Mouth brooding???

[johmartz]

I have a 75 gallon cichlid tank and it is supposedly all-male. However, I have recently noticed that my only electric yellow lab has been mouthing something and it seems like there is an obvious bulge in the chin area. Also, I have noticed that it would sometimes move its mouth or flare it's gills like trying to pass water through it. Most of the time it is hiding behind the rocks and come feeding time it would come out but would not eat anything. Is it brooding some eggs or fry in its mouth or is it sick? Do they eat when they are brooding? I checked my parameters last Saturday and the ammonia and nitrites were 0, but the nitrates were between 40-80 ppm. I did a 20% pwc immediately to bring the nitrate levels down. The rest of my fish are doing great! I'll try to get a picture of the yellow lab when it comes out of the rock. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[HUKIT]

My guess is she's holding. Smaller females generally do not eat during this process but my larger and more experienced females will. This will last anywhere from 23-28 days before she spits them out. So you have some time to decide whether to remove and strip her or let her spit in the main tank which will result in the majority of the fry being eaten.

http://www.ratemyfishtank.com/phpbb/viewtopic//images/post/11df4-PICT0014.JPG

Here's a pic or a holding lab.

 

[johmartz]

My guess is she's holding. Smaller females generally do not eat during this process but my larger and more experienced females will. This will last anywhere from 23-28 days before she spits them out. So you have some time to decide whether to remove and strip her or let her spit in the main tank which will result in the majority of the fry being eaten.

http://www.ratemyfishtank.com/phpbb/viewtopic//images/post/11df4-PICT0014.JPG

Here's a pic or a holding lab.

Thanks for the response. My fish looks like the photo in the link. When I get a chance I'll take a picture of it. Would the eggs be fertilized even when there is no male yellow lab? If they are then the fries will be hybrids and I am curious as to what they would look like.

 

[HUKIT]

Any mouth brooder will mate with any other mouth brooder. People get all worked up about hybrids but as long as your not selling them don't worry and enjoy.

Are you going to strip her or let her spit in the main tank?

Also without venting your fish it's sometimes impossible to tell if they are male or female. How are trying to sex them?

 

[johmartz]

Any mouth brooder will mate with any other mouth brooder. People get all worked up about hybrids but as long as your not selling them don't worry and enjoy.

Are you going to strip her or let her spit in the main tank?

Also without venting your fish it's sometimes impossible to tell if they are male or female. How are trying to sex them?

How do you strip the fish? I might let her spit in the main tank. If the fries survive well and good.

I usually ask my lfs if they are males or females when I buy them.

 

[HUKIT]

Here's a article below on venting.

Determing Your Cichlids' Gender

 

[johmartz]

Here's a article below on venting.

Determing Your Cichlids' Gender

Thanks for the article. It is very informative and helpful. I am attaching a picture of my fish. I was finally able to take a quick shot when it came out during feeding time.

 

[spoonman]

Definately holding! Congrats. What it is holding may be another matter altogether!! LOL Like said in an earlier post, mouthbrooders tend to mix. But, IMO if you dont sell them, who cares? My Mbuna are constantly breeding. I just provide lots of rocks and caves. About 2-3 survive out of each batch. Curious as to why you thought it was a male? It has a very light black line on the dorsal fin. Usually the males have a much more distinct black line. My male also has black lower fins and kind of a beard of black on its face. Egg spots can be decieving, I have a couple of females of different varieties that have eggspots.

 

[johmartz]

Definately holding! Congrats. What it is holding may be another matter altogether!! LOL Like said in an earlier post, mouthbrooders tend to mix. But, IMO if you dont sell them, who cares? My Mbuna are constantly breeding. I just provide lots of rocks and caves. About 2-3 survive out of each batch.

Thanks spoonman. I don't really have any intention of selling any offspring if they survive. It would be interesting to see what will come out. Haha!

Will keep you guys posted!

 

[HUKIT]

Most of the time my hybrids are yuck. Remember when you were little and tried coloring with every crayon hoping for a cool color but always turned out like diaharea well that's what some hybrids will look like.

My fry never survive unless I strip her due to my reef ready tank...always get sucked up the overflows.

 

[zanegary]

Mouth-brooding, also known as the incubation period of the mouth and the incubation period of oral treatment will be provided for certain groups of animals by keeping them in the parent descendants mouth for a long time. Although mouth-brooding perform a variety of animals, especially in Darwin's frogs, fish are by far the most versatile mouth-brooders. Mouth-brooding has evolved independently in different families of fish.

 

[johmartz]

Just an update on my yellow lab that was holding. Today I noticed that her mouth doesn't seem so full anymore. So, I guess the eggs have hatched. However, I don't see any fries swimming around her. My guess is she either ate them or the others did. My kids were devastated. They were looking forward to seeing little fishies swimming around.

 

[HUKIT]

I have 300lbs. of holey rock in my 150 and the only time I've ever had fry survive is I remove the female or if I leave them in the tank they get sucked up the overflows and I've even found them in my sump( I bet that was a fun ride).

 

[Fdsh5]

I had five of my last fry survive. Never noticed anything and then suddenly my daughter saw the swimming around. It was real fun removing every piece of rock so I could relocate them to the nursery tank. Please note the sarcasm. Now I have a holding female in the nursery tank awaiting her to let go.

Sent from my iPod touch using Aquarium

 

[johmartz]

LATEST UPDATE... After dinner, I decided to give my 75G cichlid tank a thorough scrutiny and, as I was looking under the hollow log, I found a little yellow cichlid fry! My kids are so excited and happy to see it and they can't wait to see it grow. Hopefully this one will survive the big ones around it. I will be keeping my eyes on it. I wonder if there are more than one...

 

[johmartz]

Found another cichlid holding. My powder blue socolofi turned out to be a female. Well, will see if these fries survive this time.

 

[HUKIT]

I generally have 7-10 fish holding at any given time. I can't get any fry to live in the display tank unless they get sucked into the overflows or I remove the mothers. I currently have 3 20 long tanks growing fry, so believe me they will multiply quickly. Good luck.

 

[johmartz]

I can't get any fry to live in the display tank unless they get sucked into the overflows or I remove the mothers.

At what point do you start removing the mothers from the main tank? Thanks.

 

[HUKIT]

I remove them around the 3 week mark and wait for them to spit in a 10 gallon tank. I have stripped them in the past but this just seems to stressful on the fish. After they spit I transfer the fry to a series of divided 20g long tanks and leave the mother in the 10g for a day or two to recoup then back to the display tank. I sell my peacock fry since the german reds, ngara flametails ,and lemon jakes fetch a pretty penny around here. The mbuna don't sell quickly unless its the afra cobue, those I remove.

 

[johmartz]

I remove them around the 3 week mark and wait for them to spit in a 10 gallon tank. I have stripped them in the past but this just seems to stressful on the fish. After they spit I transfer the fry to a series of divided 20g long tanks and leave the mother in the 10g for a day or two to recoup then back to the display tank. I sell my peacock fry since the german reds, ngara flametails ,and lemon jakes fetch a pretty penny around here. The mbuna don't sell quickly unless its the afra cobue, those I remove.

Thanks. Wish me luck in netting the holding female since I had difficulty catching the other one the last time. They hide behind the rocks and, unless I remove the rocks, I don't think it's possible to net them. Maybe then it would be time to clean behind those rocks. It's been a while since I gave that area a thorough vacuuming.