kuba1992

i have two african cichlids now with them holding eggs now. do i keep them in the tank with all of the cichlids or move them out? there little really white balls in there moulth. thanks in advance for any help.

navyscuba

Many people move them to another tank but some just wait till they hatch and take the little ones out of the moms mouth and put them into a hanging net or a holding tank.

kuba1992

Ok thanks. How do I know when there hatched and how do I take them out I the mouth?

navyscuba

You have to keep an eye on her to see when they are moving around i don't know how long it takes to hatch but the way to take them out is by grabbing the mom and hold her in your hand and gently open her mouth and put her mouth in the water so the fry get out. I have mine in a net floating tank but mine they just got out and My wife found them just wondering around on the tank hiding on the plants.

kuba1992

Oh ok thanks. What kind do u have? Idk what kind mine are. I got pics can u go look and see if u can tell me what kind of fish u got? Thanks

navyscuba

I have Red Zebras, Yellow Labs, Yellow Tails, Cobalt Blues and Electric Blues.

kuba1992

Nice can u look and see wut kind my are

deathtroll

it takes about 3 weeks for most of them to become free swimming. I got eggs from in my egg tumbler now about a week old

kuba1992

Egg tumlber? And how do u move a post?

deathtroll

I stripped a couple of hours after the spawn it mimics the the female holding the eggs kinda like an incubater it gently tumbles the eggs and helps keep more oxygen around the eggs

not sure how to move a post

navyscuba

Where? cuz I just went to your profile and there's no pics.

Shawnie

do you want your id post combined with this one kuba?

kuba1992

yes shawnie, thanks.

kuba1992

or to the i.d forum. thanks

Shawnie

lol which place kuba?

FishnFry

Africans usually take between 2-4 weeks to spit. Yellow labs usually takes longer than others (usually 4 weeks sometimes more).

When I was breeding them, I usually take the holding female out of the main tank after 2 weeks of holding. I find the females feels safe with their young when they are alone in a nursery tank. Cause if they feels threatened, they tend to hold the fry in their mouths waiting for a safe time to release the babies.

Once they are in the tank of their own, the mother tend to do the natural "motherly" bonding with their babies. It's also fun to watch how they protect their babies when necessary.

Some people also leave the holding females in the main tank if they don't want to set-up smaller tanks. Most will be eaten but with lots of caves and hiding places, some will survive.

kuba1992

yes shawnie and ok thanks

CHoffman

This is also what I plan on doing with mine..I'm going to put the holding mother in a 20 gallon long by herself and let her spit the babies...I think she can do a better job then I when it comes to taking care of the eggs and new swimmers. Just make sure she feels secure and she'll spit when it's the right time..I just feel like stripping them seems a little stressful for the mom.

Shawnie

really? they dont eat their fry that they spit?

kuba1992

yanice and yeah i know it looks like they willl die easily when it comes to stripping them.

deathtroll

if you leave them in the main tank keep a good eye on them to make sure they are not getting picked on to much I have lost my first female trying to defend her eggs but with the right amount of fish and enough hiding places it shouldn't be a problem

navyscuba

I think that's what happened with my Usisya. Because she rarely got out to eat for about 2 weeks and one day she was all beat up she couldn't swim at all. So I put her on a livebearer tank by herself and she got better but she didn't want to take the meds so next morning she was dead with cotton stuff on every single spot that she was bit. A few days later I didn't have to got to work and my wife woke me at 4am to tell me that she saw babies on the tank hiding on the rocks and plants. Sure thing they were 4 little guys swimming around to catch little pieces of food. When I moved the fish to the 100 gal tank I put the babies on a net floating/holding tank and so far they are still there and growing.

Angela_96

When the mother is holding the only time you should "strip" her is when she has been holding for way over 21+days and looks like she is going to die, literally.
Otherwise let her spit, and they will. For the brooding tank put some limestone rocks in the tank with just enough room underthem for the batch of fry to hide under when she spits.
Otherwise a holding mother of Malawis will not protect her young as mentioned above, they will eat their young. Especially after not eating for a couple weeks.

2 weeks is not en ough time, the eggs do not hatch until around 14-18 days at best, and the fr y will still have a "yolk" sac on them. They do not survive like that, so they need to be held by the mother for a few more days.

Strpping the mother can be very problematic, extremely stressful for her (enough to kill her and the fry), and keep her from spawnig again.

There has only been 2 females I will strip out of my breeding groups. One out of the two got to where she just opens her mouth when I pick her up now and spits.

deathtroll

I do agree with steveangela1 about stripping it is stressful. and I should have have mentioned when I posted about stripping that it should be only used as a last resort. I stripped this time because I need more females to help calm down my male good reason to no.
in the end it is better to let nature take it's course.

kuba1992

ok thanks alot guys