How to Breed Kenyi Cichlids, Raising Fry and Sexing Kenyi Cichlids

So your looking to breed kenyi cichlids?  This isn't as difficult as you think because they are some of the easiest fish to sex and raise.  You should use a 20 gallon long aquarium or large to breed them.  If you use a 20 gallon only use it for the pair of cichlids though.



Sexing Kenyi Cichlids:
Male kenyi's are yellow and some have multiple egg spots on the anal fin.
Females are blue and usually only have one or two egg spots on the anal fin.

Diet for Kenyi Cichlids.
Frozen Blood worms, brine shrimp, high grade pellet foods.
Stay away from feeding live feeder guppies like some websites recommend to do, this can introduce disease to the tank.


The female lays the eggs and picks them up in her mouth.  She then thinks she misses some which ends up being the males anal fin.  When she swims up to pick the eggs up the male releases his milt and fertilizes the eggs.  Kenyi cichlids usually carry around 40 or more or sometimes less eggs, she'll carry these for about 2-3 weeks.   After that the cichlid fry are given a little freedom from the parents but not much, both parents usually do a excellent job.

If your female won't eat and has a bulged mouth then she most likely is holding eggs, do not attempt to catch her or anything else that could cause stress as doing this could cause her to eat the eggs.  The parents not eating for a while during breeding is perfectly normal and should not raise alarm.


If your having problems breeding then increase your frozen food feedings to twice a day and do 20% water changes every three days.  When adding the new water in slightly increase the temperature about 2 degrees Fahrenheit.  This should put your kenyi's into the breeding mood.

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