Need advice from experienced leleupi breeder

[Lydia]

I noticed my first batch of leleupi fry, but upon further examining there appear to be several batches in there, from grain of sand size to 1/4". No idea how often they spawn, want to ensure maximum survival rate. Researched-said excellent parents, leave in parent tank til time for next spawn. Do I move the parents? Dont want to mess up breeding either!

[Lydia]

Really? Nobody breeds leleupi? No way I can remove all the babies, so dont know to leave parents with babies and move fry as they are big enough or move the parents to new tank and raise fry in tank they are in?

[allysangels]

just leave them be. they should be fine.

[allysangels]

The pair will spawn very secretively in a cave, which they often excavate themselves. The female lays her eggs (up to 150) on the wall or roof of it. It is often very difficult to tell if they have spawned until the fry are seen. As a general rule, if you suspect there is a brood in the tank, start adding a food source for the fry. Once spawning has occured, the female will tend to the eggs while the male guards the area around the cave. The eggs hatch in 3-4 days with the fry becoming free swimming at the 8-10 day stage. During this initial period of brood care, the fry remain in the cave with both parents alternating in protecting them. Once the fry begin to make forays away from the cave you may wish to remove the parents.
The fry are large enough to take brine shrimp nauplii from birth.Brood care is quite long-lived and they can remain with the parents until they are around 1″ in length at which point they must be removed as the adults may turn on them. The adults may spawn again whilst the brood are still in the tank and they will form a nuclear family with the older fry remaining in the parents’ territory and tending to new broods of eggs. It should be noted that water conditions in the tank should be of the highest quality as the young are very sensitive to accumulation of bacteria and organic wastes.

[Lydia]

Thanks Ally. I read that too, but its hard to know what is best. Hoped to gain insight from others experience!

[allysangels]

most cichlids are pretty good parents. assuming that the tank is of adequate size and not too overcrowded, they do great without our help. the only reason i would remove and raise the fry would be for commercial interests.

[crazy42bmx]

Ok just saw this, provide some more info. Size of tank, whats in the tank with them, is ths their first spawn, is the male guarding an area of the tank,

Ill help you out here! If possible take a few pics of tank so i can see whats goin on and what u have. And yes i do breed these fish , i have spawns about every month! Feel free to pm if u have any questions

[Lydia]

Thanks! Sent you PM.

[crazy42bmx]

Hows things working out for ya?

[Lydia]

So far so good. See about 4 sizes of fry. I'll move fry little st a time as they get big enough.

[crazy42bmx]

So hows things going. They all doing ok for ya

[Lydia]

They are doing great! I am going to move the oldest ones asap simply because of volume. The oldest ones are already coloring up! Thanks for asking!

[waterdog]

You may want to try feeding the babies up to a little larger red wigglers to these fish mine loved them. My larger female could condition on one large red wiggler. Makes them grow very fast too. I didn't mean to the smalll fry

[Lydia]

Thanks Waterdog! I have more leleupi than I can believe!!! I feed the fry brine shrimp and finely crushed flakes from Ken's. They color up right away. They are so tiny when born, but seem to grow pretty quickly. I'm loving it!