What to do with the babies ???

[rdmpe]

I have a 55g tank with the following:

2 Red Zebra Cichlid (one yellow, one orange) (Pseudotropheus estherae), 3"
2 Yellow Lab (Labidochromis caeruleus), 1.5"
1 Kenyi Cichlid (Pseudotropheus lombardoi), 2"
1 Yellow Top Mbamba (Labidochromis sp "mbamba"), 2"
2 Blue Cobalt Cichlid (Metriaclima callainos), 2"
1 Red Top Afra Jaro (Cynotilapia afra - Jaro), 2"
2 Demasoni (Pseudotropheus demasoni), 1"

The yellow zebra is a female and has just released her second brood. The orange zebra is a male. I'm not sure if he is the papa though. How likely would cross breeding be with this mix of cichlids?

So far I have two that survived from the first brood and are now about 0.5" to 0.75" and I've spotted at least two of the most recent brood at about 0.25". The tank has a many many many rocks/crevices for the fish to live/hide in. I don't think I could catch any of the fish (babies or adults) without taking most of the rocks out (major PITA). Anyone know of any tricky way to catch these babies? A baited trap perhaps?

Thanks,
Randy

[jimbo]

It’s hard to tell from your post which ones are males or females, it is more likely they will cross breed if they can't find a spawning partner of their own specie (when they are sexually matured). So yes, IMO there is a slight chance they can cross breed with this mix of cichlids.
It is said that a female M.estherae on the other hand, isn't really picky when it comes to choosing a spawning-partner. Although the coloration can vary, most of the times M.estherae males are blue, a lot like the M.callainos. Please do correct me if I’m wrong but I’m not so sure the one you have is a “full blood” estherae male.

Jimmy

[JSchmidt]

I'd also be suspicious that theadult fish aren't pure-blooded, too, and I think it's highly likely the fry are cross-breeds. Mostly for the hobby trade, male M. estherae have been bred (and predominate) in the yellow form. In some places, it's almost impossible to find the blue males.

There's really no way for you to assure that these fry are the product of parents of the same species; it's important that they never find their way to an LFS. That doesn't mean they won't look nice or be good pets, but you don't want to be messing up anyone's efforts at breeding certain species by introducing mutts.

Good luck,
Jim

[valerie]

there is a high chance of hybridization(sp?) in your tank as you have fish from the same genus(is that the right word?).

Your labidochromis caeruleus and lab. mbamba could cross. Its best not to keep fish from the same genus(again not sur eit this is the right term?) Don't keep pseudotropheus with pseudotropheus and dont' keep labs with labs.


2 Red Zebra Cichlid (one yellow, one orange) (Pseudotropheus estherae), 3"
2 Yellow Lab (Labidochromis caeruleus), 1.5"
1 Kenyi Cichlid (Pseudotropheus lombardoi), 2"
1 Yellow Top Mbamba (Labidochromis sp "mbamba"), 2"
2 Blue Cobalt Cichlid (Metriaclima callainos), 2"
1 Red Top Afra Jaro (Cynotilapia afra - Jaro), 2"
2 Demasoni (Pseudotropheus demasoni), 1"

[scholar]

The papa is most likely the zebra. as the pther ones are two small to deliver the goods! :)

[rdmpe]

I'm not sure if the zebras are pure bred, since I bought them from a tank of "mixed african cichlids" at a pet supermarket type store.

The rest of the cichlids were purchased from a shop that is very meticulous and knowledgable about different cichlid breeds and keep all of the ones for sale isolated with their own species. So I doubt they are crossbreeds.

I'd rather not have babies in the tank since it will eventually have more fish in it than I want.

So does anyone know of a good way to catch them?

Here are a couple of pics. See the white cloud I drew around one of the babies (about 1/2 to 3/4")...
http://home.cfl.rr.com/homebrewed/fish/cichlid-10-08-03-01.jpg
http://home.cfl.rr.com/homebrewed/fish/cichlid-10-08-03-02.jpg

[JSchmidt]

You can try catching them with a minnow trap... don't feed the tank for 4-5 days, then put a minnow trap in there with an algae wafer in it. (It's good to put the minnow trap in a couple of days before you bait it, so they get used to it.) You probably won't catch all of them this way, though. To do that, I've always had to completely empty the tank of rocks and drop the water so there's only an inch or two. Little cichlids are fast.

Jim

[thekrib]

ive heard that (these babies might be too old) if you turn the lights off at night and after a couple hours, get a torch and put it over the tank then wait, the babies will collect at the surface, then you just swiftly scoop them up.

give it a try, not sure if it will work on babies this mature.

in the process of catching my stupid CAE i managed to catch 4 juvenile yellows, and 2 baby cons in a few hours. and i didnt wait at all, i just put the trap in and the fish are so curious they swim into it to check it out, then they cant find their way out, and get confused cause of the clear plastic.

[rdmpe]

Well - thanks for the lead on the minnow trap. I hadn't ever heard of this. I found great simple instructions on how to make one from a soda bottle, at the end of this KRIB post http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:OLaBWDrNE8wJ:www.thekrib.com/Apisto/fry-catching.html+aquarium+%22minnow+trap%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

[JSchmidt]

I'd be interested if you can get the soda bottle to work. I didn't have much luck... when it was newly put in there, they were afraid of it. After it was in there for a while, I became concerned because of the lack of water circulation. This was paricularly a concern when there was food bait in there; I'm not sure the water quality would be that good.

Jim

[rdmpe]

Well I finally got one of those small soda bottles, so I'll try it pretty soon and see what happens. I may try to sneak it in there at night!

[dwall174]

Sounds like your babies might be a little too large for this! Nevertheless, All I have used to remove babies is a clear 3/4" siphon hose I just have them go into a 5gal bucket. Then all you have to do is transfer them to their new tank, I’ve lost a few this way but most of them make it.