What To Do

[aqua monster]

Hi people, 1 of my cichlids is holding baby fish in her mouth is it best to put her into a smaller tank on her own or can i pbuy a breeding trap and place her in that...

what is best to do..?
been holding for just over a week now...how long do they hold them for..?

 

[doresy]

Hi people, 1 of my cichlids is holding baby fish in her mouth is it best to put her into a smaller tank on her own or can i pbuy a breeding trap and place her in that...

what is best to do..?
been holding for just over a week now...how long do they hold them for..?

Best to leave alone. It'll probably spit it out if you try to catch it

 

[hay13]

best to leave her be as you dont want to upset her what type is it

 

[noxious_nasties]

If your tank is stocked well and does not have many hiding places for little fish (which big fish cannot enter)
then then say goodbye to all the fry. If your tank does have hiding places and is reasonably stocked say goodbye
to 80-90% of the fry. If you put the mum in a frysaver/net you also risk other fish biting threw and sucking out
the fry.

Stripping is something I would recommend to anyone as it not only allows the mum a shorter holding period (meaning
she can recover quicker) but also means you will be-able to raise all the fry that she is holding and have been
fertilised. One thing to note is that if you strip to early you will have eggs to care for and it will make the
process much more harder if you don't have a egg tumbler. For those of you against the concept, consider that in
the wild there would not be nearly the amount of fish around waiting for a quick feed, meaning that by leaving the
female to hold and spit naturally will inevitably lead to the suicide of the vast majority of the fry being carried.

 

[aqua monster]

red top hongi....

I brought another tank today and going to set up tomorrow and strip fry out on Friday...she would of been holding for 2 1/2 weeks then so should be ok...

What do you think..?

 

[noxious_nasties]

At that stage it sounds like the fry should be capable of swimming well i.e. they wont stay on the bottom all day and
get fungus (this is when an egg tumbler is needed).

Another tank will certainly make your experience alot less stressful and easier to look after the fry. If you want you can
get a flour sieve/strainer (one of the cheap plastic ones is good) I use something like this but made of plastic:

http/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fileieve.jpg

Place an airstone underneath an you have a DIY egg tumbler... I don't use this for eggs though as I don't think it works
nearly as well as a proper egg tumbler, but it is good for fry that have developed somewhat.

 

[reignofcheese]

If you want to save all the fry than the best thing is to set up the new tank and make it ready and move the female at any time.

She may spit in the net, which is no big deal, or she may hold on longer. Either way no worries, put her or her and the fry into the tank. Feed the female a bit and get her some weight back and then remove her. You can feed the fry finely crushed flakes or pellets that the adults eat, they are old enough for it by the time they are spit.


you really don't need to strip, there is no reason to put the fish through it. I have never had to strip a fish even when I went through my 'I want to breed' phase (before I realized how ridiculously easy it was). Let her spit naturally, strip only if there is a problem - why force her if she is not ready - she can go the full term, is physically designed to.

Personally I like to let them spit in the main tank and celebrate the survivors - they're too easy to breed to get money for and it's really cool when a couple of fry survive and join the adults on their own, way cooler than just raising a bunch in a tank and giving them away.

 

[noxious_nasties]

Any updates?

 

[aqua monster]

i set up new tank 34L one for them yesterday and used my tank water to fill....i been trying to catch the mum but finding it so hard to do so.
Just need to catch her and put her in to have when she is ready...

Will she eat her own fish..?

 

[aqua monster]

fry are now swimming around in big tank, i see a few of them last night in side the rocks they are bigger than i thought they would be about 10mm in size...

Think im going to leave them in there unless i get a chance to net them out with out any trouble...