# Demasoni cichlids not breeding



## joker1535 (May 23, 2010)

I just got a breeding colony of demasoni cichlids in a 150 gallon. About 12 of them between 1.5 and 2.5 inches. In there for a month and still not breeding. Is this normal? Some info if needed: --> substrate sand with lots of holey rock. Parameters are mint, no high nitrate,nitrite or ammonia and a ph of 8. Feeding them spirulina flakes which they love. Any advice?


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## onefishtwofish (Apr 21, 2010)

probably too young yet? or maybe too soon. was this group already breeding b4 you got them?


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## joker1535 (May 23, 2010)

no dont think so. hard to say. they should be breeding at this size. got enough males and females


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## clintgv (May 6, 2010)

Maybe there still not use to the new tank? My Yellow labs, around the same size as your demasoni, started breeding when I did a water change (50%) and they were in my tank for about 1 1/2-2 months. So maybe soon they will start breeding? and maybe try doing a big water change or something?


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## joker1535 (May 23, 2010)

did a 40% waterchange 2 days ago. Thanks for the advice though clint


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

yep, try doing a big water change to stimulate breeding, sometimes leaving the lights on overnight works too, or off during the day.
basically just switch things up a bit

if that doesnt work you could remove all but the alpha male, the others could possibly interrupt breeding


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## clintgv (May 6, 2010)

Oh ok. Btw, what's the male to female ratio? Maybe you need for females or something?


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## joker1535 (May 23, 2010)

3 males 9 females. There's gotta be one hot chick in there they like


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

mine also seemed to breed shortly after i started feeding them PE frozen mysis shrimp, have you tried those? theyre really high in omega 3 fats mebbe that helps them make the eggs. i feed NLS cichlid pellets 80% of the time and occasionally treat them with the shrimps.


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## Claudia (Apr 21, 2010)

Do u have hidding places?


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## clintgv (May 6, 2010)

joker1535 said:


> 3 males 9 females. There's gotta be one hot chick in there they like


That should be a good enough ratio. Haha mine was 2m 2fm yellow labs . Hahaha hope there's a good looking demasoni for your males .


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## joker1535 (May 23, 2010)

@Claudia. lots of hiding spots in the rocks. Definitely in a 150 gallon and only 12 fish. @Mferko they really like the flakes, go crazy and eat out of my hand actually. They dont seem to like pellets so far. I could try the mysis shrimp.


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

theyl go nuts over the mysis shrimp, for 12 put in a piece about the size of a keyboard key  try it maybe once every 4th flake feeding or something, hope it works. 
eventually when they get to 4 inches they might start to like pellets more than flakes it depends, my aceii really loved the flakes even when 6 inches but the zebras liked to move onto bigger things like hikari cichlid excel pellets which are high in spirulina or the nls pellets.


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## clintgv (May 6, 2010)

I fed mine frozen blood worms once a week as a treat. Maybe that can work too?


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## Claudia (Apr 21, 2010)

Maybe they r not ready to breed yet, do water changes always helps


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

clintgv said:


> I fed mine frozen blood worms once a week as a treat. Maybe that can work too?


the PE mysis shrimp probably have more nutritional value. theyre extremely fatty (the good fats)
you can even see a bit of fish oil floating on the water for a little while after feeding

heres their website, theyre from BC
http://www.mysis.com/pemysis.html
can buy em at IPU and prly lots of other pet stores.


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## clintgv (May 6, 2010)

Mferko said:


> the PE mysis shrimp probably have more nutritional value. theyre extremely fatty (the good fats)
> you can even see a bit of fish oil floating on the water for a little while after feeding


Maybe ill try it when I run out of frozen blood worms


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

was thinking about it today more, try the mysis and feed it to them like every second day do a big water change and then try not to do any water changes for 2-3 weeks, you shouldnt have any quality problems on such an understocked 150 gallon for that long. then do a big 75% water change in the evening and leave the lights on overnight and the next day hopefully some should be holding in the morning or when u get home from work.


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## Smiladon (Apr 23, 2010)

all 3 males have their own breeding spots/caves? 

Only thing I would assume is that the other males are interrupting breeding process... (on top of all the other suggestion above)


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## Rastapus (Apr 21, 2010)

joker1535 said:


> I just got a breeding colony of demasoni cichlids in a 150 gallon. About 12 of them between 1.5 and 2.5 inches. In there for a month and still not breeding. Is this normal? Some info if needed: --> substrate sand with lots of holey rock. Parameters are mint, no high nitrate,nitrite or ammonia and a ph of 8. Feeding them spirulina flakes which they love. Any advice?


Harden the water. What is your hardness levels? Unlike most fish, harder water encourages africans to breed. Water changes yes as long as the hardness is corrected. They will thrive in 12dKH or higer and the GH should be over 15.


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## joker1535 (May 23, 2010)

What is a natural way of hardening the water?


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

crushed coral substrate, white holey rock, or you can get lake specific buffers at IPU ie kent malawi buffer.


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

i was originally thinking what smilidon thinks but the more i think about it any demasoni that tried to interrupt the alpha male would get a beat-down by that alpha male, ive had a male casualty before that the alpha male decided to beat up cuz he kept getting too close, demasoni are extremely aggressive to conspecifics.
you could try hardening the water although my aceii and yellow labs both breed repeatedly without me paying much attention to that other than white rock. they may just not be ready if youve only had em a month (did the previous owner specify they had already been a PROVEN breeding group?) hopefully the high omega3 fats in the PE mysis will get em makin those eggs asap.


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## Rastapus (Apr 21, 2010)

Mferko said:


> crushed coral substrate, white holey rock, or you can get lake specific buffers at IPU ie kent malawi buffer.


Buffers will harden the water, not crushed coral or rock.


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## Sandy Landau (Jun 4, 2010)

OMG, I read the title of this post as "demasoni cichlids not _breathing._"

Glad they are o.k.

To raise hardness, you can add Replenish from a bottle. It's made by Seachem and you can get it from IPU or Big Als. There are other products available, too.


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

hey another thing that has worked in the past is raising the temperature i forgot to mention that
try bringing the temp up to 82F, if its alrdy there mebbe go down to 78-80 for a while and then bring it up again while doing a big water change?


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

any news on your demasoni?
i noticed yesterday that 2 of mine were holding, so i put them into the 10g grow out tank, one of them spit overnight so i put her back in the 40g, and started to strip the 2nd one but the eggs look like theyve only been fertilized for ~5-8days there is a little fish with beady black eyes stickin to the side of the egg and they actually swim around a bit its pretty funny, got them in one of those hang on breeder boxes so they get plenty of oxygen and dont get eaten.
then i looked back up at the 40g which is above the 10g and there is a THIRD holding demasoni as of this morning, i'll wait 3 weeks to strip that one assuming a bunch more dont start holding again and i cant tell them all apart
i also noticed 2 of my aceii have tubes down
its a freakin orgy in there.


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