Mouth Brooder Questions?

[Snake42490]

Ok I have no clue whats going on in my tank haha.. i think my fish need birth control haha.. anyway.. I just noticed my two female zebras have enormous mouths.. I have no clue when this happened? I was gone for two days and came back to them with the big mouths. When their is a visual sign how far along are they? or is that not a way to tell? I was wanting to strip them and keep the babies, but im not wanting to do it to early.

Second, I'm still new to this. my lab just had babies last week... will those fry pick on the zebra fry assuming that they make it?

and finally haha.. I'm a little worried about this keep on happening on the females.. im fine with the babies as i can find homes for them etc.. but what do i need to do with the mothers? Because whats stopping them from breeding right when i put them back in the main tank? Thanks Seth

 

[dthoffsett]

Once mbuna start breeding it's nearly impossible to get them to stop.

As for the new holding mums, I'd wait two weeks and then strip them. Chances are they spawned while you were away, and yes you'll want to separate your older fry from the younger fry. If you don't have an extra tank, you could divide the one the fry are in now.

There's nothing stopping them from breeding right after putting them back in the tank, however, I've found females will take some time off to eat between broods. The male however will always want to breed, adding a couple more females would help spread his attention around and give some of the girls a break.

 

[Snake42490]

Awesome thanks for your input. Im pretty sure its about their 4th day holding for both of them lol.. The one female came up by me and had her mouth open and i saw an egg that looked like it was going to come out... didnt even appear to have hatched could be wrong though!

the yellow lab fry are growing super fast// they LOVE baby brine shrimp haha..