE with all those fish. I know it's hard but it's probably best for them.

LOUIE ACES

yeah you're right, you never wanna give up any of your fish especially after raising them from a little 1" baby. watching them grow and show their true colors is the best part! what i did was bought a group of each fish because you never have all of them make it so i buy in groups and end up with one good one. the extras will end up going back to the store most likely. and i have 4 filters running on the tank: 2 fluval 404's, an aquaclear 110 and an aquaclear 70. but the aquaclears are getting sold with the smaller tanks that they came from so i'll probably buy either another 110 or 404. i'm doing water changes every other week too so the water quality is perfect for them. where are you from? would you want to purchase any of the fry if they make it? ;P

rrcoolj

Lol I live right outside D.C and if I had the tank space I might consider it but I am kind of maxed out. Up your water change schedule to every week. I understand about growing fish up and not wanting to part with them. It can be very hard but I would rather see them alive in another tank then dead in yours. I think you might be able to pull off keeping one of everything on your stocklist. But I would highly recommend you ditch the flowerhorns and the common pleco. Not because the flowerhorns are hybrids but they are just unbelievably aggressive as adults. There's a reason you always see them kept solo. Also, watch your smaller and slow growing fish. Oscars grow much faster than almost everything in that tank and I wouldn't be surprised if they decided to make a snack out of some of your stock same with the jag.

Bluebirdnanny

The Jewel Cichlid I got just Sunday that I quaranteed in the 40 Long are laying eggs! I have raised convict and mouth brooders before. But Since I didn't get the tank gravel changed to sand or the bottom gravel (bog peat underneath) out will the fry make it?

Can I vacumn the gravel or will that cause them to eat the eggs? Should I just do slight water changes? Suggestions?

LOUIE ACES

wait you bought a fish and it's laying eggs without a mate?? or you bought 2 jewels? i would say don't worry about vacuuming the gravel but do 10% water changes every other day. just make sure you stress coat the water and have it around the same temp as the tank water because the slightest change in water quality can ruin the whole batch of eggs....speaking from personal experience with my angels. gravel vs sand shouldn't matter either. and make sure there's enough room for other fish to move to another part of the tank because the parents will chase away or even kill any other fish that get too close to their eggs.