Breeding Electric Yellows

So you have a 30liter aquarium? That is way too small to breed yellow labs(or any lake malawi fish). Yellow labs are mbuna and need at the very least a 40g long(i'd recommend a 5g though).

I believe a 30liter tank is about 8gallons. If you want to breed a cichlid your best bet would be a pair of shell dwellers from lake tang. N. multifasciatus would be the best as they only get about 1". So a pair of multies and nothing else would be an ok tank. Shell dwellers are very cool to watch them dig around in the sand

Agreed, except that an 8gallon tank is still a bit on the small side, even for shellies... not to say that you couldn't put some shellies in there, its just a bit small.

Triple what has been said about the yellow labs. They, like all Malawis, need a larger tank well over 30 gallons. Especially if your going to breed them... A 10 gallon will be okay for the fry until they are 3/4", and then they will also need a larger tank.

Yeah 8 gallon might work for shellies as long as there are lots of rocks and hiding places along with plenty of shells. You could only do a pair.

I learned the hard way and put 5 ocellatus in my 10 gallon. The male killed all but 1 of his females.

They like sand, a few rocks as territory markers/hiding places... and lots of shells to live in.

The good news, on the other hand, is that if you have a sufficiently large tank (a 55 would be nice) and if you keep the water quality good, you'll have a hard time STOPPING your labs from breeding. Just provide lots of rockwork, 3-4 females per male, and you will likely have more fry than you can handle.

With mbuna, I find that a water change with cooler water (causing tank temp to drop 3-5 degrees) will often stimulate spawning.

Good luck!

Jim

And just a heads up since i noticed you are in Australia.... Be very careful about the yellow labs you are using. There seems to be an infiltration, not only in Australia, but Canada and other places as well, of hybrid yellow labs that are being sold as yellow yellows, or something similar. Here's a recent and excellent example of what I'm talking about:

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=74006

There are lots of hybrids floating around, and not just with yellow labs.

You have to excersice caution when buying any fish from the store, be it because of hybridization or even health issues.



-Diana