Heros sp. 'Curare' - potentially the real Heros severus

[Ryan]

As many of you know, the European hobbyists take their work very seriously. There are a lot of cichlids being bred from wild stock in places like Germany and Belgium that we just don't see here. It's entirely possible that this fish has been available there. They may not feel the need to share and document everything online. Unfortunately most of those forums are not in English and so it's hard for me to follow discussions.

At any rate, I'm excited to have them here. I hope the F1 are as nice as the parents. I'd love to see people growing these out and keeping them.

[Ryan]

Quickest way to count fry? Take a still picture and use colored dots. There are 50 dots of each color (give or take a few, considering I'm sleepy and may have miscounted as I clicked) except teal of which there are 17. So it looks like 267.

[Second Hand Pat]

Pretty decent for your first spawn Ryan
Pat

[Ryan]

If she hadn't eaten half the eggs we'd have twice that.

[jmf3460]

holy crap that is a lot of fry. what a great way to count fry, I will be using this in the future.

[pitdogg2]

If she hadn't eaten half the eggs we'd have twice that.

yep and at most times they (Cichlids) are doing us an unknown favor when they eat 1/2 of them. My Festae cichlids would routinely lay thousands of eggs and most all were fertile. IF 1/2 were sucked up by the filter I still had 750 of them buggers

[Ardan]

Congratulations Ryan! I think it's a great accomplishment.


Ardan

[Ryan]

Congratulations Ryan! I think it's a great accomplishment.

Thanks, Ardan. Severums are easy. An accomplishment would be spawning discus, which I've not had the patience to follow through yet. Maybe some day.

yep and at most times they (Cichlids) are doing us an unknown favor when they eat 1/2 of them. My Festae cichlids would routinely lay thousands of eggs and most all were fertile. IF 1/2 were sucked up by the filter I still had 750 of them buggers

Yeah, I see spawns from things like oscars or jaguar cichlids and I can't imagine raising thousands of fry. Just a couple hundred is a lot to deal with in terms of the amount of brine shrimp I use, and the amount of water changes I do on grow-out tanks. I can't imagine what you'd have to do to get 750 festae fry to a healthy 2". You'd really need a ton of grow-out space. As it is, I'm looking into 6' tanks to grow these guys in.

holy crap that is a lot of fry. what a great way to count fry, I will be using this in the future.

I can't remember where I learned that trick but it was from someone here on Simply. Considering fry never stop moving it's really the easiest and most accurate way.

[Ryan]

Today marks one week free-swimming. They're going through a lot of brine. The bodies are starting to get taller and their little bars are forming.

[Solid]

Wow! Awesome job Ryan! I know you said you lost a lot of eggs, but that looks like a ton of fry to me. Good luck!

[jmf3460]

wow, that must be a ton of brine. how many times a day are you feeding? when will you start adding high quality flake or FDBW or whatever else you choose?

[Ryan]

wow, that must be a ton of brine. how many times a day are you feeding? when will you start adding high quality flake or FDBW or whatever else you choose?

They get fed maybe 4 times a day, but I always add extra brine and they graze on it. It lives in fresh water for several hours. I can see it wiggling around on the bottom of the tank.

I start adding in micro-pellets when they're about 4 weeks old. I also use scissors to shave frozen bloodworms and beefheart occasionally.

[Discus-n00b]

Very cool, nice swarm of fry there. Sounds to me like you need to setup some nice long concrete vats in the backyard down there in sunny warm florida haha

[Ryan]

Very cool, nice swarm of fry there. Sounds to me like you need to setup some nice long concrete vats in the backyard down there in sunny warm florida haha

A few of the local cichlid dealers do raise their fish in vats, and they even suggested I get a kiddie pool with floating lilies for my backyard to raise them out. I'm just afraid the birds and racoons will get them. But I'd love to raise them outdoors; the sunshine does wonders for their colors.

The pair is at it again today.

[Second Hand Pat]

That pair is simply beautiful. Love the colors. Maybe greenhouse netting will keep the birds and coons out.
Pat