My Jaguar Cichlids/too many babies

Hi
I have a small tank set up with 2 jags in it. Its only a 75 but they wont stop breeding. I had to cull the 1st group,the second group came and when the 3rd came the parents ate the 2nd group. on the 3rd group i put some in a tank and gave away free. i also put up 5 which are going great in a 5 gal bucket set up. lol. Works great for the moment. So know i am on the 4th group and they have been culled one way or another down to about 50. My wife hates seeing them get eaten,i dont mind. So is there a way to get them to not breed any more ? I bought back in early July as babies at 1.6" They were tiny.i had 4 but had to get rid of a male,kept the extra female and she had a batch too,but i had to get rid of her too.the tank was too small for a group. I have used to have 6 in a 125 years ago and they did well. Eggs never got fertilized so it leads me to believe they all were females.but who knows back then. I was 20.

I dont want to get rid of either,just looking to stop breeding them. More light,less heat( set at 82-83) more filter then needed by double,power head filter and air stones.

Cant sell this many around the area. They are free to anyone wanting any.You pick up. I wont ship.
Thank you
Rich

Usually once you get a pair established its hard for them to stop, ultimately you should seperate them, temp changes may change their breeding behavior but then you run the risk of keeping them at incorrect temps making it detrimental to their health.

Thanks Haden

yeah, as Haden said, they will keep breeding. I would collect the fry and trade them at the local fish store for food or whatever. You can try putting in a grate between them but I've also had a pair that would spawn with each other through the grate.

also, if you want to offer them for free that is fine but this is not the classifieds, so you may want to post that part there instead.

Thanks Haden and April. I have way too many for the local pet stores. too much running around for $1 each. Plus most the fish stores are those petsmarts and petco and they dont buy from locals. I tried selling Beardies back 6 years ago to them for dirt cheap,and colored too. They rather buy those 2 week old things from so called professional commercial breeders and watch them die days later. Same thing with fish.
And honestly theres only a couple private ones close enough.
I guess i will have to get rid of these and look for something else. I dont want just a female or females in the tank. The males are better looking and bigger, but not sure how 2-3 will get along.

Gerenally multiple males will fight. I had luck with males of different species (red devil with jack dempsey and dovii (south american cichlids)). The males always look so nice. But yeah, if you don't want them to keep breeding, you'll most likely have to remove the female. They are so prolific. I checked if I had uploaded photos of the grate set-up I used before, but couldn't find it, sorry.

Thats ok. April. I actually made a plexi glass insert to seperate the second female i had from them when there was babies.
I will go to our decent fish store and find a couple males of another species. I do like JD"s.
I am upgrading to a 150 soon,so i will have plenty of room. These are only in a 75 and only since July as 1,5" babies. They grew fast and bred as quickly. I had the when i was 21 also and had several.
Maybe i will put some adult african cichlids in there with the south american ones. Not sure how they will do. Big size difference.

It's not so much that petco would rather buy from those places it's thatthey have no choice. it's corporate policy. Even those store managers who would prefer to buy from locals can't do it.

As for your fish, I've found that there is not much you can do to stop the breeding once they get started. You can try lowering the temps to around 75 but I doubt it would help. They would be fine at that temp. Unfortunately for you its a fish that gets big and nasty so demand is low. I had a customer who had Jaguars breeding and he couldn't give the babies away. I certainly didn't want any because I don't deal with large fish like that. I get so many people already wanting to give me big fish (well actually they try to sell them to me first) and I don't need any more. As long as they bought the fish elsewhere I don't feel guilty refusing to take in their unwanted monsters but If I sold them the fish in the first place I'd have to take it back. It really bothers me when a store will sell a particular fish (Oscars, jaguars, pacus, iridescent sharks, common plecos just to name a very few) and then when they outgrow the people's tanks they won't take them back.

Your best bet would be to find something that will eat them. Free food.

LOL. I use as feeders now. I might raise just for that. I gave so many away around here for free that i cant give any more away. lol.