X. sp. Red Royal Kechese

[riftlake73]

I have acquired and have now bred this species for the first time.
I have never bred xeno's before. Without hatching brine shrimp, what food will these microscopic fry eat. I have tried frozen baby brine shrimp, decapsulated brine shrimp eggs and golden pearls. My origional 8 are down to 4. the dead fry look very thin.

I am keeping them in a 5.5 gallon tank with hydrosponge 2 that was cultured from the breeding tank and the water in the 5.5 gallon is from the breeding tank also. they did well for 2 weeks and now they are dwindling in numbers.

From what information I can gather this variant is hard to get a hold of and would like to make sure I breed a lot of them to keep them going in the hobby. Any information an experienced xeno breeder can give would be much appreciated. Thanks!

[Thomas Andersen]

I normally use newly hatched brine shrimps, but if I'm lazy or in a hurry I use the decapsulated brine shrimp eggs. The fry should eat the eggs without problems.

Your fry-tank is quite small, which make me think that maybe it's the water that's the problem. Xenotilapia fry are extremely sensitive to bad water quality, it only takes a few feedings with too many leftovers to cause troubles. In a tank this size you should do a partly water change every day. I've used similar small tanks for fry raising in the past, but now I'm only using at least 128 liters (app. 33 gallons). It gives much more stable water conditions, and any leftovers will not be as severe.

All the best, Thomas

[EC]

I have acquired

Kekese (Tanzania)
Kachese (Zambia)
The red flavipinnis are from Kekese.
Clean water and if you have not live food (artemia, cyclops, ostracods) cyclops-eeze is a good choice. You can use powdered (crushed) shrimps, gammarus, krill too.

Ciao Enrico