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I am in the process of watching my Jags lay eggs as I type this. I wish there was some way I could post a video as I have recorded her laying the eggs and him following to fertilize. Pretty cool little dance, very repetitive and well choreographed.

Where is she laying them? Are they in a breeder alone?

-greg

Yeah they have their own 55. She likes to lay them on the slate I have scattered around the tank. They are a pretty good couple. This is the third spawn I've had in 5 mo. It's getting to the point where this is starting to become profitable selling the grown out fry back to fish stores.

Yeah, I dont see many Jags at my lfs. How did you get them paired? I mean was it luck or did you buy 6-8 got a pair and took the rest back?

-greg

Cool, I love watching my Angels when they spawn.

How big are Jags (Jaguar cichlids right?) I've never seen any around here. Are they South American?

Congats, Mike

well it's kind of a long story but I'll try to condense it. There are several fish stores in town and this one in particular had the pair in a twenty long with fry swimming around. I asked him if he planned on keeping the pair or if they were for sale. He told me he wanted to keep them and start selling the grown out fry. Two weeks later I went back and all the fry were missing and the female was nowhere to be found. I asked if he had sold her and he said no that the male wouldn't let her out of hiding. I asked what happened to all the fry and he said they got sucked up into the main filtration system. I asked him again if he wanted to sell them to me and he said no he still wanted to try to breed them. A month later I went back and saw the pair were still in the tank with the female nowhere to be found and asked kind of jokingly if he wanted to sell them. To my surprise he said yeah that they hadn't bred for him since the first time and were now taking up space. I asked him how much he wanted and he said twenty for the pair. I put them in a larger tank and I can't keep them from breeding now. They get along fine and he shows no aggression towards her whatsoever. You can only imagine the look on his face when I went back to the store and asked him if he wanted to buy some 1.5" Jag's. He said he did and at $3 bucks a pop I made my money back in the first sell of fry. The male really shows off some beautiful colors when they are breeding.

[span class="edited"][Edited by 2004-09-05 21:22][/span]

Wow, that is awesome. The main issue was the size of the tank, huh? The male was getting all territorial with her, so she hid. You are one lucky lil-fishy! Get some pics for us!

-greg :88)

Jags get up to 18" I've heard. They are a Central American species. Before anyone gets angry about them being in a 55 let me give you there sizes. The male is a about 7" and the female is about 4".

Males can easily hit 16" and females 14" but both can probably grow larger. eventually you'll have the same problem as the lfs guy did, but not for another year or 2. I'd start saving up for a 180 in the next couple of years personally, though you might be able to get away with a 125. I'm going to try and get a 180 for my festae pair in the next year and a half to two years.

That was a great pickup for only $20. Congratulations on the great deal and the spawning.

btw, lil-fishy, I posted this more for those who are unfamiliar with jags and their requirements...from the sounds of it you have things well under control.

Jason

Yeah, don't worry they are in good hands. Great fish. They look rather drab in the pictures you see on the internet but they have great shimmering blues, reds, purples, and greens. In real life they truly are a great looking fish.