My first impulse purchase in probably 5 years...

So today, I was checking out the dregs of the Petco sale (the $1/gallon sale was part of their "biggest aquatic sale of the year") when I saw a lone female firemouth in a tank by herself...with a bunch of babies around her!

Firemouths are a cichlid I've always wanted to keep, sadly I've never had the space to set up an American cichlid tank. So I caved. I asked the guy for the babies (which were free) and now there are 10 of them in a Rubbermaid bin with plant clippings and an airstone in my bathroom :screwy:

Of course, I'm setting up a proper tank for them as we speak. At the moment, all I have free is a 10 gallon which I'm getting out of the shed. After a rinse it should be ready to go. I have plenty of plants, a clip on light, sand and decor to make it actually look decent and of course, a spare filter...I'll borrow some media from another tank and probably use tank water from a freshly maintenanced tank.

My big question is: how long can I keep 10 baby firemouths (the fry are probably just a week or so old) in a 10 gallon tank? I would like to grow them out and then trade them in to the LFS in the next town over.

From my reading, it looks like it will take at least 4 months to get them to a sellable size. I was planning on getting a new dresser (tall vs. long) so that I could accommodate one more tank in the bedroom, a 40 breeder or thereabouts...I just wonder how long I have before I need to bring this plan into action

The shop tanks seem just about 10 gallons, and they have way more than 10 3" fishes' worth of bioload, so I was kind of hoping they would last that long in there. We'll have to see though, if I do twice weekly 50% water changes (the plan so far) they may grow faster.

Cyclopeeze is amazing I'm sure, but so expensive! I tried it once and most of my fish didn't like it...guess they didn't realize how good it was Paying $14 for a tin of flake that most of my fish didn't eat wasn't the result I expected. I would try golden pearls next, but really I have so much homemade food, bloodworms, brine shrimp...these fish will be eating really well regardless!

We'll see, I can definitely find a way to upgrade if it seems necessary. I'm not planning on maxing them out on high protein food (too messy) but I do plan on changing water very often, I think that's the key factor in stunted fry.

Just a quick update, it's been a while

The fry are almost 3 months old. Some are growing faster than others, four or five of them are definitely salable size now, a couple of them starting to show the a hint of red coloration. Unfortunately, I've grown rather attached to them...so I bought them a 20 gallon tank to keep them for a while longer I guess Petco really got the best of me, huh? For 10 free fish, I ended up spending well over $50 in their store! That's like selling me 10 full priced adults!

Here's a pic of their 20 gallon tank:



They're all getting along well, and as you can see there are plenty of hiding places...since not a single fish is present in the picture! :silly:

I hope to keep them there for another 3 months maybe. Then we'll see...

Oh wait! Upon closer inspection, I guess you can see two of them....my bad.

Good point