Breeding Vieja Cichlids... anyone have luck?

[Ian14]

Has anyone here successfully bred Vieja's, particularly maculicauda or zonatus?

I have a male black belt and a female zonatus, they have bred twice so far each time the fry wither off after about a month. I don't know if they are getting eaten or what, I have never seen any aggression towards them but I am assuming it is the tank mates getting to them. I am in the process of removing tank mates out of the 265 gallon.

What temperature, tank layouts (drift wood plants vs. open areas), food, ect. to try and get them to breed again.

Any other tips or suggestions that I could do?

 

[justarn]

remove the fry as soon as they are wigglers via a syphon through some air hose, or lose all tankmates, tank mates never work long term. then your good to go!-)

 

[festaedan]

remove the fry as soon as they are wigglers via a syphon through some air hose, or lose all tankmates, tank mates never work long term. then your good to go!-)

agreed

 

[Ian14]

Good idea using a siphon. I have a 20 gallon refugium connected the the main tank and the sump so it would be a perfect spot for them.

The second time they bred I actually scooped out about 10-15 of them and put them in various tanks, one was a 10 gallon guppy tank and the other was a 46 gallon bouffant with small bolivian rams. The babies were about 3 weeks old at this point and were looking like actual fish then, not fry at around a half inch long. None made it.

Any advice on how to get them to spawn again?

Another question.. so you are saying as soon as I see the cloud of fry get them all out? or should I wait a few days or weeks and then scoop them out when they get a little bigger. The number of them only decreased slowly until about after 2-3 weeks when they started vanishing

 

[duanes]

Over the years I have had a number of Vieja/Paraneetroplus species spawns, bifasciatum, breidhori, zonatus, also Chuco's, and many others.
For me it has always been successful when I am hyper active with water changes, and left the parents (or at least one parent)with the fry.
I have never tried to cross one species with another though.

 

[sm1ie]

Is that a bartoni? Looks pretty damn good.

Anyway you leave the fries with the parent(s) till any size or age? Or do they live with them indefinitely.

 

[duanes]

I keep the fry with the parents until they reach @ an inch, or until they start cannibalizing the parents, or start to spawn again.

 

[Ian14]

Thanks a lot for the input.

How often of water changes and about how much do you change at a time?

Any specific temperature you have found luck with? And what kind of aquascape did you do?

Here is my tank as of now, I just got 2 new pieces of drifted that i could try to make a more secluded area for them in the tank. http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1047534&d=1416186842

Each of the 2 times they bred I never saw any eggs or anything, just all of the sudden a cloud of fry.

 

[duanes]

I try to do a water change of 20% every other day. But sometimes when research indicates a typical breeding season is coming, I'll hold off on water changes for 2 weeks, then do an 80% change.
Some seasons may also be accompanied by a change in availability of foods, such as an insect hatching making a heavy protein upsurge, or falling of ripening fruit, or algae for species like Vieja maculacauda
And temp depends on the species, my xCichlasoma beani spawned at 68'F, haitiensus high 80sF, most Vieja type, mid 70s.

beani tank thermometer

and just to show how variable cichlids can be
A southern South American red ceibal fry tank

 

[Ian14]

Wow, impressive. Also, what fruits and vegetables can I feed my vieja? I tried carrots and pees so far. Zonatus will eat neither and the black belt will eat the peas. It seems like the black belt prefers more meaty pellets rather than vedgie pellets