midas breeding

Question
I have a female Midas that has just laid eggs,don't i need a male to fertilize the eggs.Are they just going to die if i don't get  male soon?

Answer
Good morning, Rick, thank you for your question.

You will need a male to spawn with your female Midas cichlid. By the time you read this question, the eggs are no longer going to be viable. Don't despair - when she is ready to breed again, and you are ready to add the presence of a male, she could very well have a successful spawn.

Feed high quality, nutritious foods such as pellets made by New Life Spectrum as a staple, there is even a Cichlasoma variety. Look for NLS online at www.thatfishplace.com if you can't find it at your LFS. Supplement that with greens (romaine lettuce, spinach, kale, whatever she will accept) and frozen foods. Avoid feeding beef heart, and feed bloodworms sparingly - cichlids are prone to bloat, which is why pellets are preferable to flake. They are also prone to vitamin deficiencies. To combat this, I feed my Africans Hikari Bio Gold pellets soaked in VitaChem twice a week.

Live foods should be offered to condition her to spawn again. If not possible to obtain live foods, try feeding her something from the "Can O'..." series made by ZooMed, that might do the trick. In the wild these fish eat earthworms, snails and water insects among other things.

Make sure you have a 75 gallon tank or larger to house your specimen as it will live well over a decade with the appropriate care. Some cichlid enthusiasts use tank dividers to protect the female as spawning can become violent.

Here are some sites about the Midas Cichlid:

http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_midas.php
http://www.aquariumlife.net/profiles/central-american-cichlids/midas-cichlid/100...
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=113
http://fish.mongabay.com/cichlasoma.htm

I would recommend you peruse www.cichlid-forum.com and seek other hobbyists who may have successfully spawned the Midas cichlid. Be sure you are ready for this undertaking (a rearing tank for the fry? a plan B if the male and female are intolerant of each other?) otherwise your female Midas cichlid will be content the way she is.

Good luck and happy new year!
Nicole