Electric Yellow breeding - advice please

[Ruth101]

Hi everyone

We have a large tank with a mix of African cichlids. I noticed last night that the female electric yellow wasn't eating, and spotted some eggs in her mouth. She has had eggs before, but I didn't notice until she spat them out to eat an earthworm and another fish gobbled them up.

She seems to be hanging on much tighter this time, but the male is still chasing her around and I am also worried about the likely possibility of the other fish eating the fry when they hatch.

What I am wondering is, should I get a net or plastic breeder to put her in until they hatch? I am actually a bit of a novice fish owner so stoaked to see the eggs - must be doing something right! We don't have the option of getting a second tank to put her in at this stage.

The things I am concerned about with the breeders are;

Circulation - does the water exchange well enough to support the fry with their oxygen and purity needs?

I have read elsewhere that net breeders can be dangerous as adults try and such the fry through the net.

The plastic breeders I have looked at seem to have separate levels for the fry - does this also accumulate waste?

How do you clean the waste out of the breeders without hurting the fry?

Thanks for any advice you can give! Sorry for such a long first post!

[ryanjury]

First thing when breeding Africans in a mixed tank the father could be any of the mix of cichlids that you have in the tank, however we will go on with the other questions you have.

If you want to save the fry then you need to remove the mother to spit naturally and raise the fry away from the other fish or strip her (take the babies from her mouth when they are ready).

Electric yellows like most mbuna can be quite resilient and you can sometimes have 1-2 from each batch survive by just letting natural take its course and having tons of hidey holes in your tank.

Net breeders can work however as you have pointed out the adult fish in the tank will attempt to eat the fry through the netting, this sucks them to the net and kills them so you need to have a floating breeding trap inside a net breeder. Or a similar set up which gives you 2 separated layers so the fish can't suck the fry on to the netting.

Most net breeders have good circulation, you can pick up breeding traps up an drain some water and let fresh water flow back in, I tend to chuck an air stone in if I am using a breeding trap to ensure good water flow. Physical waste (ie fish poo) isn't really harmful to the fish at all the nasty stuff is all invisible and dissolved and is usually taken care of by normal circulation and your tank filters.

Another option would be to get a small tank, heater and filter it can all be sourced cheaply these days.

[smidey]

what is your intention with e yellow fry? are you intending to sell or just increase your own numbers?

If for your own stock leave them to it, add rock work if there isn't already plenty to create hiding places for fry. You need piles of rocks, the bigger the pile usually the more fry will survive.

If you intend to sell fry then the only way to do it with any results is to set up a tank just for them, have one or two males and 6 or more females.

I strip fry, for a couple of main reasons when they are around 16 days from spawning. At this stage they are usually free swimming or still have a small amount of their egg sack still showing. I have found that stripping consistently results in more fry, i found the longer you leave them the less you get.

the second reason is i had a few females got smashed when i put them back into the main tank after putting them into another tank to raise & spit their fry. Females have a pecking order just like the males and when a female has bred, which usually means she is the top or near the top of the female pecking order and then is removed from the tank for any length of time (days) they will fight for dominance when she is re-introduced. So i simply net the female, strip the fry and put her back in the tank.

[Ruth101]

Thanks for your replies,

I was intending to keep some and give some away, we already have a few electric yellows so I don't want to many more.

How do you know when they are 'ready' to be stripped? If mum is left to it (as long as she doesn't lose too much condition) will there be less likelihood of the fry being eaten?

[smidey]

i keep track of when they spawn and strip anywhere from day 16 to 20. If your not sure when they spawned wait for the bucal cavity (double chin) to be large and show a dark colour, when it's dark the fry inside are a darker colour than the yellow/orange of the eggs they grew from.

Don't worry if you strip them too early, they will still have egg sacks if you do but just put them into a breeding net where the other fish can't suck them through the mesh and make sure they have plenty of water flow and they'll grow well. give them food when the still have a bit of the egg sack showing.

here's a vid showing how to strip, it's easy once you've done it once or twice

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/videos/stripping.php