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Neolamprologus Multifaciatus Not Breeding


EmmaFish
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In a 20 gal tank I have sand, shells and the correct water parameters. There are 3 males and 1 female. The multis are harem fish so one male will mate with many females. I feed them small bits of frozen food every day. Why isn't the female spawning? Should I try alternating between flakes and frozen food? Are there too many males to females? Please advise me, don't know much about this fish. 

-I would also add that all four walls of the aquarium are transparent-do the fish feel insecure and that is causing them not to breed? There is a lot of human traffic around the area as well.

Edited by EmmaFish
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On 8/12/2022 at 3:14 PM, EmmaFish said:

When I got them there was pair and one baby. The female is mature, and she has had babies before but unfortunately the dominant male bullies them to death

 

Well I think you just answered your own question right there. It sounds like you may need to add some more hiding spots and shells so that they can escape the adults.

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On 8/13/2022 at 11:22 PM, EmmaFish said:

I have around 40 shells for four fish, I think that is enough...

Yeah, that's probably plenty.

What is the Ph/Gh of the water? Mine would not breed for me until I got the water about 8+ Ph.  The also prefer the water to be hard and on the warm side (78F and 82F).

I also noticed that they are not prolific breeders, with some females taking long breaks between spawns. However, once the colony reaches a certain population, there are enough females around that at least one is producing fry at any given time. My batches of fry were also small, but after some time, they just start accumulating. 

My experience with them is the same as breeding shrimp. You start with a few, they take forever to increase their numbers, then, all of a sudden, you're overrun!

I stopped breeding my mutils and sold the last of the colony about a year ago and I kind of miss them. Such a cool fish.

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I use seachem's lake Tanganyika buffer to get the ph up to about 8, and the female has had plenty of spawns before. They are such cool fish. The way they organize their colonies and watching their hierarchical disputes is amazing.

PS-I forgot to mention that I have a bunch of ramshorn snails in the tank with the multis. perhaps they're eating the eggs? I just removed them all so we'll see. 

Do you know if I can request female-only multies on Aquabid? or are the ones they're selling juveniles so its hard to tell?

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On 8/15/2022 at 5:44 PM, EmmaFish said:

Do you know if I can request female-only multies on Aquabid? or are the ones they're selling juveniles so its hard to tell?

I sold them for a few years and found sexing them to be very difficult. I would assume a male was a larger specimen, but as for anything smaller than the largest fish, I really could not determine if they were younger males or mature females.

You could always message someone listing them on AB and ask if they can send females and see what they say. That's probably worth a shot.  If not, then I'd just get 6 - 12 fish. This will increase your odds.

As for ramshorns, I was overrun with them too at one point and wondered the same thing, if the were eating eggs.  Drop a zucchini slice in the tank on a fork and leave it in there over night. In the morning, lift it out and scrape off all the ramshorns. Rinse, repeat until you have them under control.

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How recently did you set this tank up and move the fish into it? When I first got my multies, they were mature enough to spawn, but I didn't see any babies for probably close to six months. You probably won't see them spawn and the babies will be tiny slivers when they first start venturing from the shells, they are hard to spot, because as soon as movement outside the tank is noticed they dart back into the shell. 

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