WC Bulu female holding

[SunnyHouTX]

Indeed.

Hopefully things will change for your F1s and you hit the sweet spot

[SunnyHouTX]

Pam Chin sure is a treasure trove of good info:

http://www.cichlidae.com/article.php?id=151

And another good read on the matter:

http://www.cichlid.org/forums/showthread.php?t=787

[geost]

I certainly don't think imprinting is the entire picture. I've heard my females out there has breed at around 2 years or older but tank conditions are totally different from my tanks. If reds are the dominant species in an appropriate tank, they do breed (frequency of success is something all together different). My SWAG theory is that the female reds are not mature enough. 4-6" female f1 compared to the same size wc female, usually has a different body structure/girth which I equate to maturity.

I have about 8f1 males 5-6" and 15+ females about same size and maybe about same smaller males at differring sizes from several wc spawns. Also in this tank is my alpha male and a new wc female reds with other petros, trophs....(I know high stocking) by design..
Breeding does occur with sizes at about 4"; success with f1/f1 or f0/f1 spawns is zilch to date. So I can only conclude reds are mature enough to breed but not mature enough to be a factory producing fry. More time needed it would seem !

[Dww-law]

Some of my f1 females are almost 8 inches and three years old. I'll give them another year.

[Dww-law]

WC females are still holding. F1s swallowed. Should get some nice f1's.

[geost]

Good news. Too bad about the f1 spawn but I'm crossing my fingers for you next time.

[Dww-law]

WC's still holding

Nice! At this point they should make it without incident

[Dww-law]

Yes. My WC's never give me a problem. It's my F1's that drive me nuts. Two of the three WC's holding are the new ones I added from Turon and AGA. They seem to be very good mothers. Thank God because they cost me a fortune for just females Hopefully, I will recoup some of my capital outlay