WEEKLY WATER CHANGE TIME

55 Gallon African Malawi Cichlid Tank
27 Cichlids 

It's water change day. I have a couple mom's holding in my 55 gallon tank. I was going to move them into my brooding tanks but have decided I will leave them to release and care for their fry naturally. There are two reasons I have decided to do this. The first is - both of the holding females in my community tank are having their first brood which is usually small to begin with. The second is that I feel it's best to let them have their first brood in the most natural setting to put them at ease. I have noticed that one of these two females has been trying hard to eat and I think she's swallowed a few of her babies in the process because her mouth just doesn't look as full as it did.

Fry Grow-out 20 gallon tank
67 Fry

With my water change I will also be returning my recuperating mom to the community she's from. I'm anxious to see how she acts because she is still displaying aggression towards me when I touch her tank glass. When she's moved back, I will be moving her fry into the vacated tank so they will have more room to grow. I also want to count them. I'll shut both my brooding tanks down for now as I won't be needing them.

I'll also do a 30% water change on my South American cichlid tank. I've had an issue with water clarity this week and the only thing I can attribute this to is over feeding. It's hard to walk by when they all go into a frezy when they see me. Also my fry are in the same room and I feed them 4-5 times a day. By the end of the day I'll be down to 5 running tanks.

40 Gallon American Cichlids tank
11 Cichlids

END OF THE DAY

Water Changes finished and tanks looking good. The fry have been moved and wow - what a large brood. I counted them as I netted them in groups. Final count was 67 but I lost two so 65 healthy fry. When I was cleaning up and packing stuff away I cleaned the filter from the fry tank and found two more in the filter. I put them in back in the tank as they seemed fine. Total tally of fry once all were moved was 67 healthy fry.