The Sweet Spot! (Parachromis dovii spawn)

Discussion about cichlids from Central America

The Sweet Spot! (Parachromis dovii spawn)

Postby TheFishGuy » Tue Jan 11, 2011 12:06 pm

You know how on a grill there seems toe be a sweet spot, the spot where everything seems to cook perfectly... Well it seems I've got a sweet spot in my fish room:

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That disgusting looking tank is my bottom right custom 70 gallon tank. It's 51" long, 20" front to back and 18" tall. They were from a fish store that had gone out of business. I have four up and running and am planning on buying a few more from a friend. I've also got two broken ones outside behind the barn and one that's been completely taken apart to use to fix the other two.

There's 7 dovii in this tank, six males and a female. The largest male 6"ish is the one guarding the eggs from all of the others including the female.

I fully intend to pull the eggs this afternoon but am out of heaters for small tanks. I'd run out right now but I'm expecting a package from fedex with a bunch of true trimac fry in it! So I'm waiting for that and in the mean time thought I'd post some pics of the proud papa who's going become extremely pissed at me this afternoon! LOL

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I'm glad it's a small spawn, there's not too many people around here that will want these fish...

Enjoy! I am! LOL

Forgot to add the reasons why I've decided to pull the eggs.

1.) My feeling is the guarding male will kill the other six fish.
2.) If he doesn't kill em all the other will surely make short work of the fry.
3.) There's a possibility he will eat the eggs in order to protect them.
4.) I want the BAP points! LOL (<---- Real reason)
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Re: The Sweet Spot! (Parachromis dovii spawn)

Postby smitty » Tue Jan 11, 2011 1:05 pm

It looks like she really increased the spawn in the last photo.
150gal- Dovi's; 3 AC 110 P.Filters; 2 AC 110 P.Heads; Eheim 2217,2260
180gal- Managuense; 3 AC 110 P.Filters; 2 AC 110 P.Heads; Eheim 2217,2260; FX5
210gal- Argta,Bifsct,Fnstrtus,Maculcda,Regani,Syns,Zntus; 4 AC P.Filters; 2 AC P.Hds; Eheim 2250,2262; FX5
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Re: The Sweet Spot! (Parachromis dovii spawn)

Postby TheFishGuy » Tue Jan 11, 2011 1:11 pm

smitty wrote:It looks like she really increased the spawn in the last photo.


It's just the angle of the shot. The glass is filthy but I do not want to disturb them just yet by cleaning it.

The plan is to pull the eggs, get the lone female out, and rearrange the entire tank along with a good deep cleaning...
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Re: The Sweet Spot! (Parachromis dovii spawn)

Postby Jombi21 » Tue Jan 11, 2011 2:06 pm

Great job, Jon!
I bet your BAP gets at least $1! (It may be your $1 too!)

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Re: The Sweet Spot! (Parachromis dovii spawn)

Postby TheFishGuy » Tue Jan 11, 2011 4:53 pm

Are you kidding me? I probably won't even get a $1.00! Sad thing is if you bred dovii around here 15 years ago you could get $10 a pop all day long!

I was asking $10 a piece for the adults (which are small 6-7 inches) and no one was biting... OH well, that's why we have auctions!
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Re: The Sweet Spot! (Parachromis dovii spawn)

Postby Daniel Smith » Wed Jan 12, 2011 3:12 am

I think that is probably a good thing maybe aquarists are becoming a bit more responsible or are better informed and realise they do not have the facilitys to keep a full grown Parachromis dovii at 28" long . They are a beautiful and very interesting fish but not many have the tank space to do them justice
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Re: The Sweet Spot! (Parachromis dovii spawn)

Postby TheFishGuy » Wed Jan 12, 2011 10:43 am

I agree 100%
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Re: The Sweet Spot! (Parachromis dovii spawn)

Postby RobinH » Wed Jan 12, 2011 5:33 pm

Its a female on all photos!
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Re: The Sweet Spot! (Parachromis dovii spawn)

Postby TheFishGuy » Thu Jan 13, 2011 5:12 pm

No female in any photos. Only one out of the seven is female. That was the male guarding the eggs, he's the largest of all seven fish.
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Re: The Sweet Spot! (Parachromis dovii spawn)

Postby Bas Pels » Fri Jan 14, 2011 2:50 am

TheFishGuy wrote:No female in any photos. Only one out of the seven is female. That was the male guarding the eggs, he's the largest of all seven fish.


