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Fishbone
08-06-2009, 09:11 PM
Ok so I'm new to this please bear with me. Just had my cichlids for a month (bought cycled used tank, and a bunch of cichlids). After a week or 2 some of the males started to vibrate ;)

We just noticed in the last couple of days a couple of the pale yellow 3" and 4" Red Zebras hiding more, and just today noticed what looks like eggs in the 3" and 4" zebra. BTW I thought males were pale yellow and females were bright orange? Anyway this one is pale yellow and has 5 egg spots on the anal fin.

Can anyone help diagnosing if its possibly holding?

If so any advice on what to do next? When to try to catch her and get the fry out etc?

Do I need to separate them into a separate tank? Or will they be ok with a large springeri mat to hide in? I'm not in the business to breed these, but I would like to give them a fighting chance - the strong and smart will survive.

Here is the profile pic of the 4" one (3" one is hiding more) and also some pics of whats in her mouth. Sorry for the quality of the pics, Used a very narrow depth lense to try to get a close in shot of the mouth.

From the other zebra fry thread that had 28 fry I would expect the eggs to look small. The objects in th mouth look larger and can't possibly see how there can be even more than 4 or 5 in there.

masroberts9
08-06-2009, 09:19 PM
yup definitely looks like its holding. i think i can see some eggs in that 3rd pic.

masroberts9 added 0 Minutes and 33 Seconds later...

yeah i see eggs in the 2nd and 3rd pics

Fishbone
08-06-2009, 09:33 PM
Awesome!! Now I will shut up and wait for the friendly advice. I've read some info online, but its always good to hear 1st hand accounts.

kSpieler
08-07-2009, 03:50 PM
In my experience ...

If you have lots of little bitty (less then .5" wide) hiding places in your tank, you can just let nature go on. If you want to raise the babies in another tank, then wait about 2.5 weeks from when you first notice the female holding before catching her and putting her in a tank by herslf till she spits her babies out. Keep her out of the main tank for about a week so she can gain some weight back. If there's places to hide in, the mom can stay in the tank with the babies to recuperate.

I have lots of holeyrock in my tank - which makes it really hard to catch holding females without taking it all out - but it also has enough nooks & crannies that 1 or 2 fry from each batch that gets spit before I can catch Mom tends to survive.

kewlkatdady
08-09-2009, 03:11 PM
i generally let nature takes its coarse...unless its a rare fish thats holding.

otherwise remove her strip her and get her back in the tank to get knocked up again.

Fishbone
08-09-2009, 08:14 PM
My thought as well. The yellow lab is now holding as well :rolleyes:

I guess any and all conditions are suitable for breeding for these cichlids? Worse than rabbits!