Any fishkeepers here? Saltwater or freshwater

[Holladay]

They're mouth brooders

You might keep a small white upside down teacup saucer in the bottom of your tank. This helps them locate a nice spot to lay their eggs.

It helps localize the eggs for you. Be careful of the other cichlids in the tank because the kids will be a free meal for them.

Raising the kids is tough. Mess with the parents too much (stressed out), instead of cleaning the kids in their mouth, they could eat them as well.

I am no expert. I have had a number of broods over the years with not much success. I had a hospital tank (10g) setup to move them into. Stressed. Bad ending.

Google, maybe there are better methods now. Still touchy though.

It is fun remembering the 2 parents swimming around with this cloud of itty bitty fry following them around.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by Holladay

You might keep a small white upside down teacup saucer in the bottom of your tank. This helps them locate a nice spot to lay their eggs.

It helps localize the eggs for you. Be careful of the other cichlids in the tank because the kids will be a free meal for them.

Raising the kids is tough. Mess with the parents too much (stressed out), instead of cleaning the kids in their mouth, they could eat them as well.

I am no expert. I have had a number of broods over the years with not much success. I had a hospital tank (10g) setup to move them into. Stressed. Bad ending.

Google, maybe there are better methods now. Still touchy though.

It is fun remembering the 2 parents swimming around with this cloud of itty bitty fry following them around.

Actually, I've never really had issues with the eggs hatching. In the past, I've just moved pregnant mother fish to a separate smaller tank. It's super obvious when she's holding babies in her mouth. I just gently snag her and move her. After she spits out the babies, I just toss her back in the main tank, and let the fry stay there by themselves to grow enough not to be immediately eaten. Sold a few fries to the now defunct City Pets a few years ago. Had OB peacock babies out the ears. Usually ~40+ per fry. Tried to give them a way for a while here even. After a while I just started using them as feeders. LOL.