I know this is a stupid question but...

[-=DG=-]

Is it possible for one malawi to maybe pick up spilt malawi eggs and start holding them?

Reason why i ask is my acei is holding, so when i fed my fish a few hours ago my red zebra was feeding fine. About ten mins ago i was having a look and she was chewing on something. I though it might be an acei fry (one managed to jump out the breeder trap but i caught it). When she finally turned i got a look inside her mouth and she is holding!! I didnt see her getting up to any naughty business. And the othet this is she's only about an inch and a bit long so only a juvy.

Cheers

DG

 

[Pufferpack]

Her first babysitting job? or Maybe playing house like little girls do

 

[Jamnog]

yes cichlids adopt other cichlids eggs sometimes they have a strong parenting instinct more than other fish. im not 100% shure about this individual spicies but cm will prolly come along and tell us later on this eavning as he is most likely in bed atm.

 

[-=DG=-]

Her first babysitting job? or Maybe playing house like little girls do

She gets paid 1 algae tablet per day

Jamnog - cool. We'll see if CM can confirm

 

[-=DG=-]

Jamnog your probably right. I went down the fish shop and asked him. He goes 'its not unheard off'. He told me that sometimes juvy mums are allowed to help out with the egg holding.

So pufferpack you were right!!!

This is all thanks to millions of years of evolution Not a few weeks with a test tube.

Or i could be all wrong and my red zerba has done the dirty with the male RZ (i like the first explaination )

Come on CM...

 

[-=DG=-]

I asked Pam from cichlidae and she reckons that its most likely that the red zebra has mated and in her 10 years she's never heard of eggs being passed on.

 

[Malawi_Matt]

bare in mind that sometimes a fish may be more mature than you think. Just because the fish is 1.5" long dosen't mean it is a juvy it could be a year old and had a poor upbringing. As for transfering eggs. no chance another fish would just see them as food and eat them.

 

[-=DG=-]

Hi Malawi Matt,

I've had her since she was about an inch. Maybe she's just a runt. But she's released a few fry today. Hopefully the male red zerba was the father (i'll be able to tell in maybe a month or so) or else my malawi will be feasting on live food (highly apposed to hybrids).

 

[Mogo]

This doesn't really answer your question, but after my Zebra Chilumba's mated, the female dropped one egg. I figured she did this as it wasn't fertilized. Just to satisfy my own curiousity, I scooped the egg up, and put it in her "home". Sure enough, she would be like "Oops! Did I drop that, silly me" and pick it back up. A few minutes later, she would swim to the egg drop off zone and spit out the egg. I thought this was rather funny, and since she kept spitting it out in the exact same spot, it was easy to spot the egg, so I kept this up for a few days, until the egg started decomposing. I assumed she kept spitting it out in the same spot that way she would know that it was the bad egg, and wouldn't bother picking it back up, as she never looked twice at it when it was there. But sure enough, you move the egg into her cave, and she'd pick it up in a flash. Maybe this was a little mean of me?

Mogo

 

[Jamnog]

well we shouldnt talk to me anymore as i just switched the aquarium lights on this morning and to my shock i had a little cloud of hermichromis guttatus fry arg said me i dont have any brine shrimp eggs went off to cardiff went to four different fish shops and came back with allot of crap i dont need + brine shrimp eggs. shelled ones ... now who had the job of sheling those? anyways they will go straight to the fish as the sank. oh and i got them some other stuff "liquifry 1" who knows if it will work but im not too worried about over feeding as i would normally.

 

[WorldNation]

i've heard of cichlids adopting other fish's eggs/fry. but i have personally have not had any experience with that, but it is very possible

 

[-=DG=-]

UPDATE:

The zebra has released a few fry and they look exactly like the ones the acei released!!

Another thing i might have forgotten to mention is that when i noticed the red zebra holding, the acie's mouth looked smaller ie less eggs because she was having difficulty keeping her mouth closed.

 

[cichlidmaster]

It is possible for one fish to "adopt" another fishes eggs. This is usually between same species tho.

Another good case is the Synodontis mulipunctatus catfish.....This catfish has a very specialized spawning method.

The female and male will wait unitl another fish (usually a peacock or smaller hap) is beginning to spawn.

Just as the female lays some eggs the female syno will swim by and steal the eggs and deposit some of her own and at that very instance the male syno will fertalize them. The spawning female will then pick up the synos eggs without even realizing what happened.

When the developing syno egss start to hatch in the females mouth, the syno fry will consume the eggs or developing fry of the host fish thus getting a huge head start on development.

I attended a club meeting once and a member had a video of this entire process. Really quite intreresting to watch.

CM

 

[-=DG=-]

Im sure thats whats happened in my tank.