My Female Ndumbi Is Holding And I Dont Know What To Do

[jamesmacc]

hey folks, i sat down infront of the tank to have a wee watch for a few minutes and noticed my female ndumbi red top looked very swolen around the cheeks, i know they are not called that on fish but it looked almost like she was holding a load of food in her mouth, looking at google images of fish holding i would defo say she is holding and im not sure how far along etc.
i have only been keeping malawis for 3 months and have never had any holding so i dont know what to do.i have a 120l tank with 3 yellow lab fry and one sp44 wich is small as it wasnt feeding. i also have a breeding net.
what should i do?
malawi mad im sure you will have some advise for me

 

[dh058977]

Hello mate, she will be holding eggs for now and it will take approx a month for them to be fry, she will segregate herself somewhat and not eat but dont worry this is normal.

You could strip her once the fry are free swimming although if you havent been keeping them for long you might not want to risk this. They would have to go into a tank on their own and you could feed them brine shrimp and fine crushed flake food.

Otherwise you could just let her spit in the tank shes in and hope that you have enough little gaps and hiding places in your rock so that some fry survive. It really depends on whether you want to keep the fry or not.

 

[jamesmacc]

i would like to keep the fry, should i move her into the other tank or put her in the main tank inside a breeding cage? or leave it a few weeks before i do either? i seen a video on youtube of a breeder stripping the fry and it didnt look too hard but im not keen on handleing the fish, im scared i would squeeze them etc
cheers,
james

 

[dh058977]

If she is in the early stages then she is fine where she is, the other fish in that tank are used to her being there and will leave her alone, putting her in a new tank with new tank mates could mean she gets stressed and pestered. Personally I think breeding nets / traps are cruel and stressful for even small fish so totally unsuitable for a cichlid. She would have to go into a tank on her own in around 3 or 3 1/2 weeks to spit the fry herself and then she could be removed, that is if you arent keen on stripping her.

 

[jamesmacc]

i cant put her in the 120l on here own because there are some tiny yellow labs growing and 1 inch sp44. idealy i would like to have her on her own but its not realy possible. i could give stripping a go, do i just wait until i can see her keep spitting the fry out and then collecting back into her mouth

 

[jamesmacc]

i cant put her in the 120l on here own because there are some tiny yellow labs growing and 1 inch sp44. idealy i would like to have her on her own but its not realy possible. i could give stripping a go, do i just wait until i can see her keep spitting the fry out and then collecting back into her mouth

 

[jamesmacc]

ive had another idea, i could section of the 120l and keep the female in there, do you think that would be enough space for her with a 60/40 split on her own? then when she spits i can feed the fry crushed flake or brine shrimp

 

[Malawi MaD]

If this is her first time holding she may not hold the brood full term. So you could move her to the 120 but she may still spit the fry early, personally if this was me id leave her in the main tank to spit naturally. You don't want to spook her if this is her first time holding by stripping the fry as it may put her off breeding in the future (this is known to happen)

 

[jamesmacc]

If this is her first time holding she may not hold the brood full term. So you could move her to the 120 but she may still spit the fry early, personally if this was me id leave her in the main tank to spit naturally. You don't want to spook her if this is her first time holding by stripping the fry as it may put her off breeding in the future (this is known to happen)

its funny you should say that mate, when i went to bed last night i was doing abit of thinking and i thought if its her time holding and i strip her and stress her out then it will make her asociate holding with me stressing her out. have you had any survive in your tank? im in no rush to get fry as im selling the 180l tank as its in the part of my living room were im going to put the6-7 footer, the 180 a good size but if im going to pay to run another tank i want to run a large tank. but the way im going with cash just now (just built house and getting married in august) i dont think it will be until christams if im realy lucky, if not it will be summer 2013