Red Zebra Mom Caring for her fry

[DizzCat]

I have been having fun watching my experienced Red Zebra mom taking care of her fry the past few days. She has held at least 20 times now in the past year, but the only time I have put her in a separate tank was the first 2 times she held. She was very inexperienced then, so did not do this. This time, I have a guy who wants the fry and since I was going to have a houseful of company I set her aside so I didn't have to worry about catching her to strip her on day 21. I was going to make a remix of this to make it all one video, but Photo Bucket no longer has that option. Bummer! I have a Yellow Lab mom on the other side of the divider in the same tank about to release any day now. I wonder if she will be such a good mom since she has held even more times. I hope so!

This is what the result is!
The mom with her mouthful (past spawn)

Mom Released the kids almost a week ago and she has been doing this all week!
Collecting the kids up. Half are hiding to stay out, half actually go into her mouth! She spits them into a PVC tunnel and that is where they hang out all day instead of the rock pile.
YouTube - BestMom.MOV

YouTube - KidsMom.MOV

YouTube - CollectKidsBEST.MOV

YouTube - CollectKids.MOV

YouTube - CollectKids2.MOV

I have noticed that in the evening she collects them all, then goes in her floating tunnel and falls asleep! I tried putting her PVC tunnel in the sand, but she digs it up so it floats. Guess she likes it that way best.

Enjoy the vids!

 

[Blueiz]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing . I hope that I will experience this soon with my red zebras, or yellow labs.

 

[DizzCat]

I have been wondering how often she has been doing this in the main tank? Maybe the times I think she is over due to release she is actually letting them out in a rock pile to collect them later? hmmm I will have to pay better attention next time she's holding in the main tank.

 

[An t-iasg]

Great videos!

 

[blackomen]

That first pic is great, my wife that it had some crazy teeth. I can't wait to see mine get mature enough to breed. Sounds like you got a pretty good system going. That's a seems like a decent sized brood to me. Also, your photography and video skills are a lot better than mine.