unsuccessful brichardi spawns

This is part of the reason they were named the Brichardi Death Squad!

Keeper

Since my Daffodils had babies, (much to my disappointment) I have been watching them and they are EVIL. If any of the other fish get near the fry they are like wood peckers attacking the other fish. I's a 33g tank, and all but the two parents and fry live in 1/4 of the tank.

yeah... ain't it awesome!!

Since my Daffodils had babies, (much to my disappointment) I have been watching them and they are EVIL. If any of the other fish get near the fry they are like wood peckers attacking the other fish. It's a 33g tank, and all but the two parents and fry live in 1/4 of the tank.

I've got three pair of N. Brichardi in 20 gal tank.  Raised them from fry.  Two pair are on fourth and fifth spawn.  One pair just courting.  A little normal aggression but all "respect" each other's fry.   All I do is feed them with 20% weekly water changes.          I'd be glad to trade a pair for something else.

While I have never seen the aggression in my brichardi pair since they have always been in a species tank. But I do find it hard to believe that you have 3 pair in a 20 gallong tank and 2 of those pair are on their 3rd or 4th generation of fry. The brichardi are very fierce and my parents have attacked me. So to have 2 breeding pairs share a 20 gallon tank is unbelieveable.

I've got three pair of N. Brichardi in 20 gal tank.  Raised them from fry.  Two pair are on fourth and fifth spawn.  One pair just courting.  A little normal aggression but all "respect" each other's fry.  All I do is feed them with 20% weekly water changes.          I'd be glad to trade a pair for something else.

Females can lay eggs without a male present.

Angels are notorious for doing this

Brichardi are like the convicts of Lake Tanganyika

I guess but Brichardi are so much sexxxier!!

Females can lay eggs without a male present.

I used to have a female convict in with a venustus and a yellow lab....the convict laid eggs and fought to protect them even though nobody was around to fertilize them.  Brichardi are like the convicts of Lake Tanganyika ...or so i imagine it.

I'm really not positive that it is a pair I just bought a bag with 2 fish in it. At the time I didn't intend to breed them. I just thought they would make a nice addition to the tank. When the one started laying eggs I just thought it must be a pair because I didn't think a female would lay eggs without a male present. Am I wrong on that?
The suspected male is smaller by about a third so the idea of immaturity works too.
Thanks for the help. Looks like I'm back to the drawing board.

So this is my third time trying to write this.

Neolamprologus Brichardi are my favorite fish. My first thing would be to ask are you sure you have an actually pair. N.brichardi are sexually monomorphic which means males and females are identical in appearance. There are 2 ways to sex N brichardi, size and venting. There are great pictures of the vents of neolamprologines on page 37 of Back to nature guide to tanganiyka cichlids 2nd edition by Ad Konigs.

Adding another pair is possibly a bad idea since the N.brichardi are more commonly referred to as the brichardi death squad because they will kill anything in the tank that is not their partner or their fry. If you add more adult brichardi you may loose all fish except the pair which may be a costly effort.

This may seem like a backwards effort but you may want to purchase about 6 Juvies about an inch or larger and grow them up until you get a pair (if interested PM me). At that point you will need to remove the others if there are any survivors.

The best method to get a pair might be to look for some pairs on the classifieds and visit the fishrooms of people selling pairs. There you will see the fish and if they have fry or not. If they have fry there is a very good chance they are selling the actual pair.  This pair may take a while to spawn again for you. My pair took almost 3 months to spawn after Igot them, they now spawn every 5 weeks.

first thing that comes to mind with what you are describing is....are you positive that you have a male in there and where are the eggs being laid that you can actually see them? if you can see eggs and the supposed male isn't doing the deed so to say it almost sounds like you may have 2 females or a still juvie male that hasn't figured out what to do yet
as for adding another pair that can get real tricky, if you do get another viable(proven) pair once you put them in the tank if you do indeed have a male and female from the first pair and either start to breed you could actually have a real problem on your hands as they will fight to the death in most cases protecting there eggs and or territory