Maring ritual of common cichlids

[Rocko Buffone]

Tell me your favorite cichlids, how easy they are to breed, and how big they get

[Fish Folk]

African Mbunas: 

Melanochromis johanni -- Males are Striped Electric Blue. Females are Bright Gold. Nice contrast. They are mouth breeders. Once mature, the dominant male will spawn with all mature females. Females hold eggs that hatch into fry in their mouth for 18-24 days, and then spew them out into the tank. It's magical! 

South American Dwarf Cichlids:

Mikrogeophagus ramirezi -- There are a few different color morphs of rams, but the traditional "German Blue Ram" is still one of the most beautiful on a quality specimen. Females lay eggs on a rock, substrate, wood, or large leaf. Male fertilizes. Sometimes they will successfully raise fry in a home aquarium, but often to really raise fry, the eggs need to be pulled and hatched separately in a protected fry setup. The fry are very, very small and fragile. Quite a project to raise, but very rewarding!

 

[Rocko Buffone]

I love all those fish never owned them but want to. I have owned convicts and keyholes planning on owning a firemouth pretty soon

[Fish Folk]

Here’s a video journal we made on breeding and raising Firemouths:

 

[Brian]

My favorite I think is my next species.  Currently I only have two cichlids, Discus and Angelfish.  But if I really had to list my favorite.

01. Convicts - My first egg laying fish and I think for so many other young people.  Gave me a sense of WOW what can I try next.  And for over 50 years I have been looking for that next fish.   
 

02. My next was Jack Dempsey

03. And the Firemouth

[Nate s]

For me it is apisto cacatuoides. Only ever did livebearers and always liked dwarf cichlids and had Bolivians but never had any breeding. Decided to give apisto a shot and ordered a pair. A few weeks later they spawned and I tried first bites but they didn’t live. I waited a few weeks, fed mosquito larvae out of my outdoor pond and did a few 15% water changes with slightly cooler water and boom, they spawned again. This time I was prepared with bbs and they have now grown to be placed in other community tanks. I have a pair of orange flash and a pair of platinum reds who both spawned within a week. I have a 10 gallon with a male orange flash and female platinum and a 55 gallon with 2 male platinum and 6 female orange flash to see what the next generation will bring 

[Eric R]

I haven't kept too many, and have only had one species successfully breed so far. I'm keeping rainbow kribs, multies, apistogramma hongsloi, julidochromis ornatus, and paracyprichromis nigripinnis. The multies have been breeding pretty regularly. They are probably my favorite of the bunch, though I like nigripinnis a lot as well as can't wait for them to mature and breed. I got the paracyps and julies because I wanted to start a 55g Tang community tank with the multies as the focus in a large colony. I'm going to work on getting the apistos to breed next, probably by setting up a 10g blackwater tank with a lot of leaf litter specifically for my dominant male and single female. The multies are in the 10g that the apistos are going to go into, once the mutlies get moved into the 55g with their other tankmates. The multies breed really easily in the 10g, I have two breeding pairs and several groups of fry from each, with probably more than 30 fry total. The multies will spawn in the shells they hide in, the female "lures" the male in to fertilize the eggs, then the male has to wiggle out of the shell backwards, which is always kinda funny to watch. Then the fry hatch and stay pretty close to the shells until they are maybe 1/2"-3/4" in size. I believe that multies are the smallest species of cichlid in the world, with the males getting up to maybe 2", and the females 1", when full grown.

Edited April 29, 2021 by ererer

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

First cichlids to breed were neolamprologus brichardi - amazing parental care. Kribensis were next the colors and the courting makes all the tearing up of the tank worthwhile. 

[Johannes]

My favourite is definetly ivanacara adoketa I have a pair in my 29 gal. Havent gotten them to spawn yet but have set my hopes pretty high up but it is probably a long shot I have gotten apistos to spawn days after i bought a pair of apistos wich atre doing very well.