Catching holding cyps

[howmanyds]

I caught my cyprichromis school doing some egg dropping and catching last week (so cool). How long should I wait before trying to catch the females?

 

[Anthonysafricans]

1st time?

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[howmanyds]

Yep - 1st time with cyps. The interesting thing is that even though the dominant male usually chases the other males and females all over, he seemed fine with the subdom doing his thing in plain view AFTER the dominant male had finished fertilizing his females egg's.

Also, is it usual to have multiple females fertilized within an hour or two of each other?

 

[howmanyds]

Am I in danger of them spitting the eggs if I wait too long to catch them? Would that be two weeks or so?

 

[Anthonysafricans]

1 week but I like to left my females hold till term 1st time and see if they can n strip once wigglers are viewable

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[howmanyds]

Waiting one week of holding puts them in danger of spitting?

They sometimes can't hold to term? Would that be if they're too young?

Once wiggles are viewable wouldn't that mean the little guys are sometimes swimming outside their mothers' mouths? I don't expect anybody in my tank to survive at that point.

 

[Freakgecko91]

Most mouth brooders end up swallow or messing up the first batch. My LFS has a breeding colony of paracyprochromis nigripinnis and I have watched him strip them before. They are an established colony and he strips them as one would strip an mbuna, although they seem to release a bit more easily. That's just what I've seen, I have no personal experience with it myself

 

[Anthonysafricans]

N just strip ma K es life easier. I usually let my females hole till full term. Once I see them holding wigglers I. Mouth I strip them is what I was saying. No sometimes they swallow sometimes they spit. Yes cause of age or never doing it before or stress. And yes but mothers don't let them swim unless they feel safe.

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[howmanyds]

If I contain the females in my fry box wouldn't they eventually just let them go and I could return the females to the colony?

 

[Anthonysafricans]

Do you have a 10g tank set up works great but she will try to suck them back up...stripping is best way I got 21 utinta right now stripped from 2 females

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[howmanyds]

So if I leave them in the big tank until I see wigglers is it likely that I'll lose a bunch just from the females letting them out a little bit? Or do the moms do a pretty good job even with bigger fish lurking?

 

[howmanyds]

If the females don't feel the tank is safe enough, how long will they hold the fry? We're at three weeks now and the two females' buccal cavities are very distended. We can see wigglers through her translucent skin, but we've never seen them through her mouth opening. I'd like to try to strip now. Is it time?

I'm going to have to take all the rocks out of my tank in order to catch them, because every time I put my net into the water the whole school of them seems to protect the females, clustering around them in the hardest cave to catch. Is that normal? However the males also do a lot of nipping of the females. It's a little worrisome.