[toume]

I've read the articles in the library. However, stripping scares the **** out of me.

I'm re-homing this female, but she just started holding, and I don't want to give her away with babies though. It's only been 1 or 2 days (since I noticed it). I'm fairly certain there are only eggs (not bodies) in there. Kind in mine, the female's tiny--I'm worried about hurting her when I hold her (to strip). She's 1.5".

My question: If I hold her upside down, will the eggs just fall out? The articles usually say the fry will swim out, but I don't have time to wait for that.

 

[ktaylor]

after watching the video in the library, i became a first-time stripper!

it's really easy. i stripped a yellow lab, got 13 fry - very amazing to see them puff out of the mother's mouth. i didnt get them all though ( saw a couple in the 75g after i put back the female). i will dunk her a few more times in future.

i was concerned about injuring the mother, but NO BAD THINGS HAPPENED. fry ate, grew amazingly fast, lost none.

give it a try.

 

[exasperatus2002]

I too have stripped yellow labs, 3 of them. But I always waited till the 3rd week so I had free swimming fry instead of eggs. The babies came out on their own. I just didnt want to deal with tumbling the eggs if I had a female in good health thats carrying them. Your first time you may feel worried you'll hurt her but they're not fine china. You'll do ok.

 

[GaFishMan1181]

I've done it at least a dozen times and have only had 2 things go wrong. Once i did it too early and the fish couldnt swim so i put them in a small tank with a big HOB that moved them around.
The other time i accidential dropped the fish into the tank the babies were in and she thrashed around and smashed a couple of them.

Its easy after a few times. For me i wait till day 24 or close to it if i dont know for sure. I cut a qtip in half and use the hard middle part to open there mouths. Then i dunk them about 3 times to make sure i get them all. Then i put the female right back into the main tank she came from.

 

[toume]

Yeah, this was my problem--i wasn't planning to salvage the fry. I was just re-homing her, and didn't want to give the new owner babies.

It went fine though. Eggs kinda just went plop plop into the small cup I had waiting below.

Normally, I let the mothers spit naturally. I don't want to damage the jaw etc, plus they seem to spit really fast (don't take the normal 31 days). Once I see the gullet forming under the jaw, I move to the fry tank. Once mom sees she's alone in the tank, she spits the babies out in a few days--sometimes in a few hrs (if I'm late seeing her holding). Sometimes the fry are bigger sometimes smaller depending on the female.

Maybe I miss the first week of holding because it's not as obvious (to the eye), but usually fry are out of mom's mouth by day 21.