I am new to mouth brooders and am reading a lot of conflicting information. I have a young female who is holding her first brood and I am unsure when or if I should strip (force her to release). This is her first time and she is very young, about 2.5" I don't know how long she has been holding and only notices about a week ago, two days ago it became clear the most or all of her eggs have hatched. She has been moved to a small tank and she is yet to release her young. I am concerned about her for a few reason for one her colour has faded quite a bit and her gills are very red and she is flaring them. She is still very young and small, one of the smaller females I have and I know that they do get quite thin when holding which she is. What I would like to know is it better to let her continue holding her young and if so foe how much longer or if I would be safer to strip her. Any advice from someone with experience would be appreciated.
Red Zebra Holding -If or when to strip??
- Thread starter Kyanite
- Start date
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spoonman
Aquarium Advice Addict
You could drop a PM to a user called dizzcat. She has a ton of experience in this area.... Good luck!
mfdrookie516
Aquarium Free - 2+ Years
Welcome to AA 
Congrats on a holding female! I dont have any experience with them, but i will hopefully as i have a bumblebee thats holding I say let her spit them on her own. From what ive heard from several friends who have had several batches of fry, the female will really look bad for a while because they dont generally eat and it is a pretty hard job taking care of those fry. You might search through the members and shoot dizzcat a pm... she has quite a bit of experience with mbuna, and several pictures of her red zebras holding.
EDIT: Me and spoonman had the same idea lol
Congrats on a holding female! I dont have any experience with them, but i will hopefully as i have a bumblebee thats holding I say let her spit them on her own. From what ive heard from several friends who have had several batches of fry, the female will really look bad for a while because they dont generally eat and it is a pretty hard job taking care of those fry. You might search through the members and shoot dizzcat a pm... she has quite a bit of experience with mbuna, and several pictures of her red zebras holding.EDIT: Me and spoonman had the same idea lol
Aquarium1
Aquarium Advice Addict
spoonman
Aquarium Advice Addict
I just pulled my first holding yellow lab out of my 115G and put it in a 10G with a very small pleco. I just left it in the 10 until she released on her own. She was also about 2.5 to 3" long and I think it was her first time holding. She released and I have 5 or 6 babies in the 10 and put the mom back in the 115 with the rest of my Mbuna. All are doing well. She did look bad for a while though. I think they only hold for about 2 weeks, so it shouldnt be longer than that.
DizzCat
Aquarium Advice Freak
Thanks for the vote of confidence guys!
Kaynite, she looks fine to me. My Red Zebra mom's gills always get red and stick out as it gets time to release because their mouths are so full. It would be best to let her do it on her own. She is inexperienced and if you have never stripped before, you could stress both of you out too much. She will slowly release them over a few days time when the time is right. She may even collect them in her mouth again and care for them a few days after she starts to release them. I have found that my experienced mom's do that.
When I suspect a mom is done releasing I will drop a pellet in to see if she eats it. If not, she still has a few in her mouth. Some fry grow faster than others and the mom releases the biggest first.
Holding mom's will look very skinny and may be pale towards then end because they have not ate in 3 weeks. I have two Acei mom's at the end of their holding and they are skinny and pitiful looking!
Because she is so small, she probably only has between 5-15 fry in there. My full grown mom's can carry up to 30 now. I have a young Red (3") who held last month for the first time and she only had about 5. Her mom, who is over 4" released over 25 a few days later.
When you see fry in the tank with her, drop in some finely crushed up flake food for them. Give the mom a pellet or two to see if she eats. I feed mine pellets, so for fry I crush some up in an old coffee grinder to make it into a powder.
Here is a cool video of my older, experienced mom taking care of her fry. See how her gills are still red? She is collecting the fry and spitting them back out.
YouTube - BestMom.MOV
Good luck!
Kaynite, she looks fine to me. My Red Zebra mom's gills always get red and stick out as it gets time to release because their mouths are so full. It would be best to let her do it on her own. She is inexperienced and if you have never stripped before, you could stress both of you out too much. She will slowly release them over a few days time when the time is right. She may even collect them in her mouth again and care for them a few days after she starts to release them. I have found that my experienced mom's do that.
When I suspect a mom is done releasing I will drop a pellet in to see if she eats it. If not, she still has a few in her mouth. Some fry grow faster than others and the mom releases the biggest first.
Holding mom's will look very skinny and may be pale towards then end because they have not ate in 3 weeks. I have two Acei mom's at the end of their holding and they are skinny and pitiful looking!
Because she is so small, she probably only has between 5-15 fry in there. My full grown mom's can carry up to 30 now. I have a young Red (3") who held last month for the first time and she only had about 5. Her mom, who is over 4" released over 25 a few days later.
When you see fry in the tank with her, drop in some finely crushed up flake food for them. Give the mom a pellet or two to see if she eats. I feed mine pellets, so for fry I crush some up in an old coffee grinder to make it into a powder.
Here is a cool video of my older, experienced mom taking care of her fry. See how her gills are still red? She is collecting the fry and spitting them back out.
YouTube - BestMom.MOV
Good luck!
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