Hey guys, so I decently discovered that one of my females is holding and although I would love the new additions to the tank, I'm not sure of what harm they could hold on the female in the time being? What are some risks during this time? what can I do to increase chances of survival of both or such?
holding labidochromis caeruleus
- Thread starter soccerjunkie821
- Start date
![IMG_1052[1].JPG](https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/data/attachments/693/693658-a0d5e4bf3e617f5f6585ad4755c884c7.jpg?hash=oNXkvz5hf1 "IMG_1052[1].JPG")
If you have your stock right (male to female ratios) and enough hiding places you really shouldn't have any problems. It also depends on what else is in the tank species wise.
In my experience, if the female begins to get too stressed (chased too much, bullied, too hungry, etc...) then she will spit the fry out early (free snack for others!!) or she will swallow and eat them (free snack for self!!!). You really don't have too much to worry about.
If you really want the new additions, as in want to have the best chance for survival to adulthood, then you probably want to move the holding female to her own tank until she spits out the fry...but then you have to move the female back to the main tank before she eats them (some people will actually help this process along by stripping the fry or eggs...do a search on how to do that).
If you just leave the female in the main tank (easiest way), then at the very least you will want tons of small crannies for the babies to hide in as they grow and develop, but you will likely still lose most of them. You will probably get 2-3, but it depends on so many things.
Overall, in my experience if your male to female ratios are pretty good and you don't have any killers or major bullies in your tank then you should get plenty of breeding now and in the future, and therefore you will be overrun with fry if you try to save them all. In my 125g, I started/added about 25 total fish, but by the time I broke it down after a little over a year (I moved) I had over 40, not including tiny ones, without doing anything to help the breeding. Obviously most of the babies were eaten, but I still would have had to take action to keep the tank from getting out of hand. And that was starting with juvenile fish, growing them out together, so breeding didn't even start for about 3-4 months. I also had some haps in my tank that seemed to focus and hunt the fry constantly. I actually more haps as I went along because I had over 100 fry in the tank at one point (most of them small, but still a ton of fish).
In my experience, if the female begins to get too stressed (chased too much, bullied, too hungry, etc...) then she will spit the fry out early (free snack for others!!) or she will swallow and eat them (free snack for self!!!). You really don't have too much to worry about.
If you really want the new additions, as in want to have the best chance for survival to adulthood, then you probably want to move the holding female to her own tank until she spits out the fry...but then you have to move the female back to the main tank before she eats them (some people will actually help this process along by stripping the fry or eggs...do a search on how to do that).
If you just leave the female in the main tank (easiest way), then at the very least you will want tons of small crannies for the babies to hide in as they grow and develop, but you will likely still lose most of them. You will probably get 2-3, but it depends on so many things.
Overall, in my experience if your male to female ratios are pretty good and you don't have any killers or major bullies in your tank then you should get plenty of breeding now and in the future, and therefore you will be overrun with fry if you try to save them all. In my 125g, I started/added about 25 total fish, but by the time I broke it down after a little over a year (I moved) I had over 40, not including tiny ones, without doing anything to help the breeding. Obviously most of the babies were eaten, but I still would have had to take action to keep the tank from getting out of hand. And that was starting with juvenile fish, growing them out together, so breeding didn't even start for about 3-4 months. I also had some haps in my tank that seemed to focus and hunt the fry constantly. I actually more haps as I went along because I had over 100 fry in the tank at one point (most of them small, but still a ton of fish).
let her hold in the tank for 15 days, then take her out, in her own tank and let her stay in there tell day 18 or tell she spits her frys out, put her in another tank for a few days to recoup, add her back to the main tank. leave the frys in the tank by themselfs and feed crushed up flakes.
thank you so much for the great advice. I have 5 of these and 7 aceis in the 100 gallon right now with a ton of slate, hopefully like you said everything will be alright. I have a small hospital tank on hand always running just in case. Looks like it's going to be coming in handy lol
View attachment 878032
View attachment 878032
another option, you can get a little hospital cube and keep it attached inside your 100g. I used to strip the wigglers from the mouths at about 2 weeks to take some of the stress off the females. Keep the wigglers in the hospital cube and feed them till they're a little bigger, and have a better chance of surviving in that tank... then let'm free...
Leeac's idea is a good one as well. You just want to make sure you have enough water flow to keep the water in that cube circulating.
If you want to keep the fry, I suggest either separating the female to a different tank to release the fry, or you strip her of the fry and tumble the eggs.