african mouthbrooders

[ambushman2j]

What method do you use when your africans are mouth brooding? ie) how long do you let the female hold the eggs? do you remove them for her?

I have a holding yellow lab I have let carry to 12 days and I believe I can see eyes in her mouth, I was going to let nature take it's course and hope she spins on her own.. I was told by someone that if you do that you tend to lose more due to natural selection..what do you all feel is the best method?

[Karen]

If you try to catch the fish to separate from the rest, she can just swallow the eggs and you can lose all fry.
Don't touch her if you never done that before.
If it's a first fry, not a big deal if they won't make it.

[ambushman2j]

well actually I did catch them to separate them the first day I noticed them holding, one did spit or swallow but the other one held on, and it is the first time for them.. so the 1 who is still holding was separate for the whole term.. just with that other female who was also holding at the same time.. but since it was not holding anymore I wanted to remove it from that separate tank so upon release it didn't try and eat the fry

If you try to catch the fish to separate from the rest, she can just swallow the eggs and you can lose all fry.
Don't touch her if you never done that before.
If it's a first fry, not a big deal if they won't make it.

[pegasus]

What's been working for me, is to isolate the holding females within the first 3 days. They tend to hold their eggs better at this stage. (first time holding females are sometimes the exception). I SMOOTHLY and SWIFTLY coax the female into the net and transfer her into a holdind tank in the shortest time possible. I usually wait 14 days (or 2 days after I can see eyes in her mouth) then I retrieve the fry in the most natