Death of Lemon Yellow Cichlid and Brood due to Lockjaw (?)

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Menagerie

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Joined
Jan 17, 2004
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Location
Vancouver, WA
Last night my fiancé and I took out the Lemon Yellow from the 80G cichlid tank and placed her in the infirmary tank, so she could have her brood in piece. All was well last night, we had no reason to expect problems—we had done this before with the P. socolofi and the water used was siphoned from the 80G tank. No problems were seen this morning. When we returned this evening, she had spit out all the fry (still attached to egg sacs) and she was barely breathing and her mouth was open. My fiancé grabbed her out of the tank and brought her to the 80G tank and pushed water over her gills, she was unable to close her mouth. She got weaker over the next few minutes and was put down. We do not know how long the fry were without fresh aerated water, since that is the mother’s job and having no way to tumble them, they were put down.
I have spent all evening trying to figure out what went wrong and have only found a small reference to cichlid lockjaw. Is anyone aware of this problem?
This is very upsetting, since I know we will be pulling another mother-to-be out of the tank sooner-or-later. My fiancé comforted me with talk of evolution—how the mouth brooders lower their throats and she may have dislodged part of her anatomy. 8O This may be the case, but I have read many articles on cichlid breeding, and am in the midst of The Cichlid Fishes: Natures Grand Experiment in Evolution by GW Barlow and I have NEVER seen any mention of cichlid lockjaw.
Please provide any information you may have.
TIA--Meghan
 
Hiya Menagerie and welcome to Aquariumadvice.

Wow, I'm sorry about your Lemon Yellow, and the fry...ack :(

The only info I can find is a short article about "Velcro closing syndrome". Unfortunately its not very detailed and the author is actually looking for info, but it may be a place to start: http://www.cichlidae.com/articles/a029.html

Just another thought, but is it possible she somehow managed to injure her jaw in the move? I know one has to be very careful when stripping mouth brooders as if one is too rough it can injure the fish; I wonder if she somehow managed to wrench her jaw in the move...
 
Thanks for the article link.
As far as any injury to Lemon Yellow, she was handled with care; in the same manner we have taken other fish from the 80G. She was simply netted and placed in the infirmary tank. The fry were not stripped from her. I have read numerous articles on stripping fry and see no reason for it since the mother does a great job on her own. The only reason for removing the mother at all is the threat of predation. Last month one of the fish was brooding (we did not even know it!) and she spit the fry out during feeding. The little fry were helpless and suddenly they were all gone. :(
 
I hope you didn't get the impression I thought you guys were rough with her! If so, I apologise; wasn't my intent. Rather I was wondering, perchance she had thrashed in the net while being moved, if it was possible she had hurt herself.

Unfortunately I don't have any mouth brooders, so I have no personal experience to share with you (I have rams who will mouth fry but only to move em LOL not quite the same). Hopefully some of our Africans experts will pop in with some more suggestions.

And while it sucks you've lost quite a number of fry recently it sounds like your tanks are in great shape - to have all those fish breeding is a testament to your water husbandry. Running a fertility clinic there eh? ;)

Awesome :)
 
No, I was just clarifying the events of that evening. :cry: I just wish I knew why she died so I know the warning signs in the event it ever happens again.
Although our water husbandry is good, I wish our fish would stop breeding. We purposely bought different species and the brightest ones--figuring they would all be male! I give up trying to figure these fish out!
 
Thanks!
From the article Some Oddities In My Tank by Marc Elieson:
...the fry happily swimming about in the pitcher but found the female dead. Her gills were still enlarged and her mouth was fixed in an open position. It was very odd the way she died. I don't think she was too emaciated or fatigued. The only thing I can think of is that she ran out of oxygen.
Wow, that's exactly what happened, except in my case, the fry were too frail to survive on their own. I wonder why this phenomenon is not documented more often?
 
Aticle? Oi, wheres the spelling police when you need em ;)

Yeah, I saw that article and immediately thought of you Menagerie, and you bring up a good point. Its obviously a rare occurance, but DOES happen. I too wonder why its not documented as well. If I can remember, I'll check at the next GCAS (Greater City Aquarium Society) club mtg; one of the honchos is also on one of the main US cichlid club boards - she might know, or know who to talk to. Key here is, if I can remember tho LOL
 
Sorry to hear about your fish.

am in the midst of The Cichlid Fishes: Natures Grand Experiment in Evolution by GW Barlow and I have NEVER seen any mention of cichlid lockjaw.
I just finished that book, I thought it was great! Full of great information and put together in an interesting way. Almost nothing at all about keeping fish in aquariums though.
 
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