jamesg1993

I have one male and two female Mulities in a 12 US Gallon tank and after aproximetly 2 months I have still seen no signs of spawning yet.

My LFS has more multies at the minute so i was wondering if more of there own kind might encourage them to breed and/or show more natural behaviour?

Basically, what i'm asking is do I need so more Multies?

Chief_waterchanger

I would observe them for a while before buying more.

My suggestion would be to check for shell guarding behaviors for a couple more weeks.

What kind of substrate do you have in the tank?
At what temperature do you keep the tank?
Are you absolutely positive you have both genders, and not just that the store said so?
How often do you change the water?
What are your readings for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate? (Answer in PPM, please?)
How much larger than the fish are the shells?
What kind of lighting schedule do you use?

jamesg1993

Thanks Chief_waterchanger for the reply.

There hasn't been much shell guarding as there constantly swapping shells.

As for your questions:
I use sand as substrate.
I keep the tank at 25 Degrees C.
I'm sure i have both genders as males are almost double the size of females.
I do weekly 20% water changes.
I don't know what my water parameters are. I was using the strips and read how in-accurate they were so i threw them out. Trying to get hold of the API Liquid Test Kit.
The Shells they have are 4inch in diameter with and inch across entrance.
I have the lights on a timer.
On at 3p.m and off at 10p.m

Hope this helps.

Allie

Can you tell the ratio of males to females? If there are too many males in a tank they females get stressed out therefore not want to breed. (with most African cichlids)

jamesg1993

With Multies male are almsot twice as big as the females. Males get to 2inches and females 1 and a 1/4 inches. I have one male and two females.

Allie

Maybe you need more females read this article:
http://cichlidforum.com/articles/n_multifasciatus.php

jamesg1993

I read the article. Thanks Allie. It does sound like i need more females.
I was wondering do male cichlids fight each other? I ask because maybe another male and 2 females might help the females find a mate and make a miniture community of them as they raise there own fry.

Thanks for the replies guys.

Butterfly

What are you feeding them? Multies love meaty foods, thawed frozen blood worms, mysis shrimp etc. this will help condition them for spawning. I would do larger water changes also.
What type of filtration do you have? My Multies usual build breeding pits under the out flow of the HOB.
I keep my Multi tank closer to 80F(26-27c)
Hope this helps
Carol

jamesg1993

I feed them King British Tropical Fish Mini Sinking Pellets, Blood worm and Brine Shrimp every once in a while as treats.
I have an intank filter. I don't know what type specifically.

Butterfly/Carol, how many Multies are you keeping and how many of each gender do you keep?

Butterfly

At the moment I have three females and two males in a 20g long. Have in the past successfully kept four males and eight females in a 30g long. but you don't want to crowd them. They need to have room to make breeding pits and room to keep others away.
carol