multis

[shannon07]

hey i currently have 9 multis in a standard 2 foot tank. they have recently bred and i counted atleast 8-10 fry (about 7days ago). i have been watching them closely and have noticed that there are only 3-4 left. I have tried to remove them (thinking they were being eaten) but it is just too difficult. i am unsure of what to do. are they just practicing for the first few times until they get it right or is there a chance that i have several males which are eating them (as they are not their own fry but another males)?? Any help or advice is appreciated. Is there any way to tell the males apart from the females???

[dkw]

Hi Shannon,

You can't really tell male vs female until they start to grow up -- Males end up twice the size of females.

As for the fry, best to leave them in the tank rather than try to catch them -- Multies are paternal and its interesting to watch them protect their young and to watch the young grow up in the 'family' unit.

Perhaps you do have more males than females? One thing you could do to increase the chances of your multies surviving would be to add more shells and try to create little territories in the tank with a rock. It doesn't have to be huge, just something to break the line of sight between the pairs/families.

Hope that helps, I'm sure someone who has kept multies longer than I have will chime in..

-Dan.

[GlennC]

If you're near to the coast, I would suggest collecting a handful of empty periwinkle shells and planting these amongst your Multi's shells. Perhaps even a few levels deep. The parent's won't be able to enter the shells, but the fry can.

Cheers

Glenn

[shannon07]

atm i have about 25 shells in there, there are quite a few which the adults cannot fit into, but i will try and track a few more down. i will put a rock in there today to split them up and will see if that makes a difference. thanks for the replies guys. if anyone else has any suggestions, let me know.

[brucem]

I started with 7 multis (2m 5f) in a sft and the colony blew out to 200. I've not experienced major losses and the males seem to be OK with other fry etc.

What do you feed them? Are the fry getting enough food? Does the food sit ont he surface for a long time or does it mix through the water column easily? Little fry will die from starvation pretty quickly, or if they are too weak from not getting enough food, they will soon perish.

Bruce

[Foti]

I started with 7 multis (2m 5f) in a sft and the colony blew out to 200. I've not experienced major losses and the males seem to be OK with other fry etc

Bruce

could you still have all the fry lost 1 or 2 to conditions of water etc or they are hidding in your 25 shells ??

good luck with them,

try a bigger tank sounds like "brucem" had some good success with a five foot maybe try a 4 foot ?

[shannon07]

if i had a bigger tank i would put them in there, but space is an issue. i never really thought about food. i figured they would have enough food from algae etc growing on the shells. i feed them algae flakes, NLS and some betta food. so they get a mixture. it sits on the top for a little bit, but a fair bit of food sinks to the bottom amongst the shells. i will try and get some food to them using a pipe next time i spot them.

[hungsta]

Don't remove the fry, they are step breeders and co-exist as a large colony. Disturbing will cause more harm than good, putting more shells in in or dividing the tank as suggested are great ideas.

Tank space is not an issue as well, I have kept them in a 2ft and had hundreds of fry. My tank had heaps of escargot shells and I never experienced loss of fry.

I was quiet diligent in feeding and always made sure the fry didn't starve. I used NLS cichlid formula and grow as well as frozn baby brine shrimp for the fry.

HTH

[tootie]

I started of with 10 fry -ended up being 5 f and 5 m (now adults or at least breeding size). However not all have bred as a couple of the males keep themselves alone at one side of the tank opposite each other in shells. The others have bred, now twice. I have juvies around 2cm mark and now more fry in amongst the 'families' they have organised for themselves.

They are in a standard 2 ft tank.

I use HBH flakes, NLS Grow and frozen BBS. When I feed I place my hand deep into the water and spread it a bit so it sinks.

I also have about 20 - 30 escargot shells and a small barnacle in there.

I have had no probs with aggression and no losses of fry that I am aware of.

Good luck with it. They are great interesting little fish.

Cheers,

Tootie

[shannon07]

hey i have been around to someone elses house who has multis and had a look at their females. i have decided that i dont have as many males as i thought. i have 1 definate male which always fights with another so i have assumed they are both males. the others are slightly smaller so maybe they are females. But i also have 2 which are about half the size of everything else in the tank. thats what led me to believe i only had 2 females.

i have now divided the tank with rocks and have changed their food to NLS grow so hope all goes well. thankyou all for your replies.