i need help please

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brandi77

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 23, 2005
31
0
0
48
ohio
I bought a maylandia estherae ob about a year ago. I had no idea if it was female or male. Well a couple of months ago, my husband saw this orange cichlid with dark brown sppots on it, and he liked it. So we bought it. well, yesterday, i saw the two of them doing it lol. I got scared cuz i didnt want any inbreeding going on. Not only that, but the orange one looked to little to be doing it lol. Well through research i just found out that they are the same species. Today when i woke up, I noticed that the orange one is holding stuff in its mouth and i am guessing that it is eggs. I have no idea what I am supposed to do lol. I have never bred fish before. I have them in a 55 gallon with

1 kenyi
2 parrots
2 severum (gold and green)
2 socolofi
2 calvus
2 lombardoi? spelling
1 sailfin pleco
2 redtail shark
2 maylandia estherae ob

please somebody help me. I am clueless. I have an extra 20 gallon. When am is supposed to move the female. Will the filters suck up the fry? I have all kinds of worries lol. Any help would be appreciated. I will try to attatch pics. I will have to try and get better pics. most of my pics were to big to upload. I will have to figure that out. ANyway, the orange is the female, and the ob light one is the male.:D

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Don't panic!

Nature has prepared those cichlids perfectly. The parents will defend their young ones for a time. They will find refuge in their parents mouth. When they grow larger, they will get more independent, and some of them might get eaten by others, but You have a good chance, that most will survive, as You have no hardcore predators in Your tank. Breeding fish indicates, that they like Your tank. If You don't change the conditions too much, they will breed again and again. Also sometimes the first breedingattempts of young fish fail, but they will learn.

Seperating the fish from the tank can have disasterous results. They might eat their own young, if they are stressed to much by beeing caught. It is better to remove the other fish, than the breeding pair, if You think it is necessary.

Only thing I would change: Feed a little bit of finer food for the small ones. Try out different types of food. There is also special babyfishfood available in petstores.

Good luck
Thomas
 
thank you for the info, will the filter suck up the fry, and when do the babies hatch? Should i remove the male from the tank? What about a breeding net? I just read about that on another thread. I have no idea how to use one though lol.
 
leaving the babies in the tank decreases their survival chances.i would let the mother carry the eggs and then the babies for no more than 14 days. after that you have a couple options one would be to get a breeder net. most stores carry them. it attaches to the inside of the tank and the babies are seperated where they can grow and get some size before they are returned to the tank.in my case whenever i see a female holding i leave the mother with them for 12 to 14 days and i take the female and strip her of the babies. i keep the in a seperate tank with a sponge filter and i feed them crushed flakes. i usually have a 95% survival rating. good luck if ya need more info feel free to ask. later jim
 
If anyone has anymore helpful info, i would appreciate it. I just got back from the lfs. The guy there told me that it was risky to move my female to another tank and suggested a seperator instead of a breeding net, so i got it. I hope it works. I have a picture that I will post of the serperator and the female. I also have another question that may be dumb lol. Do i still feed the female. How often? Will she eat with the eggs in her m outh.? And yet another question lol. How long does it usually take for the eggs to hatch? I will post pics as soon as I can figure out how to change the size of my files.
 
brandi77 said:
. The guy there told me that it was risky to move my female to another tank and suggested a seperator instead of a breeding net, so i got it. I hope it works. I have a picture that I will post of the serperator and the female. lol. Do i still feed the female. How often? Will she eat with the eggs in her m outh.? How long does it usually take for the eggs to hatch?
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African cichlids will eat some of the baby right through the soft breeder nets the hard ones are better but if the seperator is hard that will work also.

if you really want the fry to live make sure the seperator canot be bypassed by the others or move her to her own tank.



if you were quick and not too rough she probably would not eat the eggs i fished my red out twice and into a breeder twice , last time and she jumped out and returned to the tank I ust left her there

i leave all the females in the main tank now but most of the fry get eaten

the femal may eat a little feed just before she spits out the fry not really sure if this is for her or the babies ( my labs do but my red did not eat at all).

Think you would be hungry after 4 weeks wouldn't you ?

I've ver stripped the eggs from aholding female before it looks touchy , I don't have an egg tumbler anyway.
 
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