10 Gal "spit tank"?

[Cowgrl4life]

Woohoo! So I think one of my peacock cichlids is holding eggs, I was having some spawning behavior last night, and what looked like a dropped ovipositor, and today her mouth is clamped shut and she looks like she's "chewing" with her mouth really full! So my question is if I were to try and raise the fry, The only spare tank I have is an empty ten gallon. If I set that up and cycled it while she's holding, would it work as at least a temporary tank for the fry? What would the idea setup in the tank for the fry be? I'd like to try and raise them. . .

 

[zmkm]

i'd count the days and strip the fry at about 20-21 days. IMO, 10 gallon tank is a bit too big for the newborn fry. i'd suggested floating breeding box in the main tank. choose the plastic ones not the net. good luck

 

[Tkdjr1186]

i'd count the days and strip the fry at about 20-21 days. IMO, 10 gallon tank is a bit too big for the newborn fry. i'd suggested floating breeding box in the main tank. choose the plastic ones not the net. good luck

Do not strip the fry if you don't know what you're doing. Safer if you are new to this to isolate, let her spit and then remove her. Let her spit in the breeder box as mentioned above and go from there


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[Jannika]

Do not strip the fry if you don't know what you're doing. Safer if you are new to this to isolate, let her spit and then remove her. Let her spit in the breeder box as mentioned above and go from there

+1

Congrats! I've never stripped the mother or even separated the fry in my Malawi tank. I was hoping nature would take its course, but I'm still getting overrun with little yellow labs, all from a pair that I thought were two females when I got them. Now I'm saving for more tanks.

 

[Wren]

Do not strip the fry if you don't know what you're doing. Safer if you are new to this to isolate, let her spit and then remove her. Let her spit in the breeder box as mentioned above and go from there


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I agree with letting the female release the babies on her own. I wouldn't put her in a breeder box though. Too stressful. She'd be likely to damage herself and possibly eat the eggs too. Just leave her be while you cycle the 10 gal. Then move her in a couple weeks. Leave the 10 gal bare bottom to make it easier to clean (you can paint the outside of the bottom black if you want - or that flecked sand looking paint looks even better). Put some PVC pipes/clay pots/artificial plants/etc for her to hide in.

I just let them release them into the main tank. Put some rubble piles in a few places. You won't save a lot of fry that way, but some will make it.

Lisa

 

[Cowgrl4life]

I agree with letting the female release the babies on her own. I wouldn't put her in a breeder box though. Too stressful. She'd be likely to damage herself and possibly eat the eggs too. Just leave her be while you cycle the 10 gal. Then move her in a couple weeks. Leave the 10 gal bare bottom to make it easier to clean (you can paint the outside of the bottom black if you want - or that flecked sand looking paint looks even better). Put some PVC pipes/clay pots/artificial plants/etc for her to hide in.

I just let them release them into the main tank. Put some rubble piles in a few places. You won't save a lot of fry that way, but some will make it.

Lisa

I got these guys planning to breed them, I just didn't realize how soon it would happen. I've only had this tank running for two months! I picked up five ten gallons from a friend who had extra tanks and added to mine that makes six. I'm going to build a rack with 2-3 levels that the tanks will stack on, then I plan to set them up with sponge filters and heaters as tanks for the females to spit into and as grow out tanks. If I do well at this level and need more tanks, she has a bunch more I can get from her and expand my setup. But I'm starting small scale to see if I can even keep them alive, I've bred betta's before but never got the fry to last past two weeks, and I still have NO idea why.

Lace rock will work just as well as the pots and pvc right? Lace rock is what I have in my main tank and for the moment, with needing to buy all the filters and heaters I'd rather just take a couple smaller pieces from the main tank for now...

I wasn't particularly wanting to strip the fry at least this time anyway so no worries I heard the first time or two its better to let them spit naturally, and although you may lose some of them to getting eaten, you get better mothers in the long run.

I LOVE the flecked sand paint idea lol, I had never thought of that! Thats definitely what I'll be doing