At Last They Have Arrived!

fishchick · Jan 26, 2012

So finally my female Mbuna cichlid finished her brooding period and out came about fifteen to twenty of these perfect beautiful little orange babies (Pics to follow soon). So here's my question, my husband suggested leaving the mother in the brooding tank (5 gallon) with the fry for a few days to eat and regain her strength before releasing her back into the general population. Will this be ok? Or will she turn on her fry and eat them? So far she seem's to be doing good with them, but I don't want to wake up one day and all the fry be gone.. Any advice would be greatly appriciated

Thanks all

MBOU · Jan 26, 2012

She'll probably eat her fry, stick her back in the tank, feed a little extra/tiny bit higher in protein (depending on what you feed already! no bloodworm or anthing!).

She will be ok...

EDIT:

Best thing to do if you are planning to rear the babies is to strip the female! Nowhere near as scarey as it sounds!

When you see she has a mouthfull (if you dont see it, you soon will!

) use a big net to catch her with as little stress as possible, hold her in one hand and use a cocktail stick to open her mouth and you will see the babies, if they have big orange egg sacks, leave them 5 days and check again... if you can clearly see the eyes of the babies, hold the female over you breeding trap and tip them in whilst holding the females mouth open (you might need to dip her in the water and out and in again to get all the babies out).

Might seem a little cruel, but it means the female doesnt have to suffer losing so much weight and then the risk of losing her when she cant get any in the main tank.

So long as the baby tank is kept clean, even if the babies have eggsacs, they will most likely be ok, if they have egg sacs, dont feed them! Other than that, tiny pinch of ground up fish flake stirred up into the water is ideal.