I have a texas + urophthalmus pair, and a jack dempsey pair.
The JD pair won't breed; the female has never laid eggs, despite the fact that they've gone through the breeding ritual (jawlocking, aggressive swimming, etc) several times. I personally think the female is unable to lay eggs (if she even has any) due to genetic problems. This has been quite a frustrating experience for the male, and consequently this pair has undergone much intermarital strife... its a good thing they're in a 200g, or one would have likely killed the other by now. The female is 6", I've kept her for 26 months, since she was 2". The male is about 6.5", got him at 2.5" about 20 months ago.
The texas x uro pair will almost certainly breed though, if i keep upping their diet. They haven't been getting fed very often (once every 3 days or so) till the past 2 weeks. I figure if I feed them twice a day the female will pop out some eggs once more. They've had 2-3 successful spawns in days long past, but I was either disinclined to keep the fry alive, or they cannibalized one another to utter extinction and then I'd lose the remaining specimen via jumping.
This time around, the texas (9-10") and uro (7") will be in a 55g with 2 4" scolofi mbuna. The scolofi mbuna will serve as dithers, to keep the parents' aggression focused on the scolofi rather than (potentially) on each other. I think they will do a fine job of raising the fry, and I doubt the scolofi will even have enough free time to beat on each other (they do this alot), let alone be concerned with eating fry. The female uro loves terrorizing them as it is.
I'll keep this thread posted on the status of this project.
The JD pair won't breed; the female has never laid eggs, despite the fact that they've gone through the breeding ritual (jawlocking, aggressive swimming, etc) several times. I personally think the female is unable to lay eggs (if she even has any) due to genetic problems. This has been quite a frustrating experience for the male, and consequently this pair has undergone much intermarital strife... its a good thing they're in a 200g, or one would have likely killed the other by now. The female is 6", I've kept her for 26 months, since she was 2". The male is about 6.5", got him at 2.5" about 20 months ago.
The texas x uro pair will almost certainly breed though, if i keep upping their diet. They haven't been getting fed very often (once every 3 days or so) till the past 2 weeks. I figure if I feed them twice a day the female will pop out some eggs once more. They've had 2-3 successful spawns in days long past, but I was either disinclined to keep the fry alive, or they cannibalized one another to utter extinction and then I'd lose the remaining specimen via jumping.
This time around, the texas (9-10") and uro (7") will be in a 55g with 2 4" scolofi mbuna. The scolofi mbuna will serve as dithers, to keep the parents' aggression focused on the scolofi rather than (potentially) on each other. I think they will do a fine job of raising the fry, and I doubt the scolofi will even have enough free time to beat on each other (they do this alot), let alone be concerned with eating fry. The female uro loves terrorizing them as it is.
I'll keep this thread posted on the status of this project.
