OK, now were in trouble.

[keane]

....I got home today to discover one of my apparently "male" Metriaclima estherae is holding too!!

I have taken on board all thats been said in the Lab holding thread but I only have only spare tank of 15 gallons (about 20 US gallons i guess)!

My question is....if I get a tank divider will I be able to keep the Lab and the Estherae safely in the tank (with a split of 10 US gallons each) until they spit their fry?

thanks in advance guys.

(BTW also noticed two of my Johannii seem to be getting jiggy!! Lets just hope they hang fire until the other two have finished! )

steve

 

[freddyk]

If you can keep up with the breeding of mbuna you're looking at devoting many tanks to the cause! You need fry tanks, growout tanks, and lots of time and effort to keep all these clean. They don't stop, they're machines.

There is nothing wrong with letting them spit in the main tank and letting the strongest, if any, survive. Watching little fry grow up this way without our intervention is actually pretty cool IMO.

edit - to answer the question (duh) yes, each side will be fine for the holding fish, and the fry will do fine together afterward, but you still have limited growout space to work with.

 

[keane]

If you can keep up with the breeding of mbuna you're looking at devoting many tanks to the cause! You need fry tanks, growout tanks, and lots of time and effort to keep all these clean. They don't stop, they're machines.

There is nothing wrong with letting them spit in the main tank and letting the strongest, if any, survive. Watching little fry grow up this way without our intervention is actually pretty cool IMO.

edit - to answer the question (duh) yes, each side will be fine for the holding fish, and the fry will do fine together afterward, but you still have limited growout space to work with.

cheers freddy,

Yeah, I appreciate that there wont be a lot of room for the fry but my thoughts were that once "spat" I could move the mothers back to the main tank, giving a little more room for the fry.

Then I would leave the fry to hopefully grow a little stronger and bigger and then put them back in the main tank too.

Just thought this idea would give them a better chance of survival rather than having to fight for survival straight from birth .

Maybe I will leave them to "natural" causes on this occasion and see what happens.

Oh...one more question....would leaving the holding mothers in the main tank not causing them too much stress because they can't really "get away" from all the others and they would be too weak from not eating?

cheers again

steve

 

[dutoits]

At least you have female's, in South Africa it's hard to get females

If you leave them in the main tank add smaller rocks to form vvvery small caves Then make sure you feed at the bottom over these cave so they can feed with out becoming a snak.

 

[dutoits]

At least you have female's, in South Africa it's hard to get females

If you leave them in the main tank add smaller rocks to form vvvery small caves Then make sure you feed at the bottom over these cave so they can feed with out becoming a snak.