Lake Malawi Species • Should I start stripping?

[Chrislisk]

I’ve been breeding Demasoni fairly successfully for nearly a year, thanks to DJramson for all his help. I’ve now set up my second breeder of Hongi Swedens. I currently have tanks all over the house with either holding females and fry in tanks at different stages. My issue is the holding females I separate on their own take so long to spit and I need to free up tanks for other holding females. Im thinking If I could strip them, I could do about 4 fish right now into one tank.....which would be amazing but...........stripping worries me. I’m worried I will hurt or damage the fish, worried I will break it’s mouth or something, and worried I will do it completely wrong. I’ve watched you tube and people make it look easy but I’m thinking it won’t be. What’s everyone’s advice and does anyone have any great tips on how to make stripping really simple and easy. Or is stripping just a bad practise and not worth doing or even trying it. Thanks

[SenorStrum]

I was going to tell you that there are easier ways to make money, but then I read the rest of the question...

[Chrislisk]

There are much easier lol. I don’t just do it for money though I really enjoy it. But these holding females are clogging up the tanks lol. I’ve just plucked up the courage and tried to strip a female who has been isolated and holding for about 2 weeks. Epic failure!!!! I caught her in hand easy but........trying to open her mouth was tricky, she is still small and using the end of a cotton bud without the cotton was not working. I was soooooo worried I was hurting her and was not sure which part of her mouth I was trying to open as she still young. I tried maybe 5 times and then gave up, she is back in chilling in her tank.

[sir_keith]

Depends. What are your measurements?

[DJRansome]

Depends. What are your measurements?

Eeeww.

[DJRansome]

I don't strip my females, but I also don't save all batches of fry. I only remove a holding mom from a tank at 18 days and let her strip on her own. That said, I don't think it is a bad practice, but I agree it is not as easy as described.

[sir_keith]

This is an entirely personal opinion, but I would never strip any of my fishes unless-

(1) I was producing fry from an endangered population, with the goal of sustaining that species in captivity and/or repopulating those fishes into the wild.

(2) I had a rare and/or valuable female whose health was at risk in carrying the brood to term.

Otherwise, why bother? To produce more fry for the aquarium trade? Is that so important?

You'll hear opinions that mouthbrooding females 'don't mind' being striped, and in any event, it's easier on them than carrying to term. This is nonsense. Striping is invasive and traumatic, and I would never do that to any of my fishes unless absolutely necessary. And then there's the issue of parental imprinting of the fry...

As I said, a personal choice on my part.

[Auballagh]

+1 to anti-stripping recommendations IRT female mouth brooding Cichlids.
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I've only done this thing ONCE. And only really that one time just to see what all of the fuss was about. Whew! That poor Labeotroheus fullebroni female. And yes, she did give up the fry. And no.... she wasn't injured by the procedure ( I suspect I was more traumatized by doing it to her, than she was actually in having it done...).
And later on, I actually DID have a circumstance that met both of 'sir_keith's' stripping criteria.
(1) WC Geophagus crassilabris. That species is definitely few in number in the wild. Population sustainment in captivity to promote hardier, tank-bred fish was definitely an important consideration.
(2) The female had definitely been 'rode hard' by the dominant male in the harem, who was proving to be a bit of 'wife beater' - even in a 6-foot long 180 gallon tank.
So after placement In quarantine to heal this girl up, I definitely considered stripping those babies out. Glad I didn't - she spit 'em out normally without any help, and ultimately recovered her health just fine.
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So No. I definitely DO NOT advocate stripping fry from holding female Cichlids.

[Chrislisk]

Ok so it sounds like a resounding NO don’t strip. I think my issue is that as soon as I see a female holding I remove her and that’s what is clogging up my tanks as the sit there for weeks. I’ll take advice from your experiences and when I see a female holding I will not the date and plot forward 18 days and look to remove them at that point. At least that way they won’t take the tank up for too long.

[sir_keith]

You can always just leave the brooding female in the colony, and let her release there. Perhaps some of her fry will survive, perhaps not, but either way she will be fine. Apparently some Mbuna hunt down fry relentlessly; others only opportunistically, but I haven't kept any of these fishes in years, so have no recent experience. However, I do know that well-fed Tropheus will not bother with newly released fry, and a tank with both adults and fry living together is super cool. This old pic of my Tropheus sp. 'black' Bemba colony shows what I mean-