Mbuna breeding

ok without making this too long I have a 55gal with about 19 mbuna. with no desire to breed the inevitable happened. knowing this could happen my plan was to let nature take its course however my kids noticed one of my mbuna holding and now it SEEMS that the mother is holding live fry. I know I should let her be alone in a 10 gallon to spit but I don't want a fry tank because I don't intent to grow them out. however I do have a breeder box for temp housing in a new tank. should I put her in the breeder box to spit, should I strip her fry to the breeder box or should I just let nature take its course. if I save the fry I would rehome them or bring to a LFS but I was trying to save the extra hassle. what should I do. thanks for all your help in advance

 

Giving this a bump up for you hope you get some responses today

 

Do you know if there is interest in your area for the fry? I unfortunately can't answer your question but I know that my LFS is picky about local breeders they accept from.

 

I would just try to give the fry away but I don't know who would want them

 

I could keep mabe 4 but I don't think that's going to cut it

 

Your options in my opinion:

Leave them be: If you leave the mother in the tank, it's likely maybe 1-2 of the litter survive. Thing is: This will happen over and over again. As soon as Mbuna are established in a tank they breed like guppies. I'd be more concerned about the mother, because as soon as she's not holding anymore she will be pressured by the males again and soon be holding again. This unfortunately may cause her to lose weight and be stressed longterm, if there are not enough hiding spots.

Try to sell them: Grow them out to 1-2'', if you have more than 20 that size LFS are more interested than in occasional low numbers of fry that survived by chance. Offer them on usual platforms like Ebay local, somebody might be interested that can pick them up personally. I wouldn't want to go thorugh the effort to ship fish without experience. If you want to make sure they get a good new home, give information about keeping them in your offer and be blunt about the fact they are not suitable as community fish and that you don't sell without information about the conditions the buyer is going to offer them. Don't go for the "At least they're not my problem anymore"-approach just to get rid of them sooner or for the first bid.

Which exact species is it anyways? Can you tell?