holding ice blue cichlid

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rabbithearted

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 14, 2012
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Michigan
Not getting answers in the African section, so maybe here.

Should I move her out of the tank? I've only had her since sunday. The other fish are not bothering her, it's more her bothering them. She's chasing them all over the place and the male albino ice blue is already spitting rocks out of several areas like he's making a new 'nest'. She keeps chasing the other fish when they come near her and then will go off chasing them through the whole tank.

I have 15 gallon I could put her in and an extra filter that I had going on their tank just for extra filtration. Should it be bare bottom, what should I put in there with her. What do I put on the filter so when she does spit them they don't get sucked up....nylon? a sponge?
or really the biggest question should I leave them in the big tank.
I'd love to raise the babies, it is my first time having my cichlids holding. There are lots of hiding spots in the tank, I could of course add more plants that they could hide in but with other fish in the past that have had babies (live bearers) I never had luck with them surviving in the main tank. So yeah. Sorry for all the questions. I've tried finding information but there really isn't much. I just keep finding a lot of information on holding labs, and on stripping her but I would rather avoid that.
 
Stripping is actually not that hard, and it's my opinion that it allows the female to recover faster by starting to eat again sooner. Female africans can hold for over four weeks, and the one time I let my lab do that she was looking very emaciated by the time I did strip her. I wanted her originally to hold and spit on her own. Now I let the females (I have enough to spread around the male aggression) hold for 18-20 days in the main tank before I strip them.

I would set up the 15gal you have with a bare bottom, a heater, and one little something for her to hide around like a rock or fake plant. For filtration, a sponge filter would be best if you have one seeded, but having a second mechanical filter from your main tank will be just as good. One thing you will need to do if you're using a HOB or internal filter is get some filter mesh (I use batting from the local fabric store in my filters) and cover the intake so that fry cannot get sucked into the filter. That's all you need really.

Once the fry are spit, I'd get a brine shrimp hatchery going. A lot of people have said to run two for a constant supply, but I just use one and basically alternate feeding baby brine shrimp and First Bites every other day as I'm growing a new batch. You'll need to feed the fry often (every 3-4 hours as best as possible) for the first week or two until they start attacking any crushed flake or pellet food you start to put in.

Best of Luck!

on a side note: What kind of camera did you use for that pic? That's a very nice shot imo!
 
if this is her first holding she has a very good chance of loosing them sadly, almost all my cichlids loose their first batch. then again i never remove them from the large tank which could have alot to do with that. im guessing that you can see the eggs in her mouth? have you seen any of the males trying to mate with her? in my large tank i just put a pencil cage with holes in the tank so that the babies can get into and the larger fish cant get in. if you do put her in a tank keep it bare bottom, as soon as the fry appear remove her.
 
also if you strip the eggs you may need to look into a tumbler. ive never stripped eggs but then again in not huge on breeding i have too many fish as it is. good luck!
 
It's a nikon d40 and thanks! :D

and I would rather not strip her, I read that it often will make it so they won't hold the eggs later on. I got her only a few days ago so I honestly don't know if this is her first holding or not, I've only had her 6 days so she could have possibly had them before. I actually saved her from a walmart where she was in a tiny little gold fish bowl on display. The albino ice blue I have, who I had thought was a female but seems to be a male, he has been digging out areas in the tank since I put her in. They were hanging around each other the last 2 days and this morning I woke up and she was holding. If you sit and watch her you can see her moving them in her mouth and taking air in when she does, it looks like she's gumming at something.
 
she is still being very aggressive toward other fish and the albino male seems to be digging out a new area already.

photo attached is the albino when i first brought him home, he was really, really fat. still is a little but slowly starting to not look so obese.

DSC_0971.JPG
 
bretthogan said:
also if you strip the eggs you may need to look into a tumbler. ive never stripped eggs but then again in not huge on breeding i have too many fish as it is. good luck!
Click to expand...

That's why I wait so long before stripping. After maybe a week, they eggs should have hatched in her mouth and will be consuming their yolk. If you look carefully you should be able to see tiny black dots in her mouth which will be the eyes. By the time I strip them, they fry should be within a day or two of free swimming and eating on their own if not already able to do so. I've found that the longer I wait to strip the higher my fry survival rate is. I've now had 3 hatches with one of my yellow lab females and have never lost a fry. One of my peacocks had a small clutch (think the calvus snagged some) and I didn't notice her holding at all until one day I saw what looked like large eyes in her mouth. I decided to strip her immediately... She was holding 8 fry and one unfertilized egg. One fry died immediately, and lost 2 more within 24 hours. They may have only been 10-12 days since spawn and were still on their yolk. It was a good 4-5 days before they'd even turn towards brine shrimp.


Darn on the D40. I was hoping it was some kind of decent pocket cam rather than a DSLR. I do need to get me one of those some day...
 
when my africans are holding the females arent aggressive but rather they hide and run but idk each could be different. if you see the eggs you could put her in the 15 then wait like jrthor said and strip once they hatch. also if shes eating its a good chance shes not holding. my female didnt eat for over 3 weeks when she was holding. i thought she was gonna die but ive read some hold for over 5 weeks and dont eat. i was sweating but now i just ignore it lol. keep us posted.
 
Well she isn't eating. I noticed this morning when I did feed them that she came out like normal, but didn't grab up any of the food, and she has been a complete pig since I brought her home so that wasn't normal and I looked closer and saw how her mouth was and that when she opened it, you could tell there were eggs. She does hide some, she will go in and just hang out for a little while but then will shoot out and will chase the other smaller africans around the tank but she leaves the male ice blue alone. she doesn't seem stressed at all, just swimming around all normal.


If I end up stripping her, how is this honestly done? Well...how have you guys done it? I mean I have read a few things but still a little nervous about that.
 
I just moved her into the 15, at first she was swimming around all frantic but now she has calmed down and is sitting near the pot i put in there for her.
 
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