Lake Malawi cichlids breeding "season"

Hi All

As @TheGrissom mentioned that I should start a thread to document my Lake Malawi cichlids breeding.

As research has shown that in the wild they usually spawn in seasons and in the tank it's usually ad hoc so it had come to me as a suprise when I got up a few days ago and noticed a mass spawn event. 4 pairs spawning in the same tank at the same time. What was more shocking was that even though there was movement around the tank and even noise by kids running around nothing seemed to stop them.

I currently have about 30 fry growing out from previous spawns as you can see here:



The following fry are in here

Sciaenochromis Fryeri.(electric blue hap)
Male:

Female is just a drab grey colour

Labidochromis Caeralus (Yellow Lab)


The yellow one at the bottom

Aulocanara SP. (Dragonblood peacock)

The female literally just lacks the bluish white detail

Currently I have 3 holding females at the same time

Aulocanara Haensbenshi (Red shoulder peacock)

Male

Female


Maylandia Lambardoi (Kenyi)

Male

Female


L. Caeralus (Yellow Lab)

Female




Hoping they all pull through. The kenyi female is on her first term. The Red shoulder female was bred before by the store I got her from with an OB peacock and the fry were all either grey or OB so hoping that she gives me good fry. The lab is on her third time. The first one I let her spit in the main tank.

Currently my S. fryeri are trying still and my Demasoni

 

really stunning fish man, well done

 

Thanks alot. They're real gems

 

Haha no that 2M is going to be a marine tank

 

Every time I take my wife diving she keeps telling me that I need to do a marine tank very soon. There's a place here called snoopy island where the fish are so used to divers that they school together with us coz they know we're going to find a few urchins to feed them. It's amazing really

 

Thank you @Reedfish been a long road to get here. Finally happy with the way my fish are.

 

S.Fryeri female looking ready to go.

 

Thanks @A new day I'm hoping to get a video to show exactly how they spawn.

At the moment aggression in my tank is off the charts for the first time. Not too violent though. Just guarding of territories. Once the females are done they tend to ignore the male. However they still try to lure her back to their spot.

 

@A new day here's an older video of 2 fish that spawned. I didn't keep these fry though but I wish I did

 

Yeah. This is why I only save fry from spawns I've seen. And in this case I opted not to because with hybrids you really don't know what you're getting aggression wise so I don't take a chance.

 

@Reedfish I completely agree with this. One of the major problems here is that many hybrids are for sale at the stores here. So I handpicked those I could tell were pure breed or my best guess. That's why Mbuna was bought first. Then the peacocks who were already mature so could have a better idea of what they were.

My plan is to have my own colony grow up and into my main tank then I know I have healthy stock. With all the challenges and sicknesses I went through to get this far it makes the most sense.

In the past I had hybrids who were bred in my tanks and survived against all odds and they ended up running the last tank I had until an accident that killed all my fish. Not willing to go down that route again with aggression. It takes the fun out of the hobby