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Cichlids Discussions - Care and keeping of freshwater cichlids.
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Posted by George Pontis on April 7, 2005, 11:52 pm
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I have a peaceful Malawi tank with two Aulonocara Baenschi, and the female is
brooding some young ones. Her mouth has become enlarged, and I can see some
babies
swimming around inside. This is an 80G tank with 4 other Malawi cichlids and six
big clown loaches.
So, my question is this. What do I need to do to provide a safe environment for
the babies ? I assume that they would get eaten if I left them in the community
tank. I have an idle 20G, cycled tank that I could use. Would I try to net the
mother and put her in that tank ? That seems stressful to all concerned. Or is
it
proper to wait for the babies to be free swimming, and then try to net them and
move them to the idle tank ? I am afraid that the babies could get in trouble
with
the filter inlets.
Any suggestions or pointers would be much appreciated. I have kept these
cichlids
for about 6 months but have no prior experience with babies.
George
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Posted by Elaine T on April 8, 2005, 12:14 am
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George Pontis wrote:
> I have a peaceful Malawi tank with two Aulonocara Baenschi, and the female is
> brooding some young ones. Her mouth has become enlarged, and I can see some
babies
> swimming around inside. This is an 80G tank with 4 other Malawi cichlids and
six
> big clown loaches.
>
> So, my question is this. What do I need to do to provide a safe environment
for
> the babies ? I assume that they would get eaten if I left them in the
community
> tank. I have an idle 20G, cycled tank that I could use. Would I try to net the
> mother and put her in that tank ? That seems stressful to all concerned. Or is
it
> proper to wait for the babies to be free swimming, and then try to net them
and
> move them to the idle tank ? I am afraid that the babies could get in trouble
with
> the filter inlets.
>
> Any suggestions or pointers would be much appreciated. I have kept these
cichlids
> for about 6 months but have no prior experience with babies.
>
> George
I haven't bred that species, but the S. freyeri I bred behaves
similarly. I netted the female before she released the fry and moved
her to a 20 gal filled with water from the main tank. Moving an African
is always a wild chase and some stress on both fish and fishkeeper, but
the female actually seemed less stressed once she settled in. Maybe
because she didn't have to hide in the isolation tank. Once fry were
released, I left her there with the babies until she lost interest and
fed her conditioning foods since she'd fasted for so long. I fed brine
shrimp napulii to the fry until they were big enough to take crushed flake.
I know yours is a different species, but maybe this will help if nobody
else responds.
--
__ Elaine T __
><__'> http://eethomp.com/fish.html <'__><
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com
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Posted by Amateur Cichlids on April 8, 2005, 3:32 pm
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>I have a peaceful Malawi tank with two Aulonocara Baenschi, and the female
>is
> brooding some young ones. Her mouth has become enlarged, and I can see
> some babies
> swimming around inside. This is an 80G tank with 4 other Malawi cichlids
> and six
> big clown loaches.
>
> So, my question is this. What do I need to do to provide a safe
> environment for
> the babies ? I assume that they would get eaten if I left them in the
> community
> tank. I have an idle 20G, cycled tank that I could use. Would I try to net
> the
> mother and put her in that tank ? That seems stressful to all concerned.
> Or is it
> proper to wait for the babies to be free swimming, and then try to net
> them and
> move them to the idle tank ? I am afraid that the babies could get in
> trouble with
> the filter inlets.
>
> Any suggestions or pointers would be much appreciated. I have kept these
> cichlids
> for about 6 months but have no prior experience with babies.
>
> George
George,
You have two options if you wish to save the fry. The first, and
seemingly most popular, option is to strip the females. This process
involves removing the fry from the mother once the egg sac has just about
disappeared. This will usually be at about two and a half weeks for
Aulonocara species. This is extremely stressful on the female and some
experts argue that an imprinting occurs on the young when they're carried to
term and released naturally.
By moving the female to a separate tank, you run the risk of her eating
her own fry once she spits them out. This may or may not occur depending on
the individual fish and how soon you feed her once she spits. Since you
already have a spare tank cycled, I'd recommend moving her. To ensure that
you don't stress her out, move her about two hours after the lights go out
in the room. Use a flashlight if you can't see to locate her. She'll be
sitting on the bottom and if she's not hiding among tank decor, she'll be
easy to scoop up. Often times, the fish don't realize they've been moved
till the next day. Also, if you have a clear container to scoop her with,
rather than a net, she'll never even be out of the water.
