# My Black Calvus and Ink Fin Calvus had babies :)



## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

Well I'm happy/proud to say Im a step father  My Male Ink Fin Calvus and Female Black Calvus layed eggs. They've since hatched and are now in my breeder box  I managed to suck up 40 babies with a turkey baster. Thanks Vman for the idea. The female defended the babies as I sucked them up. She had moved them in to a hole in one of my rocks so I couldn't see them anymore. I didn't want to take them to early. They are tiny but doing well  

After having this happen I started thinking....... This whole African tank has been such an awesome experience and what works for one doesn't always work for another. Who's to say what is best for the fish?? IMO The most important thing to fish keeping is stability. As long as you keep to a schedule and your don't put your fish on a roller coaster ride you will be successfull. I keep my PH @ 7.5 +/- GH & KH @ 8. My plants grow like crazy and apparently my Calvus's are happy in these water conditions. For a fish that prefers a high PH/KH/GH. They seem just fine as a pair in my mostly male Hap & Peacock tank with a few Tangs. I cant wait to watch the babies grow.


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## Claudia (Apr 21, 2010)

Pictures pleeeeease


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## Claudia (Apr 21, 2010)

Oh and congratz lol


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

Claudia said:


> Pictures pleeeeease


I will snap a few pictures tonight Claudia. They are really tiny and just starting to swim around. They spend most of their time sitting on the bottom.


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## bigfry (Apr 21, 2010)

Congrats. What baby food are you gonna use?


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## Steve (Mar 27, 2013)

That's exciting! Good luck with them  They'll be worth a pretty penny in a couple years!


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## onefishtwofish (Apr 21, 2010)

hahaha...take a pic of yourself too then we can watch you turn grey while we watch the babies grow..................a double feature....actually a marathon. very slow growers but so darn cute


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## Fish rookie (May 21, 2012)

Congrats congrats...
pictures pictures...


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## Vancitycam (Oct 23, 2012)

That's pretty awesome, congratulations buds. As others have mentioned pics!! Please.


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

bigfry said:


> Congrats. What baby food are you gonna use?


I usually just smash the heck out my NLS pellets and feed them the powder.

What do you suggest?


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

Thanks everyone. Im pretty excited about them. I know they are slow growers. I have lots of time to wait. 

I will post pictures tomorrow when Im at work. Hopefully the zoom on my camera is working LOL


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## mrbob (Aug 9, 2012)

Where these the parents from the group buy?


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## AKAmikeross (Nov 5, 2012)

congrats thats awesome new. I had a pair of ink fins I bought on a BCA group by about 10 years ago. In the 1 year I had them they never breed for me.

Looking forward to pics and the for sale thread in a couple months


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## Vman (Jan 20, 2011)

Feed them cyclopeez.That is what I'm feeding.Once they're about a. 1/4" then use the NLS.They need lots of protein.Also give them flakes.They'll get used to all foods. My adults eat everything,even baked yams and cucumbers.


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

Here are some pictures. I guess they are considered hybrids. Ink fin X Black Calvus. Both species look very similar except the Ink fin has a black verticle bar under his eyes. That's the only difference I can see.

I forgot to zoon in  I was half awake this morning I will post a close up picture tomorrow.























I will check if my work sells cyclopeez tonight. If not where do you buy them Lukasz?

MrBob. No these aren't from the group order. The Ink fin is from a fish store in Calgary that I visited a few months ago. The Black Calvus is from Fairdeals. Ive had the female for awhile. Im happy I lucked out and got a male and a female. The male has grown a lot faster. He is starting to look really nice.


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## Just-Koi (Oct 29, 2012)

Congrats Justin, very cool indeed. Thanks for the pics too....


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## Sidius (Mar 25, 2012)

Nice! I'll probably take a nice male off your hands when they grow out a bit more. I hope you keep this thread updated with pics as the little guys grow.


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## NODES (Jun 21, 2012)

Sidius said:


> Nice! I'll probably take a nice male off your hands when they grow out a bit more. I hope you keep this thread updated with pics as the little guys grow.


that is a looooong wait..those buggers are very slow growers.


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## Steve (Mar 27, 2013)

NODES said:


> that is a looooong wait..those buggers are very slow growers.


It could be a year or two before they hit 5" haha


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## Sidius (Mar 25, 2012)

Ya I've had a juvie calvus before. He was one of my favorite fish, unfortunately he died a few months ago.


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## bingerz (Mar 3, 2011)

congrats!!  what's the difference between a black calvus and ink fin?


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

bingerz said:


> congrats!!  what's the difference between a black calvus and ink fin?


Very little from what I can see. The only difference is the Ink Fin Calvus has a black bar under his eye. Other than that they look identical. Someone mentioned the Ink Fin will develop nicer white spots as he get older.

By the look of it. The female is guarding a new batch of eggs. She's no longer eating and guarding the same spot as before.


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## charles (Apr 21, 2010)

bingerz said:


> congrats!!  what's the difference between a black calvus and ink fin?


same fish, different trade name.


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

A little update on my baby fish. Out of the 40 I had only 1 survived. They are very slow growers. Very slow  They all lived for a couple weeks than started dropping like flies. I think the reason they died was because I was using the wrong food. Vman told me to buy cyclopeez. I found some at J&L a few weeks ago and it wasn't cheap. Its frozen and only comes in a double pack with spurlina $20 but will last a long time. 

