Interested in breeding, not sure what species?

HI all

In a few years I'm planning on breeding bettas, but in the meantime I'm living at home and have limited space. I currently have a 16 gallon community and a 5 gallon betta tank. In the spring I will hopefully inherit a 23 gallon tank.
It was suggested to me that I could try cockatoo cichlids or blue rams in the 23 gallon. I love blue rams with a passion but I'm more interested in cockatoos because they aren't widely available in my LFSs.
Someone also suggested that I could breed multies in my 5 gallon (the betta would be moved) because it is pretty long at 17 inches. This sounds a bit on the small side to me, but I'd certainly love to try it if people think it's a good idea. Fishlore says minimum 5 gal, but I'm sometimes dubious about the minimum sizes in the the profiles.
I'm religious about my water quality, if that helps.

So, here are some questions.
1) Are either of my tanks suitable for this endeavour? Cockatoos in the 23gal/multies in the 5 gal?
2) I know multies are shell-spawners - are cockatoos cave spawners? I've read that they like flowerpots.
3) How many should I get? Just two, or some number of females per male?
4) What's the best way to ensure I get a breeding pair?
5) I've read that they are good parents - would I need a fry grow-out tank? At what age could I rehome them?

I'll naturally be doing lots of research and ensuring that my LFS will take babies (fairly sure he will, just need to confirm) before entering this and I will make sure that my tanks are set up as cichlid havens.

Thanks for any experiences/advice that you can offer!
Bomba

 

breed angels in the 23 gal that would be gud

 

I'm pretty sure that most if not all cichlids pair off and only breed with that pair while they are together. I think a good starter cichlid to breed are convicts. Convicts are easy and good to learn on. Convicts also don't need as much space as a lot of other species.

 

What are you going to do with the fry once they grow out?

 

Well I've had nothing but success with my apistos (cockatoos) in a 20 long. I have a thread about it in the pictures forum ()

They're really enjoyable fish! The fry seem to take forever to grow though! My pair has spawned again and the last fry are still teeny tiny!

 

I was looking at convicts orginally but I read that they need at least a 30 gallon. Ditto with angels. Could I manage convicts in a 23 gal, do you think? I think I still like the idea of cockatoos best, but convicts would probably be easier to get hold of.
I was attracted to dwarf cichlids because I was told I wouldn't need a fry grow-out tank as the parents are very dilligent. Is that true? At what age should/could I sell them on?

 

Have a look at the thread I linked - I tell all o that there and honestly am too lazy to type it all out again

 

Thanks for that link, I scanned it earlier but this time I read it in full. So, in summary; they grow pretty darn slowly, the mother doesn't eat them despite having a new spawn and you don't need a grow-out tank?
How big do you think they should be before you rehome them?

 

Hello - sorry I completely missed this reply...

To answer your questions... they grow quite slowly, yes. I've not seen the mother eat any despite the new spawn, but there are only 5 or 6 left out of 20-30 from that first spawn. I have no idea why - I imagine some must have been eaten by someone. At first with the new spawn I saw her chase then off a few times, but never eat them, and now she seems a lot less concerned.

All that said, I have been told that the larger juveniles can and sometimes do eat the new fry, but I've not seen this yet, either. Most people who want to breed and keep or sell the babies move the fry to a grow out tank. I've been told you can do this as soon as a few weeks - once they are free swimming and taking baby brine shrimp (or whatever you feed them). I personally don't plan to do this, since I have nowhere else to put them - so I'll let you know if anything changes. I'm hoping, though, that my over-abundance of plants will provide ample cover.

 

I agree with cichlidnut. Convicts are an excellent cichlid to breed for starters. I breed my pair in a 20g. And they are perfect parents. I use Terra Cotta pots for them to breed in. You may want to try that. But heed to LyndaB's question. You'll need a homing plan for you new little ones.

Good Luck!

 

I think you could get away with a pair of convicts in your tank

 

So...

Last night I came home from work... to NO tiny apisto fry?!?! The older ones are still in there, and in fact have spread out quite a bit and are swimming around a lot more -- but the tiny week-old ones seem to have completely vanished! I checked again briefly this morning but still couldn't see any, and it seemed like the male was starting his mating dancing again.

Hmmm wonder if he ate them so they could 'get to it' again??? Seriously, though - wonder what happened!