[davy jones]

Whats up have a cichlid mouth brooder who has bin holding just under a month now all fry have hatched!!!! she has spat 1 yesterday and only 1 she still has the rest in her mouth will she spit these herself 4 good (in other words will it get to the stage when she wont let them back into her mouth) any help on this would be great

 

[RRasco]

Yes, she will eventually refuse them. You can either catch her and strip them now, or wait until she decides to spit them herself. I usually see one or two swimmers, then in a day or two the rest will come and stay out.

 

[davy jones]

Yes, she will eventually refuse them. You can either catch her and strip them now, or wait until she decides to spit them herself. I usually see one or two swimmers, then in a day or two the rest will come and stay out.

cheers man :wink: iv looked at striping them and to be honest id rather let her do it to keep stress levels down,, shes quite small aswell its her first time,, so it would be hard enough even trying to get a grip of her without covering her gills ,, thanks again man :thumb:

 

[Glaneon]

The three times I've stripped a momma lab (she gets around!) it has stressed her but she recovers very quickly.

I have the same momma in a holding tank w/another momma and I think I'll be stripping them this week. It's not that bad.

However, if she can spit them herself, that's even better! (she should.. I'm just always nervous about a now hungry momma around little swimming things that look like food!) - you'd think nature would prevent it, at least for a little while...

 

[davy jones]

i was thinkin that alright,,, but she is very small it would be really hard to get a grip of her without covering her gills!!! what do you use to pry her mouth open????? she spat 1 yesterday and 1 today if she does not spit the rest tomorrow ill strip her because im back in work 2morro night and i dont want her to spit while im in work :thumb:

 

[Glaneon]

I use a toothpick.

Couldn't comment on how best to hold, I'm firm but not squeezing and she's usually tired by the time I catch her.

 

[davy jones]

I use a toothpick.

Couldn't comment on how best to hold, I'm firm but not squeezing and she's usually tired by the time I catch her.

iv striped many times with my adults but i usually do this in early stages and use a egg tumbler to raise fry and my method is to use a syringe with water in it but as i said there usually adults and its easy to get a fine grip on them,,
i have to say i was shoked when i seen her holding a few weeks back she came from 1 of my spawns so i knew it was her first time but when i say she was a juvenille she really is tiny :lol: i have never seen a cichlid this size of her species breeding (socolofi)
im sure ill sort sumthing out cheers anyway man i was mostly testing this forum for responses as i only joined its great so far :thumb:

 

[Lestango]

Get back to us on St. Patty's Day and let us know if you've found the pot o' gold :thumb: Top of the mornin' Davy!

Good to hear from the Emerald Isle. One of yours from across the pond.

 

[Glaneon]

I never strip early enough to have yolk. I always wait until the last week.

 

[davy jones]

I never strip early enough to have yolk. I always wait until the last week.

as do i defo a week!!!mainly because my brooders are adults and its quite easy to tell if they have bin fertilized at this stage i would never put them through the stress of striping for unfertilized eggs :wink: in this case she was so small i couldnt even see the eggs :lol: so i decided to let nature take its course!!!!!! i do find breeding in a tumbler to be a much higher success rate off fry it keeps the runt risk down to the bare minimum :wink: nobody likes to cull a fish but hey it has to be done :wink:

 

[Guest]

i jus caught my holding female lethrinop sp nyassae in a big net and kinda guided the net to a fry saver/net breeder... jus left her in there and today i saw a swimmer and she sucked it back up soon as i walked up... so she'll probly spit them next couple days... isnt this easier than catching and making them spit? jus let the mom spit in the net and then remove the mom

 

