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Anyone keeping Julidochromis?

tjudy

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Stoughton, WI
I have three species right now: J. transcriptus 'Bemba', J. ornatus (tank strain) and J. regani (also a tank strain). The J. transcriptus and J. ornatus are spawning regularly now, but the J. regani will not pop. Not sure why. They are adults and the pairs I have set up are not killing each other, so they are most likely pairs. Anyone have any ideas?
 

slimbolen99

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Shawnee, KS
Both people I have gotten mine from have said that they take a while, and once they do spawn, NOT to rearrange their tank, or else they won't spawn again. Did you get them as adults? I wonder if that's what has happened? Don't know why, but it seems to be true. I had mine for almost two years and NOTHING while everything around them were breeding like rabbits.
 

ed seeley

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Nottingham, UK
Transcriptus and ornatus are smaller species whereas the regani are one of the two larger species - maybe they're just not mature yet? BTW I'm sure you know but be very careful when removing the babies or you can get a messy divorce!

I've never kept Julies though so this is just an educated guess. I've stuck to other lamprologines instead. Breeding N.helianthus and 'L'.meeli at the moment.
 

jmtrops

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109
they take longer to mature than the smaller julies and a 30 gallon tank is ok I think it is the smallest I would try spawning the in and have had the best results in a 50 breeder or 55.
 

tjudy

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I got them as adults. The largest 'pair' has a female that is at least 5" and the male is about 4". In the other group the fish are slightly smaller.
 

jmtrops

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5 Year Member
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109
Did the group grow up together? they wild fish? If they are just a group of adults that were put together as adults that would explain the difficulty. also at that size you cant tell how old they are unless you got them from someone who grew them up. My guess is you need to be very paciant with them.
 

gerald

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Location
Wake Forest NC, USA
I've got J.ornatus and transcriptus (inbred for 20-ish years but no apparent problems) and even when they're breeding I cant tell sexes. I have doubts whether size is a good indicator. Among mine it's usually the smaller fish that stays in the spawning cave more. Since you've only had them four months - might just take more time for them to settle in. I dont know whether two female Julies might "pair off" like angelfish and some other cichlids will sometimes do.

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jmtrops

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5 Year Member
Messages
109
Size along with behavior is a good indicator of sexes. the regani is the only one that could be considered harder to spawn from the others. regani is also the biggest of the julis too so I would expect a more noticable size difference in sexes. Of the julies the ornatus has the least size difference in sexes from what Ive seen. ted Im sure your regani will spawn just dont fuss over them keep the water clean and feed them good and dont change the rock work.
 

gerald

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1,491
Location
Wake Forest NC, USA
Jim - Are females "generally" larger than males in all Juli species ? I've been assuming (with ornatus and transcriptus) the parent that spends more time in or around the spawning cave (usually the smaller fish) was the mother. Not so?
 

jmtrops

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5 Year Member
Messages
109
I believe the smaller one is the females but I have not sexed a lot of pairs to be 100%. normally I start with a group and pick out the outcast until I only have the pair left so I dont normally care which fish is the male and which is the female. remember that size is not a 100% indicator because in a group the most dominate fish will tend to bigger than the rest so the small ones may not be all one sex but just the the least dominate.
 

ed seeley

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Nottingham, UK
Females are generally supposed to be the larger, especially in the two larger species but I agree with the post above that it's not always the best indicator, especially in species that aren't sexually dimorphic.
 

Larry Rogers

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5 Year Member
Messages
91
I have three species right now: J. transcriptus 'Bemba', J. ornatus (tank strain) and J. regani (also a tank strain). The J. transcriptus and J. ornatus are spawning regularly now, but the J. regani will not pop. Not sure why. They are adults and the pairs I have set up are not killing each other, so they are most likely pairs. Anyone have any ideas?
I have always had better luck with julidochromis in schools in a biotope tank. They like rock formations with lots of caves. Small spaces must be provided for fry to hide until about an inch in length. They will move out with the parents then and a fish trap is the only way to remove them without disturbing breeding.
 

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