Tilapia ruweti

[Nebraska_cichlids]

I finally got a spawn from my second pair of T. ruweti. The other pair had spawned three times earlier this year, but didn't do well protecting the eggs. I didn't take a chance with the pair that spawned now and transferred about 2/3 of the eggs into an egg tumbler. There is a small group of microsynodontis in the same tankl and I was worried they'd eat the majority of the eggs over night. Let's hope the eggs in the tumbler will hatch!

 

[viejo]

I could only get offspring from my Ruweti (1970's) by pulling spawns as I recall. If memory serves, their parental skills were somewhat underwhelming. You may find some info in old BB's, they were being referred to as 'microtilapia' @ that time..

 

[Nebraska_cichlids]

Larry: "Underwhelming" is quite an understatement. My other pair actually ate their own eggs after the first two spawns. I learned my lesson and pulled the eggs from the third spawn, and now again for the first spawn by the second pair. Ruweti is actually one of my favorite Tilapia; the stay small, leave plants alone, and color up really nicely.

Janos

 

[Nebraska_cichlids]

...this one is for Jeff

Jeff, I hate to rub it in, but my second pair of ruweti spawned again today. I pulled the eggs tonight.:biggrin: I wouldn't blame you if you decided to pull out of our sabinae breeding contest.:wink:

 

[aquaticclarity]

Let's see who's laughing when I send you the male sabinae that got a little to close to the xray machine when I stop by the dentist...

 

[cornbread_5]

hey I just picked up about five of these guys can you guys give a little back ground on this fish

 

[Nebraska_cichlids]

Jeff, I should still be able to get him going.

Cornbread, I'm heading to work now, but will provide some information tonight.

 

[Nebraska_cichlids]

Here's what I do (nothing special, really). I purchased a group of five from Mark Denaro a while back. He got them from a breeder in Germany. Two fish paired off while I was holding the group in a small (10G) quarantine tank and spawned three times. The first two times they ate all their eggs before I could react. The third time I caught them in the act and pulled as many eggs as I could. I managed to raise 11 fry off that spawn and passed them on to two other hobbyists. The water temperature in all my ruweti tanks is 26 degrees Celsius (sand as substrate, driftwood, plants, rocks, clay pots). After the third spawn I moved the mated pair into a 20G long and continued to use a 50/50 mix of tap and RO water. I transferred the remaining three fish to another 20G long with plain tap water. Two fish paired off and killed the surplus male. This pair spawned twice recently. The first pair shares its tank with 8 Phenacogrammus caudomaculatus; the second pair with 5 or 6 microsynodontis cf. batesii.

I like to give Jeff a hard time about this species but, honestly, I don't think he is doing anything differently compared to what I am doing. (Jeff, don't misconstrue this statement as if I said you know what you are doing)

It's a really great species to keep: small size, colorful, don't mind plants or other fish. I believe that Tony Orso got a large shipment of them along with the T. cf. deckerti that Anton sent my way.