Hi, I think the species you are referring to is probably C. synspilus, A
beauriful large species of cichlid of Central America. Finding a good breeding
pair is quite difficult, however, once a pair have bred successfully they are
quite prolific, this should be taken into consideration when attempting to breed
as they fry are fast growing and will need a huge amount of tank space to grow
properly, stunting and high mortality will otherwise occur.
The problems you are encountering can be due to several factors, it may be that
the eggs are not being fertilised, this could be due to incomptabilty, or, this
not bieing uncommon in Cichlids, in fact you have 2 females! It is not uncommon
for a subdominant female to take on the 'male' role.
However, there could be other factors, if the eggs are disappearing then it
almost certainly dur to them being eaten. This will only stop as and when the
fish 'learn' to guard the eggs. It is also imprtant that once eggs are laid
there is minimum disturbance as this increases the egg-eating tendency.
If after a few days the eggs are white, this is due to 'fungussing' an
indication that the fish are are tending the eggs properly, they should be
picking up the eggs and basically cleaning them in their mouths and spitting
them back into place. If the eggs dur fungus then they will no longer adhere to
the nest site and simply drop into the substrate, hence the disappearance.
The use of artificial hatching is a common practice. It will require a seperate
tank, will good but not powerful filtration, a high water flow is not needed. If
the eggs are laid on a removable surface, this should be removed and placed
vertically into the rearing tank, directly below this an airstome needs to be
place so that there is a constant flow of water over the eggs, this will help to
prevent the eggs fungussing. Should the eggs hatch the airstone can be removed.
The fry will require feeding withinn a day or two of hatching and as much tank
space as can be provided, a 48" tank just for the fry is not exceptional!!
within a matter of a few weeks if the hatching is large, say 50+ the fry will
need thinning again.
As you can see the breeding of such a potentially large fish is no small
undertaking and whilst it is nice to successfully breed fish at home, you really
do need to be fully aware of the amount of work involved in this.
I hope that the above has been useful to you, and perhaps to any others thinking
of breeding the larger Cichlid species.
Steve

The greatest rewards are those least likely to make you rich



----- Original Message ----
From: j390170 <jim@...>
To: tropicalaquaria@...
Sent: Sunday, 13 May, 2007 10:22:04 AM
Subject: [Tropical Aquaria] Breeding chiclasoma syphilis

Hi All

Please can someone advise, I have a male and female " Red/Pink belly
chiclasoma syphilis" and they have been together for one and half
years now. In the last 4 months the female has laid eggs 3 times, and
then they keep watch over then until they turn a White colour.

Thye male is about 18 inches, and the female is about 12 inches nose
to tail.

It seems that after about 5/6 days all the eggs just dissapear, so I
am thinking that they must eat them.

There is nothing else in the tank so it must be them that are doing
the eating!!!

Should I take the eggs out early? And place them in a net enclouser
or something.

We would really like to see if we could get young out of them.

If anyone has any ideas please advise.

Regards

Jim








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