I am trying to do my own breeding project & need as much help as i can get. I am first thinking of starting with Cichlids from Lake Malawi. I would also like to know what size tank is ideal? My filtration system is designed for 5000 Litres/1320 Gallons. kimmy

Welcome to CH, geelite! Welcome!!

Do you have a species in mind that you would like to breed?

The intensity of the aggression level for a particular species would play a huge part in specifying what size tank you would need, not to mention the full adult sizes of the species.

Are you wanting to set up single species breeder tanks? Do you have room for the grow out tanks necessary to raise the fry/ juvies to a "sellable" size?

Or are you wanting to set up a "community" tank with more than one species?

All Malawi mouthbrooders are harem breeders, which means you will need several females to each male of a species. The aggression and territorial levels of the different males will dictate how many females you will need. Some of the more passive species can be kept as trios of one male to 2 females, while some of the more aggressive species will require 5 or so females to each male, and larger tanks!

These fish are very territorial, especially the males, and will claim sections of the "footprint" of the tank as their own.

Many of them can be successfully bred in 40G tanks, while others will require more space. Ultimately, it will be all about the species you choose to breed.

Kim

Welcome to Cichlid Haven!

Kim covered the waterfront very well (as usual!) on this issue.

Another thing to factor in (besides how many species, space for grow-out tanks etc. as Kim wrote) is how much of your time you want to take.

I really love breeding Malawi cichlids. When I'm working 40-50 hours a week it's a great hobby.

But now that I've been working 80-hour weeks, every time I have a holding female I go through this internal dialogue (which I keep going through with a Cop. Azureus in my 33L this week):

"All right!!! She's holding!"

"God, I'm working long hours and I'm going to have to tear the tank apart to chase her down and get her into an isolation tank."

"My 6 gallon fry tanks are both full of fry right now. I'll have to put her in a breeder net."

"But adults can pick fry through a breeder net. I have to transfer my two 6G of fry into my free 12G so I can put her in a 6G. But I wanted to use my 12G to separate out some juvie Haps from my juvie Peacocks. And I'm dead tired tonight."

And so on. I look at my baby Lab. Hongi, Yellow Labs, Albino Socolofi and Ps. Acei every day and feel great about having bred them. It's good, though, to go into it with eyes open about the time. And you noticed I never mentioned water changes for that many tanks... because I'm always behind schedule.

Hope this helps!

Don

WoW i didnt realize that i would get a reply that fast, just wish i can get an email telling me that.

The Cichlids i am going to start with are Pseudotropheus saulosi, Labidochromis caeruleus “yellow” , which i am going to be placing in my home aquarium which is over 200 Gallon. But my other BIG project is going to be done in another location behind my house which has the 5000 Liter/1320 Gallon Filtration System. I am also thinking of breeding other easy fish and popular to sell, like Angelfish and whatever i can find out about. This is where i need to build multiple tanks.

I will be giving my project all my time, since i recently had a bad car accident and cant continue my usual job. So i'm hoping to breed and sell fish to LFS's and hopefully then start my own online store.

Plus Wet Pets has always been my passion, i have been into SW Tanks now for around 10 Years. Hope i didnt forget anything.

Cheers!!!

Welcome Geelite

First off Im gonna say is slow down.You need to get experienced with Africans first before you set yourself up in a breeding facility for them.You may find that without proper knowledge and understanding your endevour may not be as fufilling as it should.

I have been breeding Cichlids from Malawi for some time now and have set up a specific plan for my practice.I only breed Wild Caughts and I bring in stuff that is not found around these areas.This was my goal and I truly think you need to plan what you want and what your goals are for your breeding program.Be prepared for losses! You need alot of patience!Breeding fish is not a huge money maker so dont go in thinking that your gonna get rich.More than likely no.It cost alot of money to run a breeding facility.When I first started for example I was running heaters and filters in every tank!Well after three $700 hydro bills in a row let me tell you that things quickly changed in my fishroom.Now I heat the room not the tanks and I run a central air blower system.Is your facilty ready for that or something of the like?


