if you have bred them congrats if not this will hopefully help you,Leleupis are secretive cave spawners, the male generally being larger than the female, the male entices the female to the cave where she lays her eggs usually on a wall or roof of the cave, during this time she will be the only female the male will allow in his turf. They form monogamous pairs but only during spawning period and are very fierce parents when it comes to protecting their fry. They lay about 100 eggs approx but can lay up to 250 in a cave which is guarded by both parents,these eggs are mostly white in colour my first batch i thought was fungused luckly i didnt throw them out, just thought the parents or other tankmates would eat them, the eggs usually hatch in about 3 to 4 days, and the fry will feed on their egg sacs for about 3 days. During this time, the female usually never comes out of her cave and the male i had stayed outside guarding it. After that period, the female will start to swim out of her cave and the fry may be moved to a pit inside the cave. The pair will take turns watching over the fry which will be free-swimming in after 5 to 6 more days. You can then feed them with newly hatched brineshrimp, Cyclops nauplii and crushed dry food, about 2 to 3 time a day. The Leleupi babies are sensitive to bacterial build-up and are susceptible to bacterial diseases. Frequent partial water changes like once or twice a week, with not more than 20% of the total volume of water is ideal. The parents will guard their young fiercely, until the fry are ready to be on their own, mine even attacked my hand. The pair's bond usually breaks after the hatch, but usually will be the same pair that breeds again.
As for tank well if your starting a breeding project tank of 60 to 80 liters with sand / coral sand substrate will comfortably house a pair. Make sure the pair is compatible or if you have a proven pair all the better. Add lots of rocks or slates to form caves mine constantly use the underside of an oyster shell. apparently some suggest bright lights to promote algae growth, as this will be beneficial for the fry or so i've heard, but theres always plenty on the rocks in my tank the tropheus love it. The following water parameters are ideal for breeding Leleupis: pH = 7.5 to 8.0, GH = 8 to 14, temperature = 27 to 30°C. if you go this route always make sure the tank is cycled before adding you pair or do as i do and use some media from the main tanks filter to speed this up. Once they are moved, allow them to stay there for a couple of weeks minimum if any water changes. On the third week, perform a large water change of about 50% to induce mating I generally have it a degree or two colder. Feeding them with some live food also helps to bring them into breeding condition again an in tank brine shrimp hatcher is great to get them into condition, as for filter choice my advice is a decent sized internal air driven box filter as you wont have occur what happened me, sucked into the internal and thrown out into the overhead filter...realised this too late with huge losses, now using internal air driven box filters their survival rate has greatly increased
hope this helps you
oh yes as for size to sell them on i'd generally leave it till they're about an inch.
Fishkeeping the Only way to get wet and wild
currently 25 tanks, and breeding is the aim of everything i keep
location:Limerick