[davy jones]

i jus caught my holding female lethrinop sp nyassae in a big net and kinda guided the net to a fry saver/net breeder... jus left her in there and today i saw a swimmer and she sucked it back up soon as i walked up... so she'll probly spit them next couple days... isnt this easier than catching and making them spit? jus let the mom spit in the net and then remove the mom

i suppose everybody has there own ways but thers so many things to consider for instance it takes just under a month for the whole procedure from spawn to spit and usually she will not eat a single thing in this time so if you go off for the day and she spits and refuses them entry back into the mouth she will be starving high chance of her eating her whole spawn on you :lol: and with the egg tumbler there is a much higher sucess rate for instance your cichlids grow in her mouth eventualy there becomes less n less room in there sometimes leading some **** to have curved spines etc....(RUNTS) with the egg tumbler you have all the room in the world all there needs met with no risk its just a better way of doing things plus its very stressfull for your fish to go this long without food or constantly hideing to protect her spawn striping takes 10 seconds to do and you can start feeding the mother back to full strenght again as quick as :wink: hope iv educated you a bit instead of boreing you :lol: :lol:

 

[Glaneon]

Never seen that happen. Normally she waits a day before eating, even then she wouldn't chase anything.

You say stripping early is "better" - I don't know that I would say it's better. It's different, and yes it comes with risks.

It's almost impossible to starve a fish. The fish were designed to go long periods without food. If it were stressful to the point of risk there would be no mbuna in the lake as all the moms would eventually die off during birth.

 

[davy jones]

Never seen that happen. Normally she waits a day before eating, even then she wouldn't chase anything.

You say stripping early is "better" - I don't know that I would say it's better. It's different, and yes it comes with risks.

It's almost impossible to starve a fish. The fish were designed to go long periods without food. If it were stressful to the point of risk there would be no mbuna in the lake as all the moms would eventually die off during birth.

imy opinion its better if you want to get technical :lol: :lol: to say its not stressfull is mistakable a big difference between a vast lake and a tank with 4 walls the process stresses them out iv bin breeding cichlids for over 20 years :zz:

 

[Guest]

ok well in my case its only been a week that *** noticed she was holding... but the fact that i saw a wiggler today means that they've hatched obviously right... do they all hatch at the same time? if they are wigglers does that mean that i dont need an egg tumbler? im keeping a close eye on her so she doesnt spit them and eat them so if i do see her spit them ill jus take her out asap and feed her...

 

[DJRansome]

Some posts edited. We appreciate hearing a variety of viewpoints.

 

[Kanorin]

ok well in my case its only been a week that I've noticed she was holding... but the fact that i saw a wiggler today means that they've hatched obviously right.

You saw a wiggler in her mouth or found one that she spit out? Did it have a visible yolk-sac attached to its belly? If she spit one and it has no yolk sac, she will probably spit the remainder soon.

.. do they all hatch at the same time?

Fish don't hatch like birds or reptiles. There is no shell - the egg slowly turns into a free-swimming fish as it uses up the nutrients in the yolk sac. But to answer your question, they should all develop at the same rate.

does that mean that i dont need an egg tumbler?

Correct. If they are free-swimming you do not need to tumble.

 

[Guest]

it was outside her mouth and as i got close she sucked it back in...im not sure.. i only saw it for a split second... but i think there was still a yolk sac... but doesnt that still happen towards the very end? they are only wigglers for a few days right?

 

[davy jones]

if this is the case id presume she has bin holding a lot longer than you think,,,,if you saw a free swimmer its highly unlikely it had a eggsack your best bet is to look at her throat if you see orange faint colors you know theres still eggsacks attached,,if she has a dark blackend throat they are all hatched and nearly ready to go ,,, watch her carefully from the distance she will spit again to let them free swim for a few seconds before sucking them back into her mouth than you know your good to go :thumb: at this point all we can do is speculate its up to you to observe and post back to us as soon as you have a more definite description :wink:

 

[Guest]

ok she spit them all out around 40.. idk how you people get exact precise numbers on how many fry you have when they dart around so much.. anyways... i took her out the breeding net and fed them and she ate.. how long until i feed them the fry crumbles i bought? they look like they are still wigglers i actually put a lil bit of ground up flakes in there and a tiny bit of the fry crumbles and they didnt even go for it so i assume they are still feeding off their yolk sacks.. i dont see any yolk sacks but they didnt go for the food.. is it normal for some of them to die? so far i got 3 dead in the net