Parachromis Friedrichsthalii - Aquarium Care - Breeding

Breeding

Breeding can be achieved with very little effort and no specific requirements are needed for breeding purposes. As long as water conditions are maintained at a desirable high quality, a breeding pair of such fish will readily spawn. To enhance the likelihood of acquiring a breeding pair, purchase several healthy and active juveniles at a young age (between 6 -10) and grow these specimens until sexual maturity. Generally, you should be left with a breeding pair or two. These fish will noticeably become more aggressive and territorial, Remove all other fish at this point and keep the newly formed breeding pair separate. When a breeding pair had been successfully established, the male will begin to court the female by displaying his erect finnage to the female as he tries to impress her in an attempt for her to accept his mating invitation. The pair will begin to clean a flat surface if the female is responsive of the male's previous courting behavior. The female will then lay approximately 500 - 1000 orange coloured eggs which will then be fertilized by the male. The eggs will be ferociously guarded by both parents and a high degree of parental care is show to the eggs and fry. When the eggs 'hatch' after approximately 2 –3 days, the offspring (known as wrigglers at this stage in development) are defenseless and are unable to swim. They are often transported to pre dug pits by both parents, and are guarded. The fry will begin to swim in approximately 3–4 days and should be fed with baby brine shrimp or alike. If you choose to remove the fry from the parents, feed them baby brine shrimp until the stage where they are large enough to consume blood worm, daphnia and other live foods. However, removing the fry can interrupt the breeding cycle and cause the male to want to spawn again with the female before she is ready, and the male may injure or kill the female while attempting to force her to spawn. Since P. friedrichsthallii is not yet widely established in the aquarium hobby, it can be important not to mix fish from different localities when breeding. For example, there is a race endemic to Cenote Escondido near Tulum, Mexico that should not be breed with fish from other areas. Consequences from inbreeding fish are not as severe as those that occur when other animals are inbreed and are usually not noticeable until after many generations of inbreeding.