help! trying to breed Mouth brooding african cichlids

[Mesna]

I'm breeding mouthbrooding african cichlids, but the problem is all my cichlids are in one big tank, so everytime the "mother" fish is done brooding and releases the fry they get eaten... How can I prevent that, or a way to get the fry before they get eaten? This is in a 280g tank (the one in my pic) so taking out all the rocks to get the fry is not an option... should I get the mother fish and move it to this 10g I have by itself? (how should i do that??) Any ideas would be welcome... I'm tired off all my fry getting eaten

 

[johnnunez29]

wow.im in miami too.your best bet would be too remove mother and father into a 10 gallon tank.if you remove mother too early with eggs they may not be fertilized and if you remove her with eggs shae may spit them out.either that or try your luck with a nice piece of holey rock.where in miami?what kind of cichlids do you keep and are trying to breed?

 

[Mesna]

! YOUR FROM MIAMI TOO!?, * ahem right, well I'm in the cutler bay area and I'm trying to breed some african cichlids, I'm not sure what kind, they're like the typical ones you get at petco or petsmart in the african cichlid sections, they are solid blue, orange, white and yellow ( the different ones) and they aren't eggs I'm almost 100% sure because when the mother fish get close to the glass I can see the fry in her mouth. I'll put up a pic tommorow of them so you see what fish we're talking about here.. As far as the kinds I'm keeping, its those I mentioned and I keep south americans too in the tank, and they get along great; convict, jack dempsy, green terror, fire mouth

 

[Fishaholik]

I would wait until she has held for at least 2 weeks and then catch her and separate her in a nursury tank. I have bread all different kinds of mouth brooding africans. Sometimes it takes the females a few tries to learn how to hold full term. A lot of people "spit" the females before they spit naturally. You just catch her and hold on to her in the net and stick her mouth over the nursury tank or a smaller container first and then put them into the tank. I have heard of people using a tooth pick to help open her mouth but I always just used my finger nail. You just have to be very careful. Different spieces have different holding terms but in my experience after 2-2 1/2 weeks in the mother's mouth the fry will be free swimming. Then you can spit them without have to tumble the eggs. I would usually have an egg tumbler on hand just in case I spit them too early and needed one. They have egg tumblers for sale on Jemco.com but you can make one pretty easy too. You will have to research and see what option works best for you. Well hope this helps you in your adventure have fun and feel free to PM me if you have any more questions.

 

[Pomatomus]

If you are actually able to get the mother into a net, I've read that you can simply open her mouth a little (while in the water) and often times they will simply spit the fry out into the net. Then you can move em into a grow-out tank and return the female.

Just what I've read.

Of course if she doesn't you can just move her to the 10 gallon.