Raising calvus fry

Anyone here been successful raising calvus or comp fry? I could use any tips or personal experience.  

This afternoon I decided to do an extra big water change and cleaning on my calvus tank.  I got the water swirling around from under the rocks to make sure I vacuumed up debris that was hidden under there.  I was siphoning out what I thought was some poop and notice some of it moving in ways poop shouldn't be moving.  They were fry!    I had no idea they had spawned and I feel so bad for getting them all stirred up and even siphoning some of them out into the yard.   

I caught a few that were scattered around the tank and put them in a breeder box because I had read that the parents might eat them after they are free swimming. I saw a few more still in the tank, but the adults don't seem to be interested in them.  

I'll do some more reading to figure out what to do next, but I know that it's difficult to get the fry to survive through the first couple of weeks.  

I feel terrible for not noticing the spawn.

Adding some pictures.   

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The fry are tiny!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

omg they are cute i want some!

If they spawn again and I don't accidentally kill them all the next time, you can have some fishyladdy. (They are very slow growers though!)

I believe Bassettman has bred his a few times hopefully he chimes in

Madness wrote:I believe Bassettman has bred his a few times hopefully he chimes in

  

best tresults for me have been to siphon off the fry in the wiggler phase. place them in a fry tank and feed with decap brineshimp or freeze dry cyclops. keep the water super clean . i use a Hob filter with an ati sponge filter grafted to the intake. good luck .

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Thank you bassetman.  I have them in a breeder box for now because every fry tank is full of something else right now.    I'll see if I can get some cyclops.  I've got First Bites and frozen bbs on hand, but they don't seem to be interested in that yet.  

This morning I found about 30 of them in the front corner of the tank and went ahead and put them in the breeder box.  I'm curious about whether or not the adults will eat the babies if I leave them in the tank?

Yes they will eat them sometimes. Ken's fish has the cyclops they need really tiny food at first. Try to avoid temp and water change temp swings. In two weeks they are pretty tough but easy to loose the batch in the first weeks.

Knocking on wood -- it's still early, but they are alive and some of them are starting to show interest in the bbs and First Bites.  I don't know if I'll order any food for this batch, but will look into it if they spawn again.  

I think I'll do small water changes daily to avoid any drastic changes, but they did survive that very turbulent 80% water change I did when I first discovered them.   

Bassetman, did yours spawn in that cichlid stone in the picture?

Yes their favorite spot. When the female disappear and the male guards the door eggs are inside.

I think I'll add a cichlid stone to the tank.  I have a couple of shells in there right now and that's what they used to spawn in this time.

An update...
Most of the babies are still alive and still in the breeder box.  I've also seen two others living in the tank.  The adults don't seem to have any interest in them.  It's a good thing they are slow growers because I haven't figured out where I'm going to put them. I added some cherry shrimp and baby plecos to eat left over food in the breeder box.  

Even though they don't move too much, I still have a tough time getting any pictures in focus.  

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

That is awesome. Congrats on the babies. Calvus are one of my favorite Africans. If they only grew bigger....

DMD123 wrote:That is awesome. Congrats on the babies. Calvus are one of my favorite Africans. If they only grew bigger....

Didn't you have a small tank around?   

For now a growout.... future plans, who knows?

It has always amazed me to see pics of calus 'yawning', they remind me of the basket mouthed predatory fishes who suck down prey with no problem. In nature I guess they can get into pretty tight crevices to eat the fry of other fish. Very cool fish!

Great job raising those up Betty...as I understand they are hard to grow out due to slowness and being small. They are looking great!

I need to find my some Calvus to replace the 3 that I killed when I tore my sons tank down after the house flooded. Left them in the bucket to long.   

But they grow painfully slow, his were easily almost 3 years old and the largest was his white which was barely 3". Would love to find some that are already around that size.

Wow, I heard they were slow growers but that is real slow. The Wet Spot sells .75" to 1" on line for $11, with that slow a growth rate a 3" one would cost a pretty penny.

And why do I know the cost of Calvus on line you ask? Been looking at all types of things for the future of my 40B.   

calvus are KOOOOL. I like them and Fronts, that is it.

I like those and the Cyrtocara moorii (blue dolphin moorii). But that is a secret no one is supposed to know.

Donna, they do take a lot of patience since they are such slow growers.  I got these in a group buy on this forum a long, long time ago.  Seems like it's been forever.

DMD, not a clear picture, but this is probably what you mean?  They are always doing this.  
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Madness, I used to have a D. compressiceps.  They kind of remind me of calvus only much bigger. Very cool with a narrow compressed body and big mouth. You should like them too.    
I wish I had a way to make these calvus grow faster and you could take some.  They are the white chaitika.

In this picture, you can see the fry on the rock.  Adults don't seem to care.  
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I still hold my breath every time I go check on them; afraid that they will start dying for some reason.

Betty wrote:
DMD, not a clear picture, but this is probably what you mean?  They are always doing this.  
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Yep, thats it.

Recent pics.  
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Not sure what I'm going to do with these.  They are outgrowing their nursery and I don't have room for any more tanks.  

Sell them to fishboxers who keeps african cichlids.

SiRWesDragon wrote:Sell them to fishboxers who keeps african cichlids.

There are so few of us left.  

They are out there just now advertising it or log on. I'm still in african cichlids just through my friend denizaari. I know freddieb and NYK are african cichlid keepers.

They have grown up nicely Betty. Beautiful little fish and great job on your part raising them up.

At what point do they develop the classic shape? They dont really exhibit the tall body typical of the adult yet. These are one of my all time favorite Africans. Still goes back to the fact they are so little is what holds me back.

Looking great Betty. I am sure you mentioned it already but what type of Calvus are they? I would be interested in about 3 for my son. In the flood and the transfer of the tanks, he took the biggest hit. His tank is the only African tank and I had no where to put up another tank, so I asked DRD and he housed them for me. But in all the transferring and bucket living until they got there and then when they returned, he lost 6 fish. a WC black Calvus WC white Calvus a compressisep,Tangerine tiger male, a blue eyed brichardi thing, and something else

I'm not sure how long it takes, but a friend's comp took about 6 - 7 months to start getting that adult shape. These are really slow growers!

Madness, they are white (Chaitika). If you have a small tank to grow them out, you are welcome to some. They are tiny little things right now.