ITS time to strip lol

Stripping is recommended only if the female is way orver due and is in danger of dying.

Otherwise there is no advantage to stripping. it could damage the mother and the babies. You can easily damage the jaw.

Now, a greedy commercial breeder may do so in the hope of getting another batch from her two weeks sooner. But I doubt that the female will be ready to spwn any sooner. It could even be later.

I agree, you don't need to strip if there isn't a problem. I once strip accidentally when i was moving my holding female to a 10g, she spat some babies into the net and the rest came out when i dunked her head in and outof the water.

If you need to strip for health reasons i found this article helpful as it shows each step http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/stripping.php Most people if they are stripping wait untill after 3 weeks if they are doing it to get the fry. And some people strip after 3-4 weeks if their female isn't spitting or looks skinny.

Stripping is not "ONLY" recommended if the female or fry are in danger. And it has nothing to do with greedy breeders either.

Dragon didnt ask for a lesson in religion or morals, just on how to strip.


Now, back onto the topic...


Dragon,
The link that Valerie posted with the article from Cichlid-Forum is a great step-by-step how-to and should be what your looking for. I wouldnt strip till 14-15 days depending on your tank temp. Good luck!

Well, we are not being moralistic at all. You can go ahead and kabob your female!

We are just stating the risks. the articles is full of warnings about the damage to the mouth, turning the light off in the main tank to let the female to hide and rest after the stress of stripping and so on. Even though, this is a six inch frontosa with a huge mouth. Also Frontosa's fries are much bigger and can handle the ordeal better.

You go ahead and do what you choose to do. We have given fair warnings.

If you can isolate the mom or the harrasser. that's the best solution

yes you are being moralistic. By saying "Now a greedy commercial breeder may do so..." your stating your opinion and what you think to be true.

And now for the other side of this argument...

If stripped correctly, its actually better for the female for a couple of reasons. First, she wont have to go a month of starvation, and secondly you dont have to remove her to spit(stress), and then reintroduce her back into the tank(even more stress). If its an aggressive tank(tropheus or mbuna for ex.) its hard for a female to be reintroduced. Its much easier for the female to handle one to two minutes(max) of stress instead of a month of hunger and then getting rmoved back and forth into different tanks. Cyprichromis are very simple to strip. You cant really call it stripping because all you really have to do is net them and theyll spit the fry right there. So that will cut theyre starvation time down 3 weeks for about 10 seconds of stress...

And your assumption is incorrect about a female taking even longer for them to spawn if stripped. Its much faster for her to get ready to spawn when stripped correctly. She can fatten up in a couple weeks to spawn again, instead of starving for a month, and another month to get ready again.

Well, well, as a confirmed amoralist, can I still think and say what I think? Or as long as I am thinking different than you, I am a moralist. And what is wrong in being a moralist anyway (which I am not)?

This is a forum. Where people ask questions and others answer them by saying what they think is the tight way to go. I personnaly would not mind if you (Verse914), Dragon_Lord_Tia, or the whole aquarists would strip at 12 days.

I just stated what I know is good fish keeping. You are welcomed to your standards. I could be very wrong. Maybe the nature is wrong. All africanners should be stripped after 12 days. maybe all human females should be stripped after 7 months and be spared the difficulty of the last trimester. The birth would be easier on them.

Relax. Dragon_Lord_Tia has heard the arguments from three persons. He will choose his standards. and, I wish Dragon_Lord_Tia, the fries and the female red empress the best of life!

Why take a chance! If you do not have to.

I have a female Salusi who is overdue. And she just let the first fry out. I hope that the rest will come out by tommorrow. And I can start feeding her well as her reward.