Kilesa female holding!

[Razzo]

My 2nd place male who has been doing all the displaying lately spawned with one of the females today! I have a holding female

How long do I let her hold. I think I'd like to move her to a fry tank a day or two before she would spit. Any thoughts on this?

Few more pics from earlier in the week of the displaying male.

Enantiopus kilesa

[Razzo]

[Piotr Koba]

Nice shots again, good luck!

[Razzo]

I don't think this girl is a very good mom yet. She really wants to feed and snuck some food and accidentally tossed a couple eggs out which she did not pick back up.

[Kalen]

Congrats on the spawn, I have been dying to get my hands on some Kilesa lately.

[efc]

very beautiful pictures Razzo. You have captured their breeding colours perfectly.
Ad Konings was correct when he described these cichlids as dream fishes from Lake Tanganyika!

Nick

[Razzo]

Thanks guys

It seems like my 2nd kilesa female to hold may produce some fry. My plan is to strip Weds (that will be day 12 since the spawn). The plan is to put them in a floating nursery in the main tank for a couple weeks (seems to work well for the callo fry).

Here is a pic of the mom today:


Couple more pics of the displaying male

[Razzo]

Update: my F1 Enantiopus kilesa fry groups are doing well

I took a few more pics of Group A (the group that I have been chronicling their development in this thread). They were newly stripped fry (at Day 1 of life outside of mom's mouth on 6/22/11). These next few pics are of the same fish, nearly five months later, on 11/29/11. They are all approaching 2-inches in length and I am making plans to move them, from the 10-gallon tank, into a 30 gallon long tank and combining them with Group B.

Thanks for coming along on the journey. Here is Group A on 11/29/11

F1 Enantiopus kilesa (Group A)








Here is a shot of Group B (also in a 10-gallon tank)
F1 Enantiopus kilesa (Group B)


Thanks,
Russ

[amiidae]

Nice update.

They are one of my favorite species.

[juicebigalow]

Russ,

I breed Kilesa's and I've found that if you let the female hold until day 17 you normally do not have an issue with yolk sacs or anything. Obviously they can survive if you strip them earlier but I call it lucky 17 b/c they usually release about 17 and I don't have to worry much about the fry at all at this point... Also, the females seem to be more ready to release them the longer they hold so less struggle to get the babies from the females which means less stress on the girls. But I've got 3 clutches right now only a week old and another female holding that I'll strip in a week. Congrats on the clutches though.

I see you're from SBI. I use to live in Fort Wayne. I had a roommate in college that was from South Bend.

Anyway, random fact...

Good luck w/ your fish!

Josh <><

[jcunningham0295]

Do you sell the fry? I am setting up a 75 gal tang tank and would love to get my hands on some of these.

[JCBlom]

Or you put the holding female in a seperad tank after she is holding voor about 16 days and you dont have to strip the female at all

[Razzo]

Do you sell the fry? I am setting up a 75 gal tang tank and would love to get my hands on some of these.

Yes, I do sell fry. Please send me a PM if interested.

Thanks,
Russ

[Razzo]

Or you put the holding female in a seperad tank after she is holding voor about 16 days and you dont have to strip the female at all

No, I just strip and remove the fry and put them in a floating nursery.

Russ

[Razzo]

Can't believe I forgot about this thread. Of all the forums on the internet, this is the one dedicated to sandsifters!

Here is some of my favorite pics of my wild caught adults. Hope you like the pictures











Russ

[Razzo]

I have not taken photos of the kilesa fry lately (I probably should call them juvies by now). The largest group are approximately 2" and the rest of them probably 1.5". I shipped a group of them to their new home this week so I thought I would get some pics before the shipment. Kilesa fry are always so eager to meet you at the tank - I had second thoughts on selling some of them while photographing them. Those kinds of thoughts lead you to dozens of tanks which I can't handle

This series of photos was of them when I first turned the tank lights on. They were all resting still on the bottom and they had their camouflage coloring on. Here is a few photos

F1 Enantiopus kilesa











Russ

[Razzo]

Here's a few more of them awake

[jcunningham0295]

Great pictures. I just picked up a group of seven of these that are about 2". These are neat fish espically how they sift through the sand.

[bassetman]

I finally wheedled a group of these from Razzo, they are fantastic. They behave very differently from my other tanganyikans and are very enjoyable to watch as they build their pits and mounds. Their sandy domain is one of the highlights of my "fish cave" . Razzo always has great fish and is a really nice person to talk to to boot.

[crack]

Great picks, it`s beautiful fish, i like it¡¡¡¡¡