three little labs

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nchoe123

Registered Member
Sep 21, 2007
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hmm, so, my female which had been holding, seems to have only ended up with three... i let nature run its course, in terms of not stripping this time. previously (i'm fairly certain it's the same female, but might be mistaken) it was five.

should i have separated her out into her own tank earlier? maybe she had released some into the big tank (with lots of other mbuna) and of course they wouldn't have survived.

what's average?
 
We still have the original lab from when we set up the 80 a year and a half ago. She has had 5 batches so far. But we use the 20 as a QT tank, and leave her in the 80. She seems to get babies every 4-5 months. Hubby did a water change one day, and I noticed she has the turkey neck. And sure enough she has babies AGAIN. Now this would be her 6th brood. I told hubby we need to get rid of the male (small ones soon to be sexed). We also let nature runs it's course, because our LFS already has too many labs. So we just keep her in the big tank.

The average depends on the size of the tank. We have averaged 12-20, but they disappear the next day. And other mbuna will chase the brooding cichlid around until she is stressed enough to spit the fry out. Because they are hungry and know by nature of her carrying.

http://www.zen12048.zen.co.uk/breeding.html
After breeding the female will leave his cave with her mouth full of eggs and try to find somewhere safe to hide. If you want to keep these young then this is the time to catch the female and put her in a tank on her own. You have to be very carefull when netting her as some first time mums and even experienced mums will spit out their eggs when they feel threatened.

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Fish-1472/african-cichlids-mbuna.htm
and another article about cichlid fry eggs...

Hope that helps some...:dance2:

 
i have found another one, so we're up to four.

since i didn't strip this time, i'm thinking that maybe she swallowed some then also perhaps.

i don't know. it's fine, i'm not looking to raise clouds of fry, but >5 at once would be neat.

they're in an eclipse 12 now (plenty of space) with a very mature sponge filter-- lots of algae and stuff on that filter, should help them find stuff to chew.

mom's been eating flakes fairly messily, i wonder if she's been leaving little bits for her brood to eat?
 
Has she already spit them out? She will probably let them out to eat then scoop them back up in her mouth for a while. She will let them out on their own when the time comes and will allow them to be on their own. You can move her back to the main tank when she seems healthy and active enough.
 
indeed, she spit them out, and made no efforts to grab them back in; she's been eating fine for a while, so i put her back in with the crowd. and then i noticed that there's another female holding, so i'm becoming a regular lab factory, yay.
 
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