had to strip

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herp_mommy

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Jan 3, 2008
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Location
GA, USA
So I found my first holding female WEEKS ago, she still hadn't released the babies so I decided to strip her. A couple babies swam out, but then nothing else. I had to pull out a wad of dead baby bodies from her mouth. This was my first time stripping, and I feel like I waited too late. When should I start stripping if the female hasn't released yet? After 4 weeks? 6? This was her first brood, and I assume she'll get better at parenting. All the other females in the tank have been good parents.
 
They'll learn to do in on their own (after all, mouthbrooders aren't stripped in the wild).

Some prefer to strip the eggs from the mom within a day or two of fertilization (to maximize the quantity of viable fry and eliminate removing the female from the tank thus preserving her social standing in the tank's pecking order). Others prefer to remove the fry once they're capable of being independent (day 14-18).

These days practically all of my mouthbrooders spit fry naturally in the display tank. About every year or two I'll extract a mom and place her in a un-illuminated and fully cycled maternity tank with lots of cover around day 14. They usually spit within a day or three.

Was it easy to strip the mom? Most females will instinctively eject or consume dead fry or unfertilized eggs. It's interesting that you extracted a wad of dead fry from her.

In any event new moms improve as they mature.
 
She was fairly easy to strip. Hard to catch in a 125gal tank though. I don't plan on stripping any more females unless a situation like this happens, where she's holding for almost two months. Glad to hear that she'll improve her parenting skills
 
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