View Full Version : Brichardi Gender, tank, and mates Help
FishNMusic
07-07-2003, 7:42 PM
I Found Brichardi a half our from my house and I happy But the problem Is I dont know How to tell Male from female apart? CAn Any one Help Me also I have a really rocky tank that I set up for Kribs and now I changed my mind and decided to Use it For Brichardi is this Okay, and what would be the conditons for a Brichardi, like temp and Ph. Finally what would be some good tank mates?
Harry Tolen
07-07-2003, 8:03 PM
Neolamprologus brichardi comes from Lake Tanganyika. They get to be slightly larger than kribensis, but are fairly easy to keep if you give them the proper conditions.
A rocky tank is a good idea. Numbers of fish, potential tankmates, etc. depends on the size of the tank...what do you have?
Coming from Lake Tanganyika, they like hard, alkaline water. I keep mine using Seachem Rift Lake buffers and salts. The pH of Lake Tanganyika is up around 9, but some people don't like to go quite that high (although the fish do well when maintained in those conditions).
FishNMusic
07-07-2003, 8:13 PM
I have a thirty gallon TANK THAT WILL BE READY IN TWO DAYS WITH NO OTHER TANK MATES yET. iTS A SAND AND GRAVEL MISTURE. WITH LOTS OF CAVES AND BROKEN FLOWER POTS. pH IS UNDETERMINED BECAUSE I WAITED TO SEE WHAT i SHOULD SET IT AT AND TEMP i WAS WAITING FOR ALSO
aNY OTHER INFO i SHOULD INCLUDE jUST RETURN THIS
Jayhawk
07-07-2003, 10:42 PM
78 is a pretty safe temp. for Tangs. I woulnd't add any other fish to a 30 gallon tank with N. brichardi - they'll fill it up pretty fast with fry and I've had friends who had 55 gallon tanks taken over by brichardi.
As for sexing them, I'd just get 4 - 6 and just let them pair up (size is, I believe, the biggest difference - they are really hard to sex unless you know how to vent fish which I don't).
FishNMusic
07-08-2003, 9:20 AM
Should I put Dither Fish in the the tank with Brichardis?
Jayhawk
07-08-2003, 10:03 AM
Nope - They don't need dithers at all.
rift-n-reef
07-08-2003, 10:49 PM
As for sexing your fish, you may be out of luck there. I've yet to figure out which of my pair is which. I have 29g, with a bunch of lace rock, and a sand mixture I picked up at a LFS especially for use with rift lake cichlids. The only fish in the tank are two albino blue faced brichardi and two batches of fry. I started with three fish, but after a pair formed, they took care of the odd man out for me. The same was the case with my daffodil brichardi of a couple years back. Brichardi can be fickle fish, so give them their space, and don't get too carried away with lights or other fish in the tank, and they should breed for you well. The brichardi's as with most of the neolamps stay in family groups, which is the older siblings help to care for newer fry making them a wonderful fish to have in a tank all by themselves, and still having plenty to watch. HTH.
"J"
Kit Walker
07-09-2003, 4:57 AM
As previously said you will need to buy a group and wait for them to pair off. Some LFS may trick you into believing the males have longer fin trailings but this is false. My female has slightly longer fins than my male! And I usually can only pick which one she is when her egg tube is showing.
Good luck with your brichardi's they are a great fish to watch especially when you have generations living together. I also wouldn't bother with dithers (if you must then Poeciliids are best due to alkalinity). If you ever upgrade to a larger tank you may be able to keep with them a couple of shellies (such as ocellatus) or other medium Neolamprologus such as leleupi. However your 29G will be fine with just one pair of brichardi, because they do get very aggressive with babies, and will even target dithers when breeding.
For the most part males do have longer tail fins than the females, as well as a more noticeable bump on the forehead. But in my 55 currently i have 4 brichardi, and 2 dafodil brichardi. My dafodils have bred many times, and I have 5 medium size fry and 4 small fry that should survive. Breeding them doesnt take much effort, just give plenty of spots for territory, and make sure you get enough so there isnt like a pair and one odd ball left, cause they willl most likely end up killing it. BUt in my setup, one does get picked on, but since there are hiding spots and a few other brichardis, he does fine. good luck
FishNMusic
07-14-2003, 11:37 AM
Today on July 14 I found some brichardi Eggs On a rock and part on the glass wally of the tank, and I have a few questions one is what should I feed the Fry when they hatch? ANother question is
Can I keep the babies with the parents evenwhen they have a second batch? And Is there any food out there that can increase the growth of my fry?
FishNMusic
07-14-2003, 11:39 AM
Also How Long Untill the eggs Hatch and I see them Swiming around the Tank?
Don't worry about the fry, leave them in with the parents, and they will be fine when a second, third batch, etc comes along. Also, just feed the rest like normal, the mother will take care of feeding them some stuff, it's cool, she spits out the food in a bunch of little pieces. You can put some crushed up flakes in if you want, but you don't have to. Also, be aware that a vast majority of the fry will die, and only a few will make it. fRom my first batcdh only one survived. Good luck