Christmas Surprise

[DevonCichlid]

Well I came home from 5 days away and had a nice little surprise in my Calvus tank. FRY! Don't ask me what I did because I honestly had no idea that any of them were holding. I received some calvus caves from plecocaves about a month ago and they all seemed to love the caves right from the start. They would spend the majority of their time in their caves and rarely come out even at feeding time which was really odd for them. Now they are all out roaming in the tank like they used to when they shared a different tank with my Fronts.

Anyways I haven't even done any research on this yet but am curious if anyone on here has experience breeding these guys. There are 7 calvus and 2 albino bristlenose in the tank. I'm curious if all the calvus share responsibility taking care or if I should either move the adults or move the fry (they are so tiny I honestly don't want to risk moving them). So far most of them are chilling out at the entrance of one of the calvus caves but there are a few roaming around. None of the calvus are showing aggression towards each other or towards the fry.

Anyways if anyone has some input I would certainly appreciate it. I'm off to start reading about this to see if I can salvage most of them (looks to be at least 20).

P.S. - These guys are really tiny and have a really yellow coloration to them. I could have swore they were closer to the albino bristlenose until I got up close and watched them swim around and eat.

[DevonCichlid]

Alright well I did some quick reading and made a snap decision to move the fry to their own tank. I knew that the calvus were notorious fry killers but wasn't sure if they would protect their own.

After

Before

The bad news.

It was World War 3 in the main calvus tank. Its become quite clear who mom and dad are and they are not happy at all. They were very calm and collected an hour ago and now they are the opposite and attacking the other calvus in the tank, blaming them for what I did. They all have their hiding spots so the aggression has already died down but within about 5 minutes of moving one of the caves and the fry they showed their displeasure.

The good news.

There are about 10 stragglers left in the main tank and another approx. 85 in the fry tank. Its hard to count them because they are so tiny but somewhere in there anyways. I read from a source online that they would retreat back to the cave if startled and they sure did (the 10 or so I could see). I flipped the cave up and moved it to another tank with the same temperature that was holding 5 or 6 yellow lab fry until earlier. Once the cave was in the water in the new tank I flipped it over and all the little fellas swam out to the bottom of the tank. I supplied a couple options for feeding NLS (powder) and will keep an eye on these guys.

So I documented the conditions to see what I had done lately in this tank because I hadn't really actively been concentrating on breeding these guys.

The water is set at 78 degrees and has been getting 25% water changes weekly. There are 3 different styles of calvus caves set up (2x double, 2 single, one bigger one) with two sponge filters driven by air. The black substrate (name escapes me) and a piece of malaysian driftwood (about a year old). They have been fed NLS 2mm almost exclusively aside from the weekly frozen treat.

These guys were in a 90G shared with 4 Burundi Fronts and 6 synodontis for the whole time I've had them until the last 2 months (or less). This was just a temporary home for them while they grew out more as they were growing very slowly but I might stick with it for a while to see if they take another crack at spawning. This really took me for surprise because I thought they had a lot more growing out to do before spawning but I'll take it

[jvision]

Calvus are notorious for their slow growth. If you notice the fry eating the powdered NLS, then you're set. You may need microworms or vinegar eels to start - I'm not sure if they're big enough for BBS right away. Although, by the looks of things, they're already a few days free swimming. Calvus are like your typical cichlids (non-mouthbrooding, that is) - they lay their eggs, and guard until the fry swim away. Because they come from Tanganyika where the conditions don't really change, keeping a stable environment (like you've been doing) is the best way to go.

Have fish, have fun!!