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Female yellow lab making her own nest

816 views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  DJRansome 
#1 ·
I have a mature female yellow lab, a juvie male yellow lab and an adult male red zebra(?). The female clearly has eggs she's ready to lay and has made her own nest. Both males are mostly ignoring her despite the red zebra usually harassing her. She seems to be trying to get their attention but they both mostly seem intimidated by her somewhat frenetic activity. What can I expect? And how disruptive will a 50% water change be...I planned to do that tomorrow before she made this nest...I admit that the last time she built a nest, I destroyed it. Didn't realize what she was up to and just smoothed out the substrate while vacuuming.

By the way...I inherited this tank w the fish and I'm a newbie. I suspect that all the cichlids are really mutts. There are a plecko and 3 rainbow sharks in here as well. 55 gallon.
 
#2 ·
Welcome to Cichlid-forum!

The nest is just to lure a mate and has nothing to do with eggs. When fish are ready to spawn, there is really no "luring" necessary. When eggs are laid she will pick them up in her mouth and hold them there until they are free-swimming in about 28 days.

Change water as usual, suction substrate, there is no reason to preserve the spot.

When she spits out the babies, she and the others in the tank will eat them...which is fine since they are mutts and way too many for a 55G in any case.
 
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