A HUGE mouthful of fry!!

[DizzCat]

Mbuna are mouth brooders, which means when they spawn the take the eggs in their mouths. They then hold then for 21 days, until they fry are completely developed.

HOWEVER.... some mom's don't want to let theirs go LOL. Here is my Red Zebra mom who is waaay past due! Look at that mouthful! You can see all the fry smashed up in there. They look like they are saying "Let us out Mom!!"
Here she is in action.
Afican Vids :: Mom with a mouthful! video by dizzcat45 - Photobucket

 

[mgamer20o0]

nice.

 

[h8z2luze]

haha thats awesome!!!

 

[match55]

man this is awsome!!!!

 

[Sicklid]

Great shot Dizz, lol...

 

[HondaKid]

That's a great shot Dizz. Your tank looks great as well!

You sure have a way with "titles" though, first your Craigslist ad now your movie title. Maybe I should just get my mind out of the gutter!

 

[BolivianRams]

lol strip her! jk

 

[DizzCat]

Well, her mouth is closing a little better today, so I figure a couple escaped LOL

 

[h8z2luze]

haha hope they all escape soon.

 

[Sonomakid]

Awsome Pic... congrats on the fry !

 

[mbuna Brandon]

What a great picture. I have three holding fry in my tank

 

[DizzCat]

Here is one of the tiny ones that made it. This little guy is still holding his own and twice as big today, a week or so later!

 

[DizzCat]

Hey wow! After the video of the little one and the vids show up at the bottom, if you scroll over to the right the last one called Mbuna Kids is another one of my vids!

That one is a mix of Red Zebra and Yellow lab fry at about a month old in a 10 gallon grow out tank. Same mom Red.

 

[tolaez]

my yellow labs have done this a few times now.. I assume they are set free then immediately eaten by my other fish. what do you do in a grow out tank?

 

[DizzCat]

what do you do in a grow out tank?

If the fry are released in the main tank it is almost certain they will be eaten. This is a good thing if you don't want an excess of fish. If I saved every batch since I started keeping Mbuna, I would have fish from under an inch to full grown adults now. Probably over 300 by now.

If you do want to grow out the fry, the best way is to set up a grow out tank. This can be from a 10 gallon and up. Anything below a 10 gallon is too small. Mine is fairly bare, just a couple fake plants in each back corner, a small rock pile in the middle for the mom to spit in and a pot for her to hang out in.

After I notice a female holding, I wait a week before I catch her and put her in the grow out tank. If you wait a week, the eggs have hatched and its less likely she will swallow the fry. Once she is in there, you don't feed her. She will not eat and any food you put in will just rot. After about 19-23 days, (from the time she spawned) she will start releasing fry into the rock pile. It can take a couple days for the mom to let them all go. When I suspect mine is done, I drop a pellet in to see if she eats it. If she does I know she is done. I then leave her in with the fry for a day, feeding her a couple pellets at a time every few hours. I then put her back in the main tank. Mbuna fry are fairly big so they can eat crushed flakes. I just take a pinch, crush it in my palm and drop it in. I leave them in there until they are about 1.5" then trade them in to my lfs for credit. Its a good way to up your stock numbers too. An example is my Red Zebras. I started out with 3, one male and two females. I kept a couple from their first batch.

 

[tolaez]

thanks for the reply.. do i need to do anything special to keep the little guys alive? do i need to turn off my filter or something?

 

[Etunes]

Thanks for giving that input for me as well, i was kinda interested in your process.

 

[DizzCat]

Your welcome

do i need to turn off my filter or something?

Until the fry are about a month old, I keep the filter running on low. I also keep a piece of nylon over the intake. I buy cheap nylons (the knee highs) at the dollar store. I cut a piece big enough to cover the intake of the filter and keep it on with a small rubber band. You can also use netting. Turn the filter to the lowest level so the fry can resist the sucking of the intake.

That is the only thing that needs to be done different. I keep the tank fairly bare just because its easier to clean. Mbuna fry are very strong when released so don't need anything special really.
Good luck!