Cichlid Is Holding Eggs (Advice Please)

[ace-e36]

Hi all as title suggests, a pair of my cichlids have bread and now she is holding the eggs in her mouth. must have happened either last night or today.

my tank is a 260ltr 4 foot mainly cichlid tank (convicts, malawi's) with a couple of extras like pair of red deviils and a couple of parrot fish with are much bigger than the female cichlid.

im guessing the female will be ok in the tank but i would really like to keep as many of the fry as pos. there are a number of large rocks etc but nothing really that only she can hide in.

my question is whats the best course of action for her? and how long will she keep the eggs in her mouth for?


many thanks for advice, ali

 

[stevo_gti]

is it a malawi thats holding?

when i used to have my malawis they tend to hold for around 21 days. the best bet is to leave her in the main tank for around two week (from when you first saw her holding) then if you can put her into a seperate tank or fry trap to spit the fry in her own time. (its best to let her spit naturally first time round as stripping her could stress her and make her swallow the eggs next time round)

she will be fine in the main tank and should find a quiet place to hide away from the other fish i had around 55 large mbuna in my tank mostly wild most of the aggressive species and never lost a female but keep an eye on here just incase the male is still harassing her trying to breed.

what speicies is she?

hope this helps
mark

 

[ace-e36]

hi mark,

thanks for the fast reply, yeah sorry it is the malawi holding. i believe she is a blue zebra if thats right.
the male is similar but much lighter, they just came from a fish shop that just had assorted malawis on the tank so sorry i cant be much help in that department.

the overall aggression in the tank mainly comes from my parrots with each other and even then its only minimal. everyone gets on surprisingly well, even the red devils and very placid. and again only the malawis have there normal chasing each other around for a couple of seconds.

the male father luckly was the one who had the most aggression but seems to be sticking close to the female and not really chasing her but protecting her. so after a couple of weeks will be the safest time to move her then? and how long before i risk her eating the fry?

regards ali