HEY!! if a cichlasoma nicaraguense start diggen holes does that mean......

[kewlparrotz]

Hey everyone if the nics start diggen does it mean that they are spawing? hope ya guys can help thanks a bunch
kurt

[ChilDawg]

Not necessarily. They are known for just digging, but it could be a precursor to spawning, so keep a close eye on them and let us see some pix if they have fry!

[kewlparrotz]

Yes sir buddy. should i do alot of water changes to get them to breed easier.

[ChilDawg]

I think that that works best for Corydoras and related catfish. For your fish, I would suggest cleaning the water a little bit just for the fry's health, but I don't think that that will be a huge stimulus in spawning. I think that a better stimulus might be the addition of livefoods to their diet.

[kewlparrotz]

well they are to small to eat feeder fish do ya think i should use frozen food?

[ChilDawg]

If they are too small to eat feeders, I don't see them breeding any time soon. Thus, I would restrict the livefoods feedings so that they don't get too used to them and refuse any of the finer flake and pelleted foods. Save the livefoods (and frozens) for an occasional treat, and your fish will reward you by eating the cheaper (but still good-quality) flakes/pellets with gusto.

[AikidoGuy]

Copora nicaraguense, is the actual name of your fish. They start to breed at around 3"-4". Males will have a black pattern on the fins and between the scales the females wont have that.The females will show ALOT more color then the males as well. nics are cave spawners and also need a very fine substrate, not so much a fine sand but something like pool filter sand is a good size to compare to. The eggs are non adhesive like most all other cichlids which is why they need a cave. In the wild the nics breed in mud and dig tunnels to lay the eggs in. i currently have six of these and two are a pair. ;)

[ChilDawg]

I was wondering if Aikido would save my butt on this thread, as I didn't have much more info than what I gave! I forgot that Copora nicaraguense had non-adhesive eggs, so that was a good set of points to know for breeding.

BTW, Aikido, when did they give that scientific name to the fish? I had never heard it before! (Which probably will indicate my ignorance soon...)

[Tiger15]

I have three female Nics and they all like to dig even without male. Female has very intense green and orange color that resembles African cichlid and requires similar hard alkaline water requirement. At one time, nearly all central American cichlids are named Cichlisoma, and so are nearly all Malawyan cichlids called Haplochromis. Now the scientists have renamed the fish with many confusing genera names but fundamentally, they are still closely related fish and cross genera breeding is not uncommon.

[AikidoGuy]

not exactly sure when they changed the name but at least 3-4years ago. ;) For my breeding fish they get 50% water changes and i raise the temp up to about 82 and even as high as 84 on some species. Hasnt failed yet..

[kewlparrotz]

i dont know you guys because my female is very plain and my males are very colored the profesional breeder i got them from said that the males always have the brighter colors in this species
ill try to get a pic of them tommorow on here

[AikidoGuy]

Female - this female was barely 1" in November and she is now even larger than when this pic was taken 2 months ago. shes is roughly 4" now

http://pic3.picturetrail.com/VOL15/947217/1896015/22588002.jpg

http://pic3.picturetrail.com/VOL15/947217/1896015/22588008.jpg

Male - same batch of fry as above female and the pics were taken the same day. the fish in the middle is currently my dominate male and has colored up very nice since picture time but stil lisnt nearly has colorful as the female.

http://pic3.picturetrail.com/VOL15/947217/1896015/22587999.jpg

[kewlparrotz]

this picture thing sucks i hate it i cant put my pictures on here because to many bytes so as soon as you read this tell me your email address thats the only way i can get my pics to you

[AikidoGuy]

use the one in my profile ;)

[kewlparrotz]

it dont let me attach stuff on that thing i need your email address so i can email ya from yahoo my email address is kurtzcool@yahoo.com