I just measured my fish. I always thought my largest female was 4-5". I was wrong. She is measured from nose to tail at 6.5"... Now the alpha male is at least 2" more than her so he is about 8.5-9"
Well, the reason why I pull them out is that there were spawning going on. She dropped her tube 2 days ago. And this afternoon, she did lay her eggs. Here is a picture of her holding.
This is almost exactly a year after I bought the group from Steve Perryman. She has total including this time 5 spawns. The earlier 4 spawns were not full term. She split her eggs from 2-10days. So after a 5 minutes debate inside my head, I decided to strip her. Here is a picture of her eggs.
I crushed a few eggs cause my female jumped out from my hand while I was striping her and damage a few eggs. And some eggs appear to have some white stuffs on them. They are not fungus. They are actually some string like stuffs attaching the eggs while she lays them. They do come over after a gentle rocking back and fore in the water.
Well, I still have to take the damaged eggs out but I don't want to bother the fish anymore tonight. I will take them out first thing in the morning. What an exciting night.
I've had a group of wild Bismarks for about 10 months now and like you I have always let the females hold them and they end up spitting or swallowing them. 7 spawns I've been patient!! I've decided next time they get stripped and tumbled.
this group i have consists of 2m/3f wc. this is the 7 spawns of the group. largest female spawned 5 times total n 1 for eah of the other females. none held full term so i striped this time.
i have a floating container in the tank when i strip the mom. then i just pour the eggs with the water into the tumblers.
Man i need to get my kigoma to breed but i have 1 male and a female. I need to get some more females. How do you strip them and how long do you wait. Have you been bitten while stripping them?
On the other hand, my smallest female measured at 5.5"+ is holding this morning... Still deciding if I want to strip her. This is her second hold since july 2004
Finally got a tumber and return home around 5pm. Realize the female (the one with eggs) 's mouth is very small compare to this morning. I strip her right away and gotten only 8 eggs. Oh well... perhaps the male is too tired for all this spawning. Or she just released some or swallow some.
Got 3 tumbler going now.
#1 has 9 eggs. I can see half of them starting to show a line in the middle.
#2 has 13 eggs. Some as #1... half of them starting to show a line in the middle
#3 has 8 eggs. Still very fresh from her mouth. And no white on any of them.
After the filter died last night, I have to take it all out and clean it. All the dirt and junks and craps spilled into the main tank. I am not sure this will affect the eggs but it sure seems that way tonight.
As of today
Tumbler #1 went from 9 to 6 /15 eggs
Tumbler #2 went from 13 to 8 / 15 eggs
Total 8 bad eggs in a day. And all of those were looking good before the filter died.
Tumbler #3 is still 8 / 8 eggs and they are pretty fresh... I guess too soon to know. However, 3 out of 8 eggs developed a hole in the middle of the egg.
Now I can tell the different between unfertile egg and fungus attack. With 10 bad eggs per tumbler, some were attacked by fungus, some were just unfertile, it will be more clear on the next time. Anyway, here is the report at day 4.
Tumbler #1 starts with 15 eggs on July/15/2005, and now it has 4 eggs remain. All were doing good except that one egg already showing tail and head has a small fungus growing at the other side of the egg. To ensure it won't spread, I took the remaining 3 eggs out and put them in tumbler #2. I thought this fungus will spread and kill the egg. But that little one is a figther. I can see that its tail is still moving and fungus changing from big to small to midium size now. My hope is not high for it though.
Tumbler #2 starts with 15 eggs on July/15/2005, and now it has 5 eggs remain. Some are showing tail. Some are showing the stage before the tail appears. The egg will start to change shape; started with an egg shape and slowly deforming into like a corn shape with a line in the middle. Then one end usually the smaller end will change color with black dots appearing. Then it starts to show the blood line. And then the tail and head will appear.
Here are a couple pictures.
Tumbler #3 starts with 8 eggs on July/17/2005- it has 3 eggs remain. I can see 2 of the eggs are having the deform shape or stage. 1 still remains egg shape. Usually, this mean it is a bad eggs.
Congratulations Charles looks like your on your way to raising some F1 Kitumba fry .Remember that i have some F1 Moba that we can do an exchange :wink:
Do you feel that by stripping early you reduced your success rate or do you think it would have been worse, let's say, if you added a week before stripping...I know you don't know for sure, but what does your gut tell you?
(Good information for those who haven't stripped a Zaire yet)
Still crossing those fingers for the remainder....
To tell you the truth, I would still strip on the first day.
Remember, this is only true about my fish. I am not saying every fish is the same...
Reason, my fish lost eggs anywhere from 2-10days before in 6 spawns. I striped about 30 eggs from 1 female day 1, and 8 eggs from the other female in day 2. So far, it looks like I lost 22 eggs from the first female, and 7 eggs from the second. Most of the eggs I lost is deal to unfertile. I can tell now since I watch them grow every morning and night.
The unfertile eggs actually desolve in water even with a very very soft touch. I believe this is how a female can tell if the egg is unfertile in her mouth. A gentle rolling in her mouth will cause the eggs to break. So, what about fungus, will that also spread easily with the limited room in the female's mouth. I would think so. I divided all the eggs with 3 tumblers and this seem to have very little fungus problem. So far, I can clearly tell that only 5 eggs death was deal to fungus.
By striping later, you are getting the end result of those bad eggs already been taken out by the female. I would not think with my case this time will make that much of the different. Perhaps worest cause I might get my remainer 8 eggs to break or swallow accidentally by the female.
I know that most people strip after 5 days. I can tell you that after 5 days, most unfertile eggs are gone by then. So, you will most likely get a 90% survival rate. So, it is really up to you. I would continue to strip if I want frys. If not, I will let the female to hold.
My females must of been reading over my should as I talked about them because one of them spawned 8) 26 eggs! I broke one 8(
I'm tumbling them hopefully I'll get good results.
Good luck with your remaining eggs!!!
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