orange chromide

Hi

does anybody have experience in keeping and breeding orange chromides??

 

If I recall @Altum said he used to keep and breed them...

Anyways, as far as keeping them goes, they're quite simple. They're one of the few truly brackish cichlids, and beyond that, one of very few Asian cichlids. They are very hardy if you keep them in the right conditions - you can keep them in hard, alkaline freshwater, but they do much better in low-end brackish water (SG 1.005). Those kept in freshwater are more susceptible to disease, and the eggs often fall prey to fungus. Other than that, there isn't much to keeping them: keep them at a tropical temperature, feed all standard foods, keep up with your regular water changes and don't keep them with fish that will eat them

Regards

 

Yes, I have a pair that bred 3 times before I gave them away. They were in wih my guppies in a 1.2m tank. Temp was around 26. PH 7.5.
Every 3rd week I would throw in a handful of salt. The Chromides were extremely happy. Twice they laid eggs on a piece of bogwood and once they laid there eggs inside an artificial log. They were awesome parents although they struggled once the fry were free swimming to keep them together. When the fry were about a week old then I removed them and raised them in a seperate tank. Fed them on finely crushed flakes and freshly hatched brine shrimp. I eventually had over a hundred youngsters.

 

Thanks people. How do I tell the sexes apart??

 

The female has 2 white stripes on her tail as per the attached pic. The male does not have these stripes. These stripes will only appear when they start to mature. I bought 6 youngsters and then waited for them to pair off and then kept the one pair and returned the other youngsters back to the LFS.

 

I currently have 5 of these and have bred them in the past (in abundance), and although I had several breeding pairs at that time, I still could not find any hard & fast rules of sexing them other than when they're breeding..... (ovipositor shape) - hence my reason for getting 5, to ensure I have males and females.

The fish has a rather shy disposition and "allows" itself to be the subject of abuse by any other fish who wishes to take advantage of it. As stated above they love brackish water, but (in my experience) are not quite as hardy and/or simple to keep as Salmon suggests above...... they are slightly more of a challenge to keep alive and thriviing than your average Cichlid.

They take long to adapt to changed environments, but heavily planted tanks with tunnels and hideouts gives them some confidence to sometimes stand their own grounds..... A very desirable fish in any aquarium.

 

Does any body have a male orange chromide for sale???? i will pay transport and packaging from anywhere in Souht Africa