WC Hemichromis Fasciatus lake Volta

[will i am]

Here's a vid of my Hemichromis Fasciatus pair. This was at the beggining of this year.

 

[MickeM]

Nice!!!
Quite productive !!!
Thanks for sharing!!!

 

[Ekona]

I count 1, 058.5 fry, anyone is more than welcome to check that

 

[will i am]

Nice!!!
Quite productive !!!
Thanks for sharing!!!

Productive at laying eggs, yes. Getting these these to a decent size is a different story. They start killing each other at .75-1". Then there is alway 1 fry that will double the size of the others, when this happens, it'll just starting eating fry probably around 5 per day. This species is pretty insane!

 

[will i am]

It's been quite a while! My female hasn't had a WC H. Fasciatus male for quite some time now. She's killed 2 so far. Just got her paired up this morning so I'm hoping this male can handle her.

 

[MickeM]

I guess "the small dither-fishes" will have a hard time soon..!!!
Thanks for sharing!!
(I am considering to buy Cichlasoma festae + Vieja argentea soon.. I can`t help myself
, I just want them!!!)

 

[will i am]

I guess "the small dither-fishes" will have a hard time soon..!!!
Thanks for sharing!!
(I am considering to buy Cichlasoma festae + Vieja argentea soon.. I can`t help myself
, I just want them!!!)

Already gave away like 2 8" umbees that were in here. I'll have to remove them soon.

I vote Festae!!! Just love that species. Unfortunately, the 5 spots keep most of my tanks occupied. I had a nice looking F1 pair. Unfortunately, Zeus killed them while i was away on a business trip.

Keep us updated on what you get!

 

[MickeM]

"Unfortunately, the 5 spots keep most of my tanks occupied"..

I can see why!!! They are awesome!!..

The 1st video is like yoga to me!!

 

[will i am]

"Unfortunately, the 5 spots keep most of my tanks occupied"..

I can see why!!! They are awesome!!..

The 1st video is like yoga to me!!

It's been such a journey with this species. Since there is very little information on them, I had to learn everything from trial and error. My female in this vid actually killed 2 WC males. She out grew them and took me a while to figure out what was happening. Keeping enough tanks to raise an individual fish to 8-9" and being a H. Fasciatus is a task in it's self.
I had to pull this male out of the tank probably around 60 times due to almost killing my female. Dividers didn't work because he'd just kill all the fry that swam through. I'm sure taking him out stressed him quite a bit and stunted his growth, eventually Widow out grew him and wouldn't pair back up. I didn't have a tank with huge SA/CA cichlids around 15" to throw them into and try to have them build their bond again. I was about to give up on her. I tried to pair them 3 times prior to this video. She whooped him every time. Have them in a divided 90g for a few months.

Crazy thing is, I believe it's the female who starts the fights with the males in this species (seen this in Elongatus as well). I ended coming home one day and happen to just peak around the corner at the tank. Female was fanning eggs and flaring up at male. She was even attacking him. After about 10min, he opened up a can of you know what on her. I was dumb founded that i was pulling the male out the whole time if the female was the one starting all the fights.
I wish i could confirm, but I believe in the wild habitat, the female guards the eggs and the male doesn't go anywhere near her at all. This would make a ton of sense from what I've witnessed with this species. Info so rare!!!

 

[MickeM]

Thanks for all nice info.. !!

Some times(quite often) I`ve gotten aggressive behaviours on many Cichlids when changing large amounts of water .. it changes the EC I guess? (and
also the TDS and other parameters..)
"My" theory is that this cause a kick in the "spawning-hormones" .. and often create serious behavioural "issues" between the spawning/"guarding" pair..
So maybe this is something to adjust..and think of..if possible.. Maybe not change too much water the first 2 weeks when/after eggs are layed or fry are hatched ??? It might set the male in a new spawning mood and resulting in increased female defense behaviours..since she is not willing to start spawning again+ wonders what the heck the male is focusing on all of a sudden???? (Hmmm..I recognise this..!!?? )
Maybe this creates a clash between male/female instincts so to speak..? (if it is not a behaviour which is normal for this species????)

But ofcourse you are probably having some problems with the "natural" guarding behaviour in the tank..
Who can create the "correct" area similar to what they normaly need/use in the wild..?..and also.. then with some dither-fishes who may/can survive and escape from their natural aggression.. it would demand a larger pond of some kind!!!??

 

[MickeM]

.. One other thing...
Will you get more "survivers" of the fry if you fill the whole tank with Java-moss(Vesicularia ) or any similar plant??
This is often the case with fry of the killi-fishes..(since they probably are having very well-developed teeth already when being young!!??)
So.... when creating sight-barriers with all the plants.. the dominant fishes/fry can not see all the others..and therefore do not chase+bite them
as much as in a non-planted tank!!!
It may be worth to try??

 

[will i am]

Very good insight! I do weekly water changes at no more than 30%. When fry fry are feeding, I bump up water changes to 2-3 times a week. If I remember correctly, when spawning a pair will defend an area of up to 20 yards. Obviously I'd need a pool to actually witness this.
From the time of fertilization, the male just kinda hides in a corner, barred up like he's stressed, sometimes almost full black. I always thought there was something wrong with him. The female is the main aggressor. I couldn't even clean the glass with a scrubbing stick. She attacked that thing so much, her whole mouth would be raw. Even had to keep my daughter from getting within 10' of the tank. She would fly at full speed trying to bite her and hit the glass so hard.
I have been told from a pretty reliable source that I'm the wild, they only pair up for breeding season.
As far as plants go, if you look at any of my vids when o first got them, I had plants all over the place! Love plants!!! They just ad that extra visual that a tank needs to make it look natural. After these guys tearing them all up, including Anubis I had seeded to logs for over a year, I gave up because they can get real spendy. I'd still love to have some plants in all my tanks, I may muster up the strength to try again.

Fry, boy oh boy. I've never seen anything like it. These guys are just born with an urge to kill. I tried transporting fry to another tank to raise, the aggression starts around half an inch instead of an inch. I was loosing 5-7 fry per day with the tank in my garage with the lights out for more than half the day. Turn on the lights and just like boy oh boy. I have seen another fish like them.
When kept with their parents, aggression starts around an inch. The dominant fry will outgrow the others at an astonishing rate. Sometimes doubling its size within 2 weeks. I'd come home and it would have such a fat belly, you could actually see the out lines of the fry ik it's stomach. Ok, pull it out. Not even within 5 min, the 2nd in command steps up and takes its place.
I literally was at the point of giving them away. Very, very tough to raise. Wish I had a spare 180g to raise them in.
A majority of people have kept Hemichromis Frempongi and think they're aggressive. On an aggression scale compared to Hemichromis Fasciatus, id put a Hemichromis Frempongi at a 5 and Hemichromis Fasciatus at a 10.

Truly an amazing fish. You have to own one to believe it.

 

[will i am]

Finally! Took a whole lot of work but well worth it.

 

[will i am]

Free swimmers.

 

[will i am]

Quick update.

 

[will i am]

Fry are huge now! Right around 2". Vid is of 2 different sets of fry I have going right now.

 

[atmagoulick]

Congratulations