My afra cobue female is overdue and so is my OB peacock female. They are in their own tank and have been for a while. I can see free swimmers in their mouths. The OB has been holding for 20 days and the afra cobue for 19. Now the afra cobue usually spits after 17 days. Should I strip them somehow or just let them go?
Mbuna and OB ready to spit but haven't?!?
- Thread starter jhutch
- Start date
It all depends on you. If you want your females to eat again and be ready to breed again strip em, if you want the fry and female to be safe from harm, don't strip em. It's all based on how you want to raise your fish. My nyererei females were holding for 3 weeks and had free swimming fry in her mouth. I stripped em, because my female was getting way too skinny, so I was worried. Just my 2 cents.
My Hap SP44 has been holding a little over a month now so I know what you are going through. She has been in a breeding net for the past week. I will probably strip her sometime in the next couple of days if she hasn't done it herself
How do you go about stripping them and can you leave the female in with them or should the females be put back into their species tanks to breed again?
Females can hold up to 28 days. I entice them to spit by dropping in some food. If they are ready they will spit and eat. Have had some females that kept on taking in their fry at night. This was for about 4-5 days before they finally left them to swim freely.
The longer they are left in the mouth the better as they get all sorts of goods bacteria from their mothers.
The longer they are left in the mouth the better as they get all sorts of goods bacteria from their mothers.
I would leave them. My OB peacock female (not sure if thats the ob your referring to or not) would hold for more than 18 days. She would not even be put in her own spit tank until around day 18-20, then she would spit usually the first day in the spit tank, but forsure within 2 or 3 days. She might not have spit cause its just day 18 now and needs a couple more days. My redempress that was holding at the same time as the OB peacock just spit yesterday and she was a first time spawner so give it a day or two. Make sure the tank is empty with maybe just a small rock cave. They will spit on their own when they feel its safe and the babies are developed enough. Pull the female out after she spits so the fry wont be eaten. IF the male harrasses her more than normal see if you can give her a divider in the main tank for about 5 days and feed her good then let her out.
Do you have some pics? I would love to see this...I have some peacocks and hope that one day someone will pair up. They are still real small right now, so I am just waiting...
You should not have to wait too long. Peacocks will breed like rabbits. If there is a male and female you can bet they will breed LOL. Watch for shaking and shimmying and a male that acts like its on crack LOL. The male will shake his stuff and flare up his fins infront of the female and try to herd her away from other fish to do the deed. LOL. They also might do slow circles in the sand or ontop of a flat rock. When they do the shimmy you cant miss it. It looks like the fish is having a epileptic seizure LOL.