If she does OK with the fry, watch how much you feed her. Although she
hasn't eaten in three weeks and needs food, too much food will quickly
overload the bio capabilities of your tank. Because it's currently
un-inhabited, the increase in bioload may cause small ammonia/nitrite spike.
There should be little problems initially, because she most likely won't be
eating while holding.
Good Luck,
Tim
www.fishaholics.org
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Posted by George Pontis on April 8, 2005, 7:34 pm
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says...
>
> >I have a peaceful Malawi tank with two Aulonocara Baenschi, and the female
> >is
> > brooding some young ones. Her mouth has become enlarged, and I can see
> > some babies
> > swimming around inside. This is an 80G tank with 4 other Malawi cichlids
> > and six
> > big clown loaches.
> >
> > So, my question is this. What do I need to do to provide a safe
> > environment for
> > the babies ? I assume that they would get eaten if I left them in the
> > community
> > tank. I have an idle 20G, cycled tank that I could use. Would I try to net
> > the
> > mother and put her in that tank ? That seems stressful to all concerned.
> > Or is it
> > proper to wait for the babies to be free swimming, and then try to net
> > them and
> > move them to the idle tank ? I am afraid that the babies could get in
> > trouble with
> > the filter inlets.
> >
> > Any suggestions or pointers would be much appreciated. I have kept these
> > cichlids
> > for about 6 months but have no prior experience with babies.
> >
> > George
>
> George,
> You have two options if you wish to save the fry. The first, and
> seemingly most popular, option is to strip the females. This process
> involves removing the fry from the mother once the egg sac has just about
> disappeared. This will usually be at about two and a half weeks for
> Aulonocara species. This is extremely stressful on the female and some
> experts argue that an imprinting occurs on the young when they're carried to
> term and released naturally.
> By moving the female to a separate tank, you run the risk of her eating
> her own fry once she spits them out. This may or may not occur depending on
> the individual fish and how soon you feed her once she spits. Since you
> already have a spare tank cycled, I'd recommend moving her. To ensure that
> you don't stress her out, move her about two hours after the lights go out
> in the room. Use a flashlight if you can't see to locate her. She'll be
> sitting on the bottom and if she's not hiding among tank decor, she'll be
> easy to scoop up. Often times, the fish don't realize they've been moved
> till the next day. Also, if you have a clear container to scoop her with,
> rather than a net, she'll never even be out of the water.
> If she does OK with the fry, watch how much you feed her. Although she
> hasn't eaten in three weeks and needs food, too much food will quickly
> overload the bio capabilities of your tank. Because it's currently
> un-inhabited, the increase in bioload may cause small ammonia/nitrite spike.
> There should be little problems initially, because she most likely won't be
> eating while holding.
> Good Luck,
> Tim
> www.fishaholics.org
Thanks to Elaine for encouraging me to move her, which called for a prefilter on
the canister inlet and a water change. And thanks to you Tim for the explanation
of the options and a great suggestion on how to get her moved with the minimum
of
fuss. The 20G tank has quite a large canister on it (Eheim 2215), and I have
spiked it with ammonia twice a week to keep the bacteria well fed and ready for
just such an occasion.
One further question if I may. At what point should I remove the mother from the
fry and return her to the original tank ?
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Posted by George Pontis on April 9, 2005, 2:52 pm
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says...
> ...
> By moving the female to a separate tank, you run the risk of her eating
> her own fry once she spits them out. This may or may not occur depending on
> the individual fish and how soon you feed her once she spits. Since you
> already have a spare tank cycled, I'd recommend moving her. To ensure that
> you don't stress her out, move her about two hours after the lights go out
> in the room. Use a flashlight if you can't see to locate her. She'll be
> sitting on the bottom and if she's not hiding among tank decor, she'll be
> easy to scoop up. Often times, the fish don't realize they've been moved
> till the next day....
There must be a skill element involved here. With the flashlight I was not even
able to find the mother. I tried looking everywhere, and it seemed that all the
other fish were awakened by the light but still no sign of her. This morning I
tried removing some rocks and plants so as to make it easier to net her. That
process went about as well as could be expected, with a minimum of dashing
around
the tank. Thanks to a couple of really big nets.
However, on the way to the spare tank she must have spit out the babies since
they
were all swimming around in the net when I got there 10 seconds later. I
released
everyone into the spare tank. There seems to be 20-25 fry, and they are bigger
than I would have guessed, maybe 1/2" long. They are quite active and swim
pretty
well. It almost looks as if they are hunting through the gravel for food. They
congregate in two corners, possibly for relief from the circulating currents.
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> brooding some young ones. Her mouth has become enlarged, and I can see some