# red blood jewel cichlid fry. What do i do now?



## sujeev87 (Oct 17, 2010)

hey i just realized my red blood jewel cichlid had babies. now i have a 35 gallon tank with 4 red blood jewel cichlid, 4 super red empresses, 1 strawberry peacock and whole bunch of fry. What should I do?


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## zjafry (Feb 12, 2010)

sujeev87 said:


> hey i just realized my red blood jewel cichlid had babies. now i have a 35 gallon tank with 4 red blood jewel cichlid, 4 super red empresses, 1 strawberry peacock and whole bunch of fry. What should I do?


I would definitely separate those fry out of that tank so they won't be eaten


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## bae (May 11, 2007)

When I see 'jewel cichlid' I think of Hemichromis spp, a west African genus. These fish are substrate spawners and both parents look after the fry. They are notoriously aggressive in defending the fry, and your other cichlids would all be cowering in the upper corners of the tank, probably with chunks torn out of them if it was your jewels that had spawned, assuming your jewels are 'real' jewels, Hemichromis spp. Hemichromis fry are very tiny compared to mouthbrooder fry, and there are a lot more of them per spawn.

At any rate, if you just find fry in the tank, with nobody defending them, they are probably fry of Lake Malawi mouthbrooders. So either some of your other fish have spawned (and Lake Malawi mouthbrooders commonly hybridize in captivity) or 'red blood jewel cichlid' is a trade name for some fish other than Hemichromis spp.

What should you do? You can separate them, or you can make sure they have plenty of cover, so they can stay away from your other fish. When you feed teh tank, crumble some of the flakes up into small particles for them to eat. If they are hybrids, you'll probably have difficulty finding anyone to take them, so you may not want to exert yourself to amke sure they all survive.


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## Riceburner (Mar 14, 2008)

post up pics


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## sujeev87 (Oct 17, 2010)

The male and female are both red blood jewels. Ur right the female and the male are protecting the fry. Ur also right that the other cichlids are all huddled together near the top of the tank on the other side. I caught some fry and put them in a breeder net and they didn't survive. So i left the rest of the fry in the tank. the mother was fighting with anyone that came near the fry. my tank already has this cave that the mother and father hide in and i have a feeling there are just a few more fry hiding in there. Just in case i put some new stuff in my tank so the fry have more places to hide. i tried to take pictures of the male and female but they haven't come outside since yesterday. I did take a picture of one of the other female red blood jewels i have. The male i have is darker and his head is shaped differently.


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## bae (May 11, 2007)

Yep, those are real jewel cichlids. Beautiful fish, with fascinating behaviour, and fierce defenders of their eggs and fry.

They come from West African rivers, so are not really compatible with Lake Malawi cichlids, but then again, they aren't really compatible with anything when they are breeding! Ideally they should have their own tank, perhaps with some small fast-moving schooling fish that they can take out their fry-guarding instincts on.

They are omnivores and pretty easy to raise. Let the parents look after them for a while. Taking them out will induce the parents to breed again, if one doesn't kill the other 'blaming' it for the disappearance of the fry. Once they are older, and the parents aren't guarding them much, you can move them to another tank. If the parents want to spawn again, they will turn on their older fry and try to drive them away. In a river, this is no problem, but in a tank, the parents may see them as potential predators on the next batch of fry and kill them. Of course, your other fish aren't going to be very happy about all this, and some may actually die from the stress of being attacked repeatedly.

You seem to have a particularly colorful strain there. For a long time, most jewel cichlids in captivity were believed to be H.bimaculatus. Then some time ago it was determined that they were probably all H.guttatus, but the taxonomy of Hemichromis is really a mess. Particularly colorful jewels are sometimes sold as H.lifalili, which is a valid species, but not the one being sold.

If you have a nice dirty wad of java moss, or other plants with a lot of surface area, drop it in. The fry will find lots of tiny critters in it to feed on.


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## sujeev87 (Oct 17, 2010)

I have a planted 10 gallon tank that has a ph level of 6-6.2. It has 4 endlers in it. Do you think i can put the cichlids in there? will the low ph, harm the cichlids or the fry?


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## bae (May 11, 2007)

The pH change might be a problem, especially for the fry, but the pH itself is no problem for this species. You could move the parents there if you change the pH over a period of a few hours, assuming the other tank is 7.5 to 8 or so, which is what you get with Lake Ontario tap water and some limestone or other source of lime in an African cichlid tank. You could also replace water in the small tank with water from the large tank over a period of hours, and then move the jewels.

That said, 10 gallons is a bit small for a pair of jewels, and if you move the parents out of the big tank, the other pair of jewels will probably spawn. 15 or 20 gallons would be better, especially since they produce a lot of fry. I don't know whether the endlers would survive in a 10 with a pair of breeding jewels.

As for when to move them, I don't know how to advise you. Really serious pair bonders like jewels may attack and kill each other if a breeding episode is disrupted, and moving them with or without their fry is about as disruptive as you can get. You might try one of the specialized cichlid forums for advice. You could also try http://www.canadianaquariumconnection.com/ which has a number of experienced breeders of pair bonding cichlids on it.

I hope this helps!


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## sujeev87 (Oct 17, 2010)

Update: I sadly don't see any fry swimming around but on a positive note i saw the male come out of his cave. So the female didn't kill him :S. The wierd thing is the male rarely comes out of the cave. The female is sometimes kind of sticks her head out but never really comes out of the cave unless she comes out to feed. I'm not sure what's happening.

Thanks for everyone's help. I really learned a lot.


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## pat3612 (Jan 29, 2008)

sujeev87 said:


> Update: I sadly don't see any fry swimming around but on a positive note i saw the male come out of his cave. So the female didn't kill him :S. The wierd thing is the male rarely comes out of the cave. The female is sometimes kind of sticks her head out but never really comes out of the cave unless she comes out to feed. I'm not sure what's happening.
> 
> Thanks for everyone's help. I really learned a lot.


 The female and male might have picked the fry up and put them in the cave . If so you might not see them for 3 or 4 day till they are free swimming if good parents they will keep them in the cave till they cant control them .


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