All I would like you to do is make sure you know what you are doing before hand.Get experience and ask alot of questions here at CH as I am not the only breeder here.Alot of us have large fishrooms and have been in the cichlid hobby for many years.I would be more than happy to share more of my experiences with you at any time if you need it.

I dont want to discourage you from this but if you do all this work set up all these tanks and then fill them full of fish and you get hybrids,death,disease etc .Well let me tell you that it will be very discouraging at that point and have cost you alot of money in doing so.You can avoid this by taking your time and doing some research


All the best

Derek

derek is right, slow down! lol. you definetly need to think of doing a plan for yourself, and ask as many questions on the species you like as possible and do your research!
As far as labs and saulosi, they could very well interbreed and hybridise, and the fry would look identical until they started to mature.
If your thinking of doing a fishroom up, let us know all the information you have so we can help you, i.e how big is your room, how much you are wanting to spend etc. options are limitless, but there are definetly better ways in doing this.
I would recamend for breeding purposes, have multiple small tanks 50-75g each, and keep only one species in each. then have multiple small 5-30g tanks to grow out the fry.
As far as recamending fish, malawi fish have a wide range of needs, and breeding capability ranges. All the fish are breedable, but some much easier then others. Labidochromis caruleus "electric yellows" will breed in a toilet as far as im concerned. they are just about the easiest fish to breed from malawi lol, but you will never have a hard time selling them, but for cheep. Then you have your larger haps/peacocks, they dont breed as easily, require much larger tanks/ratios. they are harder to breed but when they do, you have mouthfuls of 30-100, and can sell the fish for a little bit more. They aere often better kept in larger groups, thus huge tanks. I have 2 hap colonies on my breeding project: Group of 14 adult Fossochromis Rostratus and 18 adult Chilotilapia Euchilus. These are best bred in larger groups where as mbuna are easily bred in pairs/trios, but the more the merier. I use to breed saulosi in a group of 5 and they did great, or peacocks usually in groups of under/around 10.
There are tons of little keys to breeding each fish, so ask away and we will be glad to answer any questions. Trust me, there are a few people on here that have been keeping these cichlids for a long time now, and know quite a bit!
Brad

Wow, those are big tanks! My biggest right now is a 55 and I'm just getting my 150.

Hope you recover fully from your accident soon. And that carrying all those heavy buckets isn't any risk to your health.

Once again, welcome to Cichlid Haven!

Don

Thanks to all of you guys for the advice. As for my health it is much better, have now finished with the physio so i'm 95 % back whoot whoot

I have been breeding SW Clownfish for a few years so i dont think Malawi's gonna be harder then that.

My filteration system is a central type & fully loaded. It has all of the highest range of equipments....

1) 2 x Re-gassing/Trickling Bio-Towers with 70 Liter Bio-Rings Media each.
2) 1 x Fluidised Sand Filter with 15 KG of Oolitic Coral Sand.
3) 8 x 55watts UV Sterilizers so 440watts Total.
4) 4 x Filter Bags Medium 400 Micron which i will replace every week.
5) 1 x System Controller
6) 2 x Custom Auto Wash Kits
7) 1 x Sander Ozone Generator S500 adjustable up to 500mg/hr
8) 1 x Etatron REDOX Monitor/Controller with Probe
9) 1 x TMC Nitrate Filter with 25KG of Sulphar for Dentirification
10) 1 x pH/ORP Monitor
11) 1 x 750 Liter Sump/Pallet Reservoir
12) 1 x Teco Water Conditioner with built in Chiller/Heater/UV-C/Thermometer w/Probe

I will be drilling all my tanks fishy

Wow impressive setup Geelite!I am sure your saltwater experience is much harder than a Malawian but they are different and you need to find out and appreciate those differences as each has their own set of challanges.Where saltwater demands pristine water conditions Malawians do not and although you may have the best intentions with all this equipment if the fish get use to having this type of water condition and then go to a store or hobbiest home where they dont have a setup like yours well you may end up with a bunch of overly stressed out cichlids that feel like they are now swimming in a sewer compared to what they grew up in.Stress leads to many diseases and then all it takes is someone to say in your area " Ohhh I bought these fish from Geelite and they were all diseased"then you get that reputation even though you have the best water conditions and it is actually their fault.That wont matter.

