A Lone Yellow Lab Fry Is Making It!

[nukeonekitty]

3 weeks ago I found a small fry surviving in my "aggressive" mbuna tank. He is hiding in a small hole under a rock where no other fish can get. He is surviving, eating and even swimming a lot in the tank. He has been hunted a few times, but he is making it. Anyone have any success stories of fry making it to adulthood in a full grown tank?

 

[MikeD67]

I dont have a stroy about a fry making it but i just sen a funny thing happen in my tank and figured ppl might get a laugh i have a Johanni Male a male and femal electric yellow and a female Auratus and a pleco in my tank. I was watching them eat after i put a couple algae disc in the tank and the funniest thing happened... The electric yellows and the Auratus took one disc and ran to the corner starting eating not fighting or anything but the pleco and the Johani went for the same disc and they started swimming in cirles around each other and while they were doing that there bopdys were like twitching or convulsing w/e it was looked funny so they would do this then the pleco would get the disc then the johanni would go back for it they would dance and the pleco would get disc again lol the third time they were dancing couple inches above the disc and the female electric yellow came and stole the disc out from under them and took it back to the corner lol. In the end though the Pleco got the disc back and the Johanni has left him alone and is now sharing the one disc with the other 3 cichlids.

 

[fuzzyferret]

They can and do make it! My yellow labs in particular manage to survive particularly well - and I've got some monsters in my tank!!

They are fast - they are sneaky - they are survivors! Sure, one or two end up as snack food - I have a Polystigma who is a beast at hunting - he can sit on the bottom of the sand and pretend to be a rock for hours on end - sometimes a youngster edges around and under him - near the head, and yum yum!!

Best of luck to your little one - my current tank has at least 20 young (including brand new spit out fry).

Problem is, to get the youngsters out it is a case of taking all the rocks out, and all of the large fish!!

 

[nukeonekitty]

He got eaten

 

[fuzzyferret]

So sorry to hear this.....

Are you sure there is just the one? Where there is one, there are quite often many hidden around.

Anyway - if one got to that stage, then another one will in time - you will get survivors, honest!

When mine started to breed, it isn't a good feeling watching them being eyed up for a snack. I got a few large shells (a large cowrie and a small conck shell) and dropped these in. The fry enjoyed hiding in them until they were large enough to mooch about on their own. The larger fish can't do anything about this either - if a fry is under a rock, they sometimes inhale large amounts of sand to widen the hole - it was like watching terriers dig out a badger!!

 

[CichlidAddict]

I have one that seems to have made it.. this is an old pic of him, he's one of the family now and is completely ignored..

https/home.comcast.net/~bmanchester/fish/330_8.jpg