Steinie fry adoption!!

[hamfist]

Had something interesting happen yesterday.

I had two G.steindachneri females, both holding fry. One of them spawned a week and a half before the other, and has been releasing her fry for almost two weeks now.
The later spawner I was a bit concerned about as she was getting very emaciated, and was still not releasing her fry, at a time when the earlier spawned female had already started to release hers.

Anyway, these two females were in a divided 80G. So I decided to strip the fry from the later spawning female, to get her into another tank so she could eat.
The stripping (my first time !) went well, and the fry still had a little bit of yolk sac left but were comfortably free swimming. These fry quickly went around the tank, and it was interesting to see the other female's response to them.

Initially, she sucked them up, but realising they were not her own fry, she spat them straight out again. She was not hurting them at all though. As there are no other threats to the fry in the tank, I was happy to leave things at that.
But this morning I see that she has now adopted the younger fry, and now takes her own fry AND this younger batch of fry into her mouth. It all looks like quite a tight fit but she manages it !

To my knowledge this is this females first spawn too. What a mother !

This is my first time breeding moothbrooders. Is this a common thing to happen ?

 

[Dan F]

Had something interesting happen yesterday.

I had two G.steindachneri females, both holding fry. One of them spawned a week and a half before the other, and has been releasing her fry for almost two weeks now.
The later spawner I was a bit concerned about as she was getting very emaciated, and was still not releasing her fry, at a time when the earlier spawned female had already started to release hers.

Anyway, these two females were in a divided 80G. So I decided to strip the fry from the later spawning female, to get her into another tank so she could eat.
The stripping (my first time !) went well, and the fry still had a little bit of yolk sac left but were comfortably free swimming. These fry quickly went around the tank, and it was interesting to see the other female's response to them.

Initially, she sucked them up, but realising they were not her own fry, she spat them straight out again. She was not hurting them at all though. As there are no other threats to the fry in the tank, I was happy to leave things at that.
But this morning I see that she has now adopted the younger fry, and now takes her own fry AND this younger batch of fry into her mouth. It all looks like quite a tight fit but she manages it !

To my knowledge this is this females first spawn too. What a mother !

This is my first time breeding moothbrooders. Is this a common thing to happen ?

I only have one female and I, too, am new at this, so I can't answer your question. My pair have been breeding like crazy - she is holding her third batch of eggs right now and they have only been breeding for a few months. The first spawn only yielded 20 fry, but the second produced 120. It will be interesting to see the results this time - how many babies can they fit in their mouths?

I am currently growing out 140 Steinis and I am starting to worry about what to do with them...

By the way, I remember seeing photos of your male and he is a beautiful specimen.

 

[hamfist]

My female's own batch is down to about 30 now. The new, extra, batch is about another 40-50. I'm staggered that they all fit in, as she is not a big female herself. I know that full sized females do manage to get in excess of a hundred in there though.