Stripping fry from mouthbrooders

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ryansmith83

ryansmith83

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May 2, 2008
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I have a couple of questions.

I have a male Geophagus parnaibae and a pair of Heros sp. 'Atabapo' all holding fry. The Heros have been holding for about three days now, and the parnaibae for about one.

My questions are:

1. What's the best way to strip a fish? Do you net them while they're sleeping? Any way to keep them from flailing about and hurting themselves while you do it?

2. When you strip them, do you put the fry directly into a tank or into something like a net breeder to keep them from laying on the bottom until they're free swimming? I'm afraid if they rolled around the bottom of a fry tank that they may fungus over or something.

3. Could I raise all of these fry together since they're so close in age? Any reason you wouldn't want to mix severum and geo fry? Will one kill/out-compete the other?

Thanks!
 
Hi, depending on the species you want to wait a certain amount of time before 'stripping' them. At night works best. They are easier to catch and a little more relaxed. Now for the holding them, and then the act of 'stripping' them. Use your dominant hand to secure the fish, while you use your other hand/fingers to pry open their mouth. The babies did fine a 10g tank with no net. Only thing you want to make sure you have a filter guard or something so they dont get sucked up.

hope that helped
 
I'm assuming you pry their mouth open while being held underwater -- so what exactly do you do to get the fry out? Do they just fall out? Do the fish try and spit them out?
 
When i did it, I held the fish underwater, while holding it's mouth open, then gently shook it, (it doesn't hurt the fish) some might try and swim back into the mother's mouth. Most will come out though. The fish won't really want to spit them out.. after all it's her babies =p
 
This is what I do -

1. Don't remove the fish from water at any point. Put a container underwater, net it into the container underwater, and scoop out the fish with water. Repeat: do not net it out of water, then put it in the container - too much struggle.

2. Use one hand to hold the fish in the container, underwater, head down, and use the round part of a paper clip to open the mouth. Works much better than your fingers and it doesn't hurt the fish.

3. As soon as the mouth is open, most of the fry would fall out. Move the fish back and forth a few times until there's no more fry left.
 
I need one of those chain-mail fishing gloves. I'm anxious for JD to chime in and let us know what he used -- I think he stripped this particular female several times.
 
Hi,

Ive done this once with african cichlids with success. Try not to chase the fish around the tank to much. The optimal netting of the fish is quick and painless. try removing all decorations before you try to net the fish. When you have the fish in the net make sure you have a tank ready to put the fry in with a pretty warm temperature of around 80 degrees. But not warmer then that. Finally when you net the parent, open the jaws with a fingernail and release the fry into another net. Dangle the net in the water with the fry securely in the net. Make sure there is gentle flow going through the net. If the fry still have a yolk sac you'll want to keep them in the net with some gentle flow until the yolk sac is gone.

Goodluck with your fry. I hope you have as much success as I did. Make sure not to empty the fry into the tank directly until you see the yolk is gone.
 
Revisiting this.....I did things a little big differently last night...to a 9" female G. altifrons. Turned off the lights and waited till they fell asleep as usual, then went at it with a plastic bag (10"x24", regular bags for fish). It was fairly easy to nudge her into the opening and she didn't struggle in the bag. Dumped her in a bucket with tank water, held with one hand and opened her mouth with a paper clip. A few dozen eggs fell out and are on in a pickle jar with an air stone. Put her back in the tank with no splashing, etc. So in short, I think using a bag instead of a net made a big difference...
 
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