"Electric Yellow" fry ???

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kokosnood

Gambusia
MFK Member
Feb 3, 2009
156
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Santa Ynez, CA
I'm no expert on Africans; but I have a tank of mixed african cichlids (40 gal with 8 fish + 1 pleco.) I've had a maingano carry eggs in her mouth, but they never developed (she has no conspecific mate.)

However, there are both a male and female "electric yellow" in the tank. I noticed the female was carrying eggs. I kept watching her and I noticed that they had hatched and I could see little eyes inside her mouth. Through a labor intensive process of rock moving, I caught her and put inside a netbreeder with a piece of PVC pipe for shelter.

Tonight I noticed her mouth wasn't as swollen. I looked closely and in the corners of the net breeder I saw 3 live and 1 dead fry. I removed the dead one. It's hard to tell, but I think there may be more fry in her mouth. She didn't eat when I fed her.

Questions:
1. How many young do these fish usually produce?

2. Do they usually release them all at one time, or a few at a time?

3. When should I remove the mother from the netbreeder?

4. What should I feed the fry?

5. Can I raise the fry in the netbreeder, or do I need to set up another tank?

6. Can I release the fry into the 40 gallon when they are bigger? My other africans are pretty aggressive. I think they will be killed. I'd love to keep them and raise them up; but I have a lot of tanks set up already--this is my only african setup. What should I do with them?

Thanks,
Stefan
 
1) depends on how old the fish is, some of my juvies/first timers produced batches of 11-15 fry.

2) They usually release them all at once, usually making sure there are no other predatory type fish around, or anything really that might be a danger to the fry, including you when approaching the tank.

3) Once all the fry are out of her mouth it's safe and advised to remove her.

4) Same food you feed your adult fish, just finely crushed.

5) For a few weeks I'd say, yellow lab fry grows comparatively faster than a number of other mbuna fry, provided the conditions are good.

6) Usually it's safe to release the fry into the main tank once they reach 1.25", I've done it earlier when they were around 3/4", but I wouldn't advise it, there will be casualties.


If you want to save all your fry I would strip the female at this point and return her to the main tank (btw it's normal for a female who has just released or was stripped not to eat at first). Also I wouldn't keep a newly released/ stripped fry in a breeder net in the main tank, bigger fish will literally suck them out, I've had this happen myself. So pick up a small 10gal growout with a sponge filter and a heater, should be enough to grow them to a sell-able size.
 
stripping in this sense refers to getting the fry out of the mother's mouth carefully so as to not hurt the mother or the fry. you need to hold the fish in your hand so you can carefully ease and work the fry out. I have seen many use a cotton swab to do this and I really can't think of a better tool for it. just be sure to do this over either a bucket or the tank so the fry don't fly all over the place. the sooner the better too
 
Well, I didn't strip her. But I did put the mother in a specimen container and I used a bright light and a magnifying glass to look in her mouth. I couldn't see any additional babies, so I returned her to the main tank. There are now 6 or 7 fry in the net breeder (plus the one that died.) Is that a really low count for her first spawn? Maybe I lost some...not sure. She could've eaten them or they slipped out of the netbreeder...
 
if she is small that is a typical amount for her first spawn! your lucky if they even carry out their first brood so she did good!
 
Congrats on the new babies ! the next batch she has should be bigger from what I have read
 
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