Opinions/experience with dovii fry

[Rass]

Ok guys, I've got a few hundred wigglers that hatched three days ago. I'm looking for info based on others experience with raising the fry. Ive been keeping fish for a long time but this will be my first time raising fry. How long of a time window do I have that they will be safe with the parents? I know most people pull them at the free swimming stage but I'd like the parents to learn to raise them along with me, as much as that may be possible. Im going to set up a 40 breeder tank with established gravel from the parents tank and run a sponge filter only until they are of size that I'm not worried about being sucked into other types of filtration. Contemplating setting up a rack system with 55's or 75's in my garage to separate and grow them out more, keeping a few for myself for the future, and trying to sell the rest. How long does it take for them to hit certain size benchmarks, like 1 inch, 2 inch, etc? Also what are your preferred foods from free swimming on up?

 

[duanes]

If my cichlid pairs are good parents, I usually leave fry with them as long as possible, or until the fry start to cannabalize the parents (I'm not talking about eating parents slime coat, this is great nutrition for the fry).

Above a male haitiensus, his fry ate a gaping hole into his side, and had to be removed from the tank.
Fry need to be fed multiple small meals per day, so I also let lots of algae grow in fry rearing tanks.
If not fed enough, the fry will start eating each other. and eating their parents.

above grammode fry grazing algae
This is when you need multiple tanks, to separate larger fry fry smaller ones, and before they are sellable they will need to be at least 2".
Of course with a species such as dovii, you will have limited aquarists and places to get rid of fry, so it is often a good idea to let fry reduce their own numbers thru attrition, and end up with a small number of very healthy individuals to distribute.
The last time I had dovii. I took bags of 10 individuals per bag to my local club auction, those bags went for $1 to $2 each, even though my area had lots of large cichlid fans.

Dovii have a very limited market, even if you ship, as are other large species like Nandopsis haitiensus or other Parachromis species and its way too easy to over saturate a local area with only one spawn.
When my haitiensus spawned, I was driving over 100 miles to basically give them away, to few takers.
.
Make sure you watch closely for any that need to be culled, it'll save you space, and your rep as a quality breeder. Even those with the slightest deformities need to be removed and used a s feeders as soon as possible (curved spines, protruding gill plates, shot bodies).

 

[duanes]

To get fry enough food, I puree pellets, mix them with tank water and use pipettes or turkey basters to shoot the food in the school, to make it evenly distributed.

I also mix thawed peas, and hair algae.

 

[Rass]

Awesome info! Thank you! I think I may leave them in a bit longer than I had planned to. Your point about the natural attrition between the fry, and culling any deformed ones will make a huge difference. I do want to set up a rack to raise some for myself for down the road but that still only leaves room for a handful. I've been starting to worry about the limited market for them since they hatched. They dont look like much now lol, but as they grow I'm really going to have my hands full. Anyone ever try the First Bites from Hikari?

 

[Jexnell]

I used first bites with good success with my Sagittae fry. Went thru a package every two days.



I turned off the filters off so it would just settle down where they were.

 

[Kvandy]

Just keep 20 to grow out than keep the biggest healthiest one and cull the rest