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I need some help. I have had my F0 pair of white Calvus for 5 months now. I have seen plenty of breeding activity. But until now, I have not had an actual spawn. Now I have a clay burrito looking thing that has a clutch of eggs in it. I am very tempted to take it out and put it in another tank. I have bred plenty of mouthbrooders, and one substrate spawner (N.brichardis), I do not want to loose this one.
Do Calvus typically eat their young? Will they raise these fry? They are in a tank with 8 moba fronts. Any help will be appreciated. Please Help me!
Even if I did put this in another tank, is there anything I can do to help the eggs stay healthy and last longer?
Thanks,
Joe

breeding calvus...I've never bred them so all this is hearsay.
I'd recommend you check out the American Cichlid Association website, you probably need to join to search the archives.
Over the years somebody must've written an article on raising 'em.

I have not had an actual spawn. Now I have a clay burrito looking thing that has a clutch of eggs in it. I am very tempted to take it out and put it in another tank. Not sure that that is best.
I have bred plenty of mouthbrooders, and one substrate spawner (N.brichardis), I do not want to loose this one.
Do Calvus typically eat their young? The male from what I've been told will eat free-swimming fry.
Will they raise these fry? The female might...but I'm not sure.
They are in a tank with 8 moba fronts. The Fronts WILL eat the fry.
Any help will be appreciated. Please Help me!
Even if I did put this in another tank, is there anything I can do to help the eggs stay healthy and last longer?

I have bred White calvus. Me and a buddy had some F0 white calvus breeding in large barnicle shells that we picked up from Michaels. (the art supply shop) In general, I have found that you want a cavelike shell that only the female can fit into to really make her feel comfortable to breed.

Overall, I have found that Calvus are great parents at least until the fry are free swimming. I would be weary of raising them in a front tank until they are bigger than the fronts mouth. Either that or have a lot of caves to keep hidden and feed them with a turkey baster so they don't have to roam around much. I know in the past I had problems with julidochromis in a front tank as the front enjoyed eating the unsuspecting babies when I would feed the tank. (doh!)
I ended up moving the julies to a 30 gal.

You also don't want to seperate the mother from the eggs because she will fan her fins to provide a constant supply of oxygenated water to the eggs. In general, from my understanding, you want the oxygen saturation level to be at max with the eggs in the tank.

If you want to separate the eggs from the main tank I would bring the mother with them and use a lot of airstones to keep the eggs from dying off.

I have heard of issues when you re-introduce the mother back to the main tank later on, but we never had a problem. We just shut off the lights for a couple of days and re-arranged the rocks when we put her back. The male was more than happy to spawn with her ASAP as soon as she was back.

Hope this is helpful.

Great info, Thank you very much!
Joe

Just wanted to update. I have about 30 free swimming little F1 White calvus fry as we speak. Ahhh, finally.
Now that I have to liquidate most of my fish, going back in the Army shortly and need to downsize to 1 tank.

I've heard a lot of people suggesting New Life Spectrum growth formula for baby Lamp Calvus.

Oh man.
I need another tank. I would love to take those fish off your hands if I had the money and space right now.

You have my old tank (i had basically a same set up with Fronts and calvus), I hated breaking down that tank.

tanks are always on sale

Joe, I could grow'em out for ya while you're gone and return them (at least most) when you are ready. lmk

It took 6-8 months for this breeding pair to get started in my tank, but now its like clock work. I just pulled roughly 75 free swimming little calvus out of her clay burrito. Added them to the 10g with the original 25-30. Cool!

So when are you gonna learn to share?

Just been growing these guys out. I think I'm going to be in the neighborhood for a few more months. So I plan on sharing when theyre a little bigger. The biggest guys from the last batch are barely 3/8" right now. I'm feeding them NLS growth formula and Dean's baby fish food. Changing 25%, 2-3 times per week. Now that Ive got 100 or so in there (10g), I should probably start changing water more often. I should probably start looking for some frozen baby brine shrimp or start hatching my own for these guys. Any pointers on growing out fry would be appreciated

we have frozen baby brine & brine eggs in stock...
we also have live daphnia...
an old timer (my age!)
suggested a large tank to help speed growth
also high temps (80-81 F.) and high O2 (lots of airstones)..
mostly lots 'o' food

Great info, I am going to try to move these guys in a week or two. Maybe into a 30L. What do you think is best, the frozen baby brine or the live daphnia? I'll spike up the temp tonight and maybe add another air stone.
Thanks for the info Ned,
Joe

live... always...
if your feeding frozen or dry to fry...add some snails to clean up the un-eaten to reduce ammonia...
live daphnia is easy to grow
you just need anything that will hold water outdoors
and a quarter teaspoon of milk a day