Any Labidochromis Caeruleus Experts?

[Steviehlfx]

Hey,

One of my Labidochromis caeruleus recently had babies. I found four hiding down in the rocks. I was afraid that other fish in the tank might have thought the babies were food so I put the four babies I found in one of the baby holding tanks (ones that float in the same tank so other fish cannot get at them).

My questions are: Is it a good idea to seperate the mom and dad from the fry? Should I put the fry, mom and dad in a new tank? What is the possibility that other chiclids ate (if there were any) some of the other fry?

Any help would be great.

Thanks

 

[dthoffsett]

L.caeruleus are African not New World cichlids, so this should get moved.

Is the fry holding tank one of those mesh ones? If so, you might want to put a little gravel or something in the bottom of it because the adults can suck the fry right out of the net.

Once a female spits (releases) her fry there is little parental care, and the fry are considered a free meal by all the other fish including the "father". If you want to ensure the frys survival you'll need to move them to a separate tank, 10 gallons or larger. Here's are great article on rearing mbuna fry.

http/www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/raising_fry.php

 

[Steviehlfx]

The babies are not is a mesh one. They are in this:

http/www.ennispetsupplies.com/~ennispet/...es/AHG10936.jpg

They are probably going on about 3 weeks old and are starting to gain color. I think I am going to get a 10 gallon tank and start them off in there until they get to a good size.

Sorry I put this question in the wrong place *blushes*

The father is probably about 2 and a half size bigger than the mother so I am not going to put the family together.

Thanks for the article and the advise.

 

[juanveldez]

yes you were right to seperate the fry out of the tank. when I kept them I had new fry every 2 weeks from two of the females that I kept in my 75. I havn't kept them in a long time mind you, but when I did the fry were always eaten by the other fish in the tank including dad. the best bet from my experience would be to get a little 10 gallon tank which is fairly cheap, take 10 gallons of water from the parent tank, gravel from the parent tank and then just feed the babies on crushed flake foods and such. I also used to keep a small sponge filter running in one of my tanks so that when I had fry I just took that out and put it in the fry tank.