The good news is my female had more babies. Ive since taken them from her. Both parents are very aggressive towards anything than comes near their hole. The female even wedges herself into the hole to stop me from taking them. I used a python hose to remove them this time. I found it worked easier because I cant see the fry. I took them around 2 weeks ago so far none have died a they are eating the cyclopeez. The one remaining baby from the first batch is noticeably bigger but still tiny. Hopefully I will have better success this time


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## tony1928 (Apr 22, 2010)

That's great news Justin. Good thing too is that Africans are pretty prolific breeders once they start dp you should have plenty of practice at raising fry. I was always too busy to raise the fry when I had my African tank and most got eaten but a few would survive and it was always so cool to watch them grow. 

Time for some pix soon! 

Sent from my gigantic Samsung Note 2


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## Vancitycam (Oct 23, 2012)

Sorry hear you lost so many, good you got it all straightened out now.


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

Hopefully I have it straightened out. They were eating the food I gave them before so I thought they were okay. I usually just smash up pellet food and feed that. Except last time I already had some smashed up so who knows maybe it was stale or a cheap food. I cant remember when it was from LOl. I was told cyclopeez at the start than I can switch them over to smashed NLS pellets, so we will see if that works 

Pix will come tony but this time "Im not counting my chicken before they hatch" Ill wait until they are bigger


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## charles (Apr 21, 2010)

use live bbs or microworm. you get better result than frozen.


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## Vman (Jan 20, 2011)

Out of my 50 fry 23 survived. They are hard to keep. I only suggested cyclopeez because it's easy. Works for me.


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

Vman said:


> Out of my 50 fry 23 survived. They are hard to keep. I only suggested cyclopeez because it's easy. Works for me.


I liked your suggestion that's why I listened. It is easy and I'm hopeful it will help. I will look into Charles's suggestion but for now cyclopeez it is. If more than 1 lives Im doing better than the last time.


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## Sidius (Mar 25, 2012)

It's a learning process right? I'm hoping to have a small breeding group of 1 or 2 different Mbuna in the 180g. I'm not sure what I'll do with the fry at this point but maybe I'll turn the growout tank into a fry tank.

I'll most definitely be turning to you for advice since you're learning all about it now. What do you have them in? I'm guessing you're using a sponge filter?


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## me2525 (May 3, 2014)

Hey man. I am brand new to this forum. I have been looking for a calvus for a looooooong time. No luck.
How did your fry do? Do you have any for sale or know of where I could get one?
Thanks!


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## Sidius (Mar 25, 2012)

They have a couple for sale @ Petland in PoCo, I think...


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## AKAmikeross (Nov 5, 2012)

Sidius said:


> They have a couple for sale @ Petland in PoCo, I think...


Did they get a new order in? What else do they have?


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

Yes they did. They got a few new species. 1 ive never seen locally Chilotilapia rhoadesii


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## AKAmikeross (Nov 5, 2012)

Yeah, Im heading over there in the morning. That fish is on my must have list so hopefully they still have at least 1 male left. I sent you a PM about a female lethrinops. I have 2 from SJ, bought at petland poco.


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

AKAmikeross said:


> Yeah, Im heading over there in the morning. That fish is on my must have list so hopefully they still have at least 1 male left. I sent you a PM about a female lethrinops. I have 2 from SJ, bought at petland poco.


Must have list  Most of us African keepers have 1. Lol. Other people probably think that's weird. I was the first one at Petland when they arrived so I got pick of the litter. I grabbed 1 for Sidius too


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## kim86 (Sep 5, 2012)

AKAmikeross said:


> Yeah, Im heading over there in the morning. That fish is on my must have list so hopefully they still have at least 1 male left. I sent you a PM about a female lethrinops. I have 2 from SJ, bought at petland poco.


Did you come in today? Missed you if you did haha.


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

Well once again my female is guarding her favorite spot which means more babies  Last time I let her guard them for too long and something must of happened to the babies because the female had moved off her spot one morning, which means they were gone. So far I haven't been very successful with the babies. Out of 2 or 3 batches only 1 has survived and he/she is from the first batch. Slowest growing fish ever!!!!! Now that I have a grow out tank I may try my hang on breeder box off the side of it. I think having the breeder box on my big tank has slowed the growth down of the baby. Way too many pheromones. I also think the sun shinning through are back sliding door/sky light may have effected the babies as well. It literally shined right on the box for a few hours a day. I covered the breeder box side to keep the sun off but with no babies to see if it effected them. I havnt been able to prove my theory.

I still cant believe these guys are breeding none stop in water with a PH of 7.3. How could that be LOL?


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## Sidius (Mar 25, 2012)

Happy fish, that's how!! In my opinion the key is stable and consistent PH, not the exact PH number.

I might steal that baby calvus out from under your nose, before you can move him to the side of the growout tank lol.. I have a baby calvus in my 29g growout tank already that's barely an inch long, so he'll have a buddy.


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

Sidius said:


> Happy fish, that's how!! In my opinion the key is stable and consistent PH, not the exact PH number.
> 
> I might steal that baby calvus out from under your nose, before you can move him to the side of the growout tank lol.. I have a baby calvus in my 29g growout tank already that's barely an inch long, so he'll have a buddy.


Hes been by himself for awhile. Be nice to get him a friend


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