In all Parachromis species, the males have spots on their body, while the females don't have them, or have very weak spots

The fish in the pick does not have any spots, so naturally anyone would assume it is a female. However, if you are certain another laid the eggs and the eggs hatch, I'm more than willing to review the above

But female - female spawnings do happen, and therefore, if the eggs don't hatch, I'd consider it as a female. Talking about hatching, 2 * 24 hours would suffice, doen't it?
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Re: The Sweet Spot! (Parachromis dovii spawn)

Postby TheFishGuy » Fri Jan 14, 2011 7:55 am

The eggs were no good. Apparently I need to post pictures of all seven! :lol:
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Re: The Sweet Spot! (Parachromis dovii spawn)

Postby TheFishGuy » Fri Jan 14, 2011 10:15 am

I got these seven a while ago now, can't exactly remember when. Six of the seven grew at the same rate, one lagged behind. The smaller one looks different from the rest to me. I've spawned a few parachromis species and kept a few others in the past few years and thought I was pretty decent at sexing them... Now I'm doubting myself... Here's pictures of all seven which are now all in different tanks and labelled. I'd like to see what you all think.

There's two pictures of each fish:

Dovii 1
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Dovii 2
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Dovii 3
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Dovii 4
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Dovii 5
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Dovii 6
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Dovii 7
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Re: The Sweet Spot! (Parachromis dovii spawn)

Postby chc » Fri Jan 14, 2011 11:43 am

Funny! They all look like females to me too!



More interestingly though, what's with the "2 Pellets" and "3 Pellets" stickers? Experimenting or expecting a fish-sitter? :D
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Re: The Sweet Spot! (Parachromis dovii spawn)

Postby TheFishGuy » Fri Jan 14, 2011 12:01 pm

I'm seeing that now... I haven't paid much attention to them lately. But this is an interesting quote from another forum:

ok, then all but the bottom 2 are female and out of the bottom 2, the last is the best bet for a male. Almost 100% sure.

The other one might be, but I notice a lack of spotting in its body that the bottom one has.

Funny, I notice more and more spawns of dovii have way less males than females. This is another good example.

I also have noticed the largest growing and meanest fry is usually never a male in dovii spawn, at least from my previous spawns, spawns at my old LFS and others on here. I was told what determines that is either the pH or temp (cant remember which it was) when they are hatched...dont know if theres any truth to that...



What's your thoughts on that?


As for the stickers. I'm often traveling and those are for my wife. I've got 50 tanks set up, there'd be no way should could keep it straight! LOL
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Re: The Sweet Spot! (Parachromis dovii spawn)

Postby Bas Pels » Fri Jan 14, 2011 1:08 pm

To me, the first 6 are certainly female, and the last most likely female too - but for this last one, I'm not certain

I understand this is the smallest one, and then what I think is more or less similar with the quoted part
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Re: The Sweet Spot! (Parachromis dovii spawn)

Postby TheFishGuy » Sat Jan 15, 2011 10:32 am

RobinH wrote:Its a female on all photos!


Thank you for prompting me to do more research. This is my first experience with dovii and I assumed they were like all the rest... And we know what happens you assume! Now I just hope I've got atleast one male!

It's not my first experience with CA cichlids though. Just celebrated my 25th year keeping cichlids!
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Re: The Sweet Spot! (Parachromis dovii spawn)

Postby RobinH » Mon Jan 24, 2011 2:50 pm

all are females, some females can have some spots untill they mature. Icant belive the odds of getting 7 females, cant you find a male or 2 for them?
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Re: The Sweet Spot! (Parachromis dovii spawn)

Postby TheFishGuy » Mon Jan 24, 2011 6:11 pm

They're on the back burner for the moment untill I have time for them. They are all seperated now...
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