How to best conserve Malawi eggs/fry

[AmyKieran]

I have a fish that is very clearly got eggs in their mouth. I have lots of other fish in the tank and hate to lose the fry. How do I best conserve the fry so the other fish won’t eat them?

I also have a air driven sponge filter that I used for my fry tank in the past that’s been in the shed for some time. Do I add that to the main tank now so it can build up BB ready for the fry tank?

 

[GaryE]

All breeding strategies lead to second tanks. You can strip the eggs and use an egg tumbler, a very effective strategy with fish like mbuna, who don't practice freeswimming brood care. But the bigger fish of other species will probably eat the young, especially when you go all in on overcrowding, as you do.

 

[Colin_T]

Don't strip eggs from the mother. It stresses her and stops the babies learning fish language and parental brood care.

If you want to keep the young, either carefully catch and move the female to another tank so she can rear up the babies on her own. If you do this, don't spend half an hour chasing her around. Either catch her quickly or leave her alone. If you do catch her, keep her in the net and in water. Then scoop her up in a container of water and move her to a new tank. Don't lift her out of water when she has a mouthful of eggs or babies.

You can also have lots of small rocks in a pile for the babies to hide in, in the main tank. Feeding the adults regularly can reduce the number of babies that get eaten.

You can put in a glass or Perspex divider to keep the female separated from the other fish. However, this can be difficult to do with some tanks and if there are lots of rocks in the tank.

Are you sure the male (father) is the same species as the female?
A lot of African cichlids can hybrise and you get crossbred young that nobody wants or can identify.

 

[AmyKieran]

Don't strip eggs from the mother. It stresses her and stops the babies learning fish language and parental brood care.

If you want to keep the young, either carefully catch and move the female to another tank so she can rear up the babies on her own. If you do this, don't spend half an hour chasing her around. Either catch her quickly or leave her alone. If you do catch her, keep her in the net and in water. Then scoop her up in a container of water and move her to a new tank. Don't lift her out of water when she has a mouthful of eggs or babies.

You can also have lots of small rocks in a pile for the babies to hide in, in the main tank. Feeding the adults regularly can reduce the number of babies that get eaten.

You can put in a glass or Perspex divider to keep the female separated from the other fish. However, this can be difficult to do with some tanks and if there are lots of rocks in the tank.

Are you sure the male (father) is the same species as the female?
A lot of African cichlids can hybrise and you get crossbred young that nobody wants or can identify.

No the male is peacock and the female is mbuna