Did I doom my J dickfeldi fry?

S

sschind

AC Members
May 7, 2008
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I've got a 20 long with a couple of rock piles that I placed 3 J. dickfeldi in about 4 months ago. I noticed one of them claim a prime spot under the best pile and within a month it was noticeably larger than the other two. it was also being much more tolerant of one of the remaining two than the other. So far so good I thought. Then, about 3 weeks ago I started noticing that both of the smaller fish were hanging out near the second pile and very rarely venturing close to the first pile. I didn't give it to much thought until today when I reached into the tank to lift a couple of rocks off the prime pile to show my Hagen rep the fish. As I did, several rocks tumbled down and I noticed fry (more like wrigglers) attached to one of the rocks. I tried to cover it up the best I could but I will have to wait and see. Hopefully I didn't doom them to be eaten. I just have a couple of questions.

1) With J. Dickfeldi which is larger, the male of female?

2) will one parent care for the fry and exclude the other? I didn't notice the larger one chasing any of the other two but they just never seemed to be around the main pile.

3) other than further careful observation is there any way to tell which two are the parents, and if not will the second smaller one cause any problems if the remaining fry become free swimming.

Sorry about all the questions, I wasn't expecting babies out of these guys yet. Its just that this is the first success I have had with any of the Julies and I am pretty excited. On top of that the dickfeldi just happen to be my favorites of the genus.

thanks
 
1) Sexing julidochromis is difficult. Some people say that females are actually larger, but I've never noticed any difference between adults. Only 100% way to sex them is, as with most cichlids, venting.


2) I've never seen much parenting behavior other than they are more defensive when it comes to their territory. Once the fry reach about 1" or so they will be seen as threats by the parents. The pair tends to stay together.

3) I'd just observe the behavior. I started out with only two adults so it was obvious to me which were the parents but in our case just look for who is defending the fry.

I love the julidochromis genus and congrats on the successful spawn!
 
i have the julidochromis transcriptus and from what i thought the female was smaller and the male bigger i could be wrong but i bought 5 of them at first they soon came to be just 3 and then i have a pair which is right now defending a nest site in my 55gal the third one was pushed to the side but was smart to stay away and now he is in the 120gal but with all julido's they are great defenders of the nest and should continue to do so in your case, but i agree with what jpap stated good job on the spawn my friend..
 
Thanks for the tips. I found about at least 7 that have so far survived and I think I know which ones are the parents so I am going to pull the third wheel out tonight.
 
Pittbull said:
i have the julidochromis transcriptus and from what i thought the female was smaller and the male bigger i could be wrong but i bought 5 of them at first they soon came to be just 3 and then i have a pair which is right now defending a nest site in my 55gal the third one was pushed to the side but was smart to stay away and now he is in the 120gal but with all julido's they are great defenders of the nest and should continue to do so in your case, but i agree with what jpap stated good job on the spawn my friend..
Click to expand...

That's what I orginally thought but I remember reading the opposite, which was news to me.

If you really want to know then venting is again the only 100% way to sex cichlids...

If you look at the underside of the fish there are two holes, the vent and the anus. The vent is towards the front of the fish, the anus behind it. A female will have a larger vent than her anus and the male's will be the same size...

o_o = male
O_o = female
 
yeah venting is fun aye, i have a magnifying glass to help me on the sexing issues with small specimens. hehehe..
 
Pittbull said:
yeah venting is fun aye, i have a magnifying glass to help me on the sexing issues with small specimens. hehehe..
Click to expand...

Oh my pittbull...:perv:

I've never tried myself but my fish don't stay still long enough to even try...
 
yeah mine freak out aye but all in all like you posted several times here on AC venting is 100% sure way of sexing a fish, so i take em out and pull their little fishy skirts up and magnify them and i wonder why my wife is always giving me the ugly eye when i do stuff like that, hehehehe.. she thinks i am weird oh well..
 
Pittbull said:
venting is 100% sure way of sexing a fish, so i take em out and pull their little fishy skirts up and magnify them and i wonder why my wife is always giving me the ugly eye when i do stuff like that, hehehehe.. she thinks i am weird oh well..
Click to expand...

What do you do? Pull their little fishy skirts up!!!:omg:!!!
Then my dear pervert friend, that's why your wife look at you with an ugly eye! :evil_lol:
 
:lol: hehehehe, i was a tad bit tired when i typed that in aye, hehehe, just me being silly with the fishies, take care buddy.. :evil_lol:
 
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