Holding Yellow Lab

[REYNAN]

Hello,

I've noticed that one of my yellow labs has an unusually giant throat area. I thought it was sick so i looked it up and it turns out from what i've read that she has babies in there! i looked closer and indeed, there were little eyes inside her mouth. Im so excited as the lab is only 2 inches long, maybe even less and i didnt know they could have babies so young...I've never had to deal with this before which makes me very nervous. I remember a few months ago when i was feeding my cichlids, i suddenly saw a tiny tiny cichlid swimming around. that's when i knew a fish mustve had babies. unfortunately there was only one surviving.
My question is this:
do i have to separate the mother? and then separate the babies? or do i just let them stay in tank with the other cichlids and the mother will protect the babies? If the mother is only 2 inches long, then her babies must be tiny pinheads!
my other problem is i dont know how I will be able to catch the babies since my tank has so many rocks and hiding places, I'd have to empty out all the plants and rocks. i have a 75 gallon.

any advice would be great,
Thanks,

--Reynan

[eugenet]

What's the other fish in your tank? Depending on that I'd say let her hold them until she is ready to drop. I tried to strip the fry from one of mine once, but it seemed to only stress her and the others out. In a rock work tank the stress of tearing the rock down and/or chasing her around the whole tank would be even worse IMO. The reason I tried to strip mine was because she began to look very thin and usually they won't eat at all while holding. If you have any brine shrimp though she might take a little bit, some say the fry need it when they hatch anyway to help them develop the bright yellow color so I always feed it to mine. Good luck and you'd be surprised at how good they will be at hiding once she does drop them. :grinyes:

[REYNAN]

i have labs, frontosa, zebras, a pleco, and a peacock. How do i know when shes ready to drop?

[eugenet]

Well cichlid-forum.com says 28 days, wikipedia says about 3 weeks, and live aquaria says 18 days. It's gonna depend partially on the water temp and possibly on how many eggs she is actually holding. If you see her eating alot you will know she's dropped them. Just keep a close watch on the little nooks and cracks in your rock work because they will be tiny when they are first born. Good luck :grinyes: fish babies are always fun :headbang2: