In this thread i´m gonna try to tell you all about my breeding on my ornates...
At the moment we have two 720 liters tanks (200cm x60cm x60cm). In eatch tank there are one breeding group of 6 and 8 ornates.
Tank 1: The tank with 8 ornates have one big male (40cm), one medium male and one smal male. The females are from 25cm to about 40cm. No other fishes in the tanks.
Tank 2: The tank with 6 have one big male (+45cm) and one smal male and 4 females (20cm up to +45cm). But in that tank there is no succesful breeding at the moment. But we know that they can, they have spawn in the other tank before we moved them. In this tank there are no other fishes but one wc Lapradei (30-35cm).
I started my ornate collection in the summer of 2007 when i bought a male. I have had my eays open for larger fishes and i am still looking for more. Within a year we are gonna try to breed on wc Lapradei.
When we moved to the house we live in now we had the space to expand so we bought an other 720liters tank. At first we tested to put the first breeding pair in the new tank (tank 2). But they didn´t like it and the male attacked the female alot. So we had to move more ornates in to that tank.
In tank 2 there are some redish sand on the bottom and BTN-background with bottom-filter. And a few green plants and a few roots.
In tank 1 there is a sand (english seastone is it called in Sweden), alot of green plants like giant vallisineria, and a lot of roots with anubias. The tank has a Fluval FX5-filter.
We feed them mostly with Hikari Cichlid Gold, but some time they get live fish, salmon pellets, shrimps and other foodfishes. They get a smal amount of food every day when they are breeding. But we they seems to be done we starv them and feed them once a week.
To try to set them of to spawn we make a 50% water change. There normal water temp i 27-28C but when we put in new water we drop the temp to about 26C. And them we give them more food. The next day after the water change the spawning can begin.
The male starts to follow the female "in heat" and court her. In this older film you can see how the courting begins: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ysr6t_kNDRk Sometimes the male court more the one female at a time, we have seen the male courting up to three females at one time! He swims after the female and she desides were she wants the eggs to be layed and it can be on different spots in the tank. Some on the roots, some on the plants and even sometimes in the sand.
When the female stops over the spot the male go up beside here and "cup" his analfin under the females cloaka and takes over the black eggs to milk and then he spreads them out. So they go on to the next place over and over for a cuple of days up to a week.
Thats all i can write to day... more to come have we handle the eggs an other day.
At the moment we have two 720 liters tanks (200cm x60cm x60cm). In eatch tank there are one breeding group of 6 and 8 ornates.
Tank 1: The tank with 8 ornates have one big male (40cm), one medium male and one smal male. The females are from 25cm to about 40cm. No other fishes in the tanks.
Tank 2: The tank with 6 have one big male (+45cm) and one smal male and 4 females (20cm up to +45cm). But in that tank there is no succesful breeding at the moment. But we know that they can, they have spawn in the other tank before we moved them. In this tank there are no other fishes but one wc Lapradei (30-35cm).
I started my ornate collection in the summer of 2007 when i bought a male. I have had my eays open for larger fishes and i am still looking for more. Within a year we are gonna try to breed on wc Lapradei.
When we moved to the house we live in now we had the space to expand so we bought an other 720liters tank. At first we tested to put the first breeding pair in the new tank (tank 2). But they didn´t like it and the male attacked the female alot. So we had to move more ornates in to that tank.
In tank 2 there are some redish sand on the bottom and BTN-background with bottom-filter. And a few green plants and a few roots.
In tank 1 there is a sand (english seastone is it called in Sweden), alot of green plants like giant vallisineria, and a lot of roots with anubias. The tank has a Fluval FX5-filter.
We feed them mostly with Hikari Cichlid Gold, but some time they get live fish, salmon pellets, shrimps and other foodfishes. They get a smal amount of food every day when they are breeding. But we they seems to be done we starv them and feed them once a week.
To try to set them of to spawn we make a 50% water change. There normal water temp i 27-28C but when we put in new water we drop the temp to about 26C. And them we give them more food. The next day after the water change the spawning can begin.
The male starts to follow the female "in heat" and court her. In this older film you can see how the courting begins: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ysr6t_kNDRk Sometimes the male court more the one female at a time, we have seen the male courting up to three females at one time! He swims after the female and she desides were she wants the eggs to be layed and it can be on different spots in the tank. Some on the roots, some on the plants and even sometimes in the sand.
When the female stops over the spot the male go up beside here and "cup" his analfin under the females cloaka and takes over the black eggs to milk and then he spreads them out. So they go on to the next place over and over for a cuple of days up to a week.
Thats all i can write to day... more to come have we handle the eggs an other day.
