Lake Malawi Species • mbuna & kribensis babies ?

[t.karkoulis]

Hello,

I have a couple labs/acei/estharea and 3 kribensis, who gave birth now and i have around 10 krib babies. they are tiny but the parents defend their cave like crazy, even the huge acei get scared off. Still though... theres a lot of mobility around the cave...

Can i separate the parents from fry? I suppose they are around 2 days old now. If i do use a breeding net ( i have a large one ) can/should i put the parents in there as well?

thanks!

[cichlidaholic]

Wouldn't you prefer removing the mbuna and leaving the kribs with their fry so they can do their thing?

This is why mbuna really shouldn't be kept with kribs, and you're just going to have a repeat performance every few weeks.

They really need seperate tanks.

If you put the fry in a breeding net, they will manage to disappear...Larger fish have no problem sucking them through the net, and the mbuna will do it in a heart beat. Besides, life in a breeder net won't be alot of fun for the fry, nor can you keep the breeder net clean enough to allow them to grow at their normal potential. If you confine parents and fry to a breeder net, the parents may eat the fry themselves. You're really better off to leave the parents and fry alone, unless you have another tank to move them to.

[t.karkoulis]

hmmm... one more tank left but its a guppy tank.... any thoughts? + a 2 gallon one which is a hospital tank and doesnt have any aquascaping etc...

when you say move kribs, you mean parents as well or just fry?

[cichlidaholic]

What size tank are they in now?

What size tank do you have an option to move them to? (Forget the 2G tank...)

[t.karkoulis]

70g now, guppy tank is wee. 20g at best, i think its 15 or something.