In my setup heres what I use

1 3/4hp Gast blower
Airlines running to tanks between 10- 120 gals
sponge filters in each tank
silica sand(even in the fry growouts)
Coral rock to keep my PH at 7.8


I do a water change per week with temp avg around 77 degrees.As I said earlier I heat my room so the bottom tanks are around 77 and the top tanks(fry tanks) are around 80.My room is well insulated and has a dehumidifier running 24/7.I run aprox 50 tanks on my blower and I have room for another 30-50 more outlets on this if I wanted to.I feed a high quality food and my cichlids love it.I have never to date ran into a problem(knock on wood)with a complaint about my stock quality with this type of setup.Although I do have to admit that my tanks are not always the cleanest as sponge filters really dont remove Dietrus and debris like a HOB or central system.I need this type of setup due to the wild caughts
i bring in and that way I can contain any incoming diseases to one tank

Now this works for me and may or may not work for you.Perhalps your water requires that type of setup i dont know.My advice to you is that if you are going to go into multi tank breeding of Cichlids is "Keep it simple"Im always looking for ways to make things easier even to this day.Ask Brad, Larry, Klaus, Discus Hans or any of the other major breeders here and Im sure you will get the same advice

All the best

Derek

Hi Finsofafrica,

Thank you for that good advice the Clap my friend... i will look into to things more and will carry on with advice and research as i have been doing for the past 2 months, i feel my brains are gonna explode from reading roll eyes

Well, Derek, having kept both SW and FW tanks, I have to totally disagree with you on this!

Salt water systems (if set up properly) are pretty self contained, and basically consist of topping off the tank from evaporation, and minimal water changes.

My water in my freshwater tanks is always "cleaner" or more "pristine" than my saltwater tanks.

Granted, the chemistry involved in maintaining the tanks is different, but IMO, anyone who has kept SW first is very well prepared for keeping freshwater!

I do agree that research is important, though, and that alot of thought should be given to exactly where you want to go with your breeding project, geelite! It apears that you are doing just that. It's a great hobby and can be somewhat rewarding financially if you do it right.

You don't have to have wild fish, just quality fish, and your reputation will build itself from there!

Good luck! Good Job

Kim

I agree with what you mentioned in your reply Kim the Clap the Clap the Clap
and had the same kind of idea and thought Good Job

Kim I agree with you as well! lol

Im not saying that one is harder than the other but what I am saying is that the differences need to be noticed and respected.If they are not then certainly failure will follow.We dont want anyone to have that happen here if we can all help it.

And indeed you dont need to have Wilds to have good fish.(this is another debate)but like I said too much differences in water condions between breeder and store or hobbiest and it wont matter the quality of stock you have.And that is my point.Althought Cichlids are a very hardy fish for the most part can can handle a wide range of conditions.But that being said the less stress the better In my opinion


Geelite

It took me 2 years of reading and research before I had my plan down and it changes daily!! 2 months and counting for you! Good luck and like I said ask alot here on CH as youlll get plenty of opinions here!

Well construction on my project has started. I will post pix and updates soon Bouncy

Sounds good, geelite, you know we like pics. Good Job

kimmy Ok i should have posted this here instead of somewhere else dumb dumb

Fishroom breeders, can you guys tell me a good size tanks for breeding and fry??? I need some info for my breeding fishroom thingy. I was thinking of making them all in the same size. This is what i was thinking 80cm (L) x 40cm (W) x 50cm (H) = 160 Liters. For the fry i was thinking of adding few partitions, 4 pieces of glass to make each section 40 liters (10.56 Gallons).

I have a 5000 Liter Central Filtration fully loaded Bouncy

Tank Sizes in Inches - 31.49 (L) x 15.74 (W) x 19.68 = 42.26 Gallons

:Help!:

kimmy ANYBODY????? Hello Gimme an A!