Discusmadboy

i have 2 x Giraffe cichlids in my tank , both males...they have been "best mates" for months hang around together all the time and now since this morning they seem to be fighting each other non stop. infact all the other mbuna cichlids i have in the tank seem to be overly aggressive today and they all seem to be nipping at each other. I have breed succusfully in the past with some of them however they have never displayed such aggressive behaviour towards each other at all until today...i have not done a water change for 2 weeks and water parameters are all fine, so dont know whats going on.

Hi Ryan good point When I purchased them all i cross checked them all and even took some back after discovering that they were not actually what was advertised. All the fish in my tank are African Mbuna cichlids. just cant remember each scientific name for them all. i have no hybrids in the the tank. However The Problem i have is Identifying which male in the tank is responsible for these fry. I keep an eye on my fish and dont even notice mating habits or any pairs circling each other or anything that mite indicate to me who the pairs are. So will have to wait for the Fry to get bigger to determine what is going on. I will try to get hold of a camera and take pics of them all as well and post them here for positive ID and give ya all a look at my tank setup at the same time.

believe it or not the only camera i own is on my cellphone and I cant email from it either. time to buy a camera me thinks

yeah she spat them and then took off and came back and took them back in her mouth and held onto them for about 5 minutes and spat them again. but they were dead. so dont know what happened there... cant explain it, however the others are fine and she is a good mother to the others so dont know what happened there. I Just looked her up in my Cichlid Bible i am totally conviced that she is an Labidochromis Textilis and very colourfull fish so cant wait for her fry to get bigger.

check out this link ? this seems like the easiest way to strip cichlids ... i jsut dont know what the guy is using and could i use a water syringe to achieve the same result ?

check out this link ? this seems like the easiest way to strip cichlids ... i jsut dont know what the guy is using and could i use a water syringe to achieve the same result ?

I let nature do its course, she let them all go this morning. 20 fry all up. 10 of them were dead and the other 10 were healthy. this is the second time she has bread within 6 to 8 weeks so hopefully she keeps breeding. I think I will attempt to next time strip out the babies and see if i have better luck. She is a beatiful fish so cant wait for both of these batches of fry to get alittle bigger. for anyone that has stripped there fru out i am interested in finding out how you actually strip them out. I watched a you tube video of a guy using a cyringe of water and simply spraying it into her mouth and this flushes them out. I just want to find out the best and easiest method of stripping them out...

Aarg, i need more input i cant decide if i should leave alone or strip them out im too exited lol

i have a female cichlid who has holding eggs in her mouth for a week. I setup a Mini "ER" tank and put her into this tank alone. I can now see in her mouth baby cichlids. i have previously stripped the babies out of her mouth and a previous breeding attempt and they are all fine. this time should i strip the babies out or just let nature do its course ? Also once she does release the fry if i let nature do its course then how long before i have to take her out of the tank before she sees them as food. ?

No im not going to strip for you lol. i have a female cichlid who has holding eggs in her mouth for a week. I setup a Mini "ER" tank and put her into this tank alone. I can now see in her mouth baby cichlids. i have previously stripped the babies out of her mouth and a previous breeding attempt and they are all fine. this time should i strip the babies out or just let nature do its course ? Also once she does release the fry if i let nature do its course then how long before i have to take her out of the tank before she sees them as food. ?

I am sorting out my Digital Camera to get some pics of the ones that i dont know about to post on here. I have learnt alot about them in the last view days haha, very intersting behavior: The Female Cichlid that i stripped the babies out of is hanging around my "Breeding Pen" and chasing away any fish that come near it. I have not lost any of the babies yet and they seem comfortable at the moment and the water conditions are perfect so that is good. i have done further research adn now wondering if i should buy another tank and put the breeding pair into a new tank on there own and let them breed in piece as i think ihave figured out who the pair is: However i read somewhere that the male fish that is responsible for all the fry tend to dominate the tank that they are in and breed with all the other females abit like a harem so dont want to break that up. let me know your thoughts and esperience on this ?

thanks for your reply, I purchased a small fry mini breading box that sits in the tank just under the water jets so the babies are getting decent filtration, they seem to play in it non stop which is good for now There is a male cichlid in the tank who seems to be there personal bodyguard and chases away any fish that go anywhere near there enclosure so thats good too. I am feeding them a liquid food that i got from hollywoods upon there advice so all is good. I will Post some pics in the next few days...

I decided to give my tank a good clean after discovery of a dead chilid in the tank. i tested the water and everything is fine. Also one of the male electric chiclids seemed as if he had been chomped at as well, poor fellow has almost lost his tail. and came across a tiny baby chiclid cowering in a crack in one of the rocks in my tank... So the Hunt began, found 4 small electric yellow fry in the tank, i know the other cichlids would def eat them so created a makeshift holding area for the babies using some coat hangers and old stockings. I then decided to do some more research and discoverd another cichlid had a very swollen mouth and suspected that it may be holding some fry in its mouth, so i caught the fish and stuck it in a bowl watched the youtube video about 100 times of the process to strip the babies out and what i need to do with it and used a small ear bud and massaged its mouth and it spat out 10 babies. I am off to the petshop tommorow to get either another Tank to hold them or Split up my 5ft tank with tank dividers. i dont know what to do next: What do the fry eat coz they are so small ? and can someone make out why i have a dead fish and a beaten up electric yellow cichlid ? I can only presume that the fathers of these cute little chiclid fry i have have been very possesive and agro due to the females holding. i have had no prior deaths in the tank and the tank is well established. WOW what a day, having toilet bowl funerals to celebrating new babies in the tank !!!!

Thanks for that ok does anyone know of any local breeders in auckland ?

been to Jansens they are downsizing, been to hollywood any other good petstores i should know about that stock chiclids ?