electric yellow holding

[kimba]

I have my female electric yellow holding in her mouth, there is only her and the male in the tank. She was holding about 6 mths ago but they must have been eatten as no babies came. Should i remove the male as he seems to hassel her at times and she hides in the corner, any advise would be great, thanks

 

[Zagz]

What size tank do you have? If you can move the female that would be better, that way the fry will be in another tank. A day after she spits you can move her back.

 

[Zagz]

Moved to cichlid discussion

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I agree with Anne. If you are wanting to keep the fry, move the female to another tank. If she is ready to burst, most likely she will spit in the bag, net, or as soon as she is in the new tank. It's not surprising that she swallowed the first batch. New mothers tend to lose the first few.

 

[kimba]

if she has only been holding for a week that i know off, will it hurt if she spits them so soon, is there a time limit for them to hold them, thanks

 

[Fishyfanatic]

She has probably been holding for longer than a week if you can see the bulge. Does it look like anything is moving in there? If so, she has fry, not eggs. She will spit when the time is right. If she spits too soon, she will suck them back into her mouth and hold longer. We once had a Kenyi that held fry for 4 weeks. WAY too long. We stripped the fry and put her in the tank with them. Normally we do this so we can get the mother to eat and regain some strength before putting back in the main tank. As soon as we put her into the QT with the fry, she sucked them all back up into her mouth. The next day she spit.

What size tank is she in?

 

[kimba]

I am not sure of tank size, its a aqua mode600 by aqua one. She constantly hides so you can't get a good enough look as too if something is moving or not. I was going by when i noticed she was not eatting, thank you for your help i think im working it out lol

 

[Fishyfanatic]

The Aqua Mode 600 is 65 Liters or 14.3 US Gal. That size of a tank is too small for Africans. You really should have at least 55 gal. Labs can tolerate smaller, but not that small. You may want to consider returning the pair and getting something that can thrive in a tank of that size.

 

[kimba]

i thought because there was only the 2 fish in there it was ok. Is this why in about a year of having them this is only the second time she has held, has the tank size stopped them from wanting to breed, I hope im not being a pain in the butt, but this is how we learn, thanks

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Not a pain at all Kimba. This is why we are here.

It could be. Africans need space to really stretch their fins. They are fast moving fish that like to dart around. And when spooked they can do some damage if they hit something hard (ie: back of the tank). Labs are known to be one of the easiest fish to breed for Africans. We have Kenyi, Cobalts, and a peacock pair in the 150 that breed roughly 6 to 7 times a year each. So the lack of breeding could partially be due to the lack of space. Meaning, if they do not have enough room they won't be happy.

Everyone has done this at some point in time. Heck, I had Bala Sharks in a 10 gal tank. Not to mention Angels in a 5 gal. Aquaria is an ever-learning hobby.

 

[amq]

You can move the female to a new tank, fairly small. She will either release the fry or how we do it in class is we pry her mouth open with our fingertip and she spits them out. That way we don't lose any fry because she swallowed them.

 

[emtbmike]

Once you get the fry from teh mother you have to keep them seperate. African cichlis will eat smaller fish. even if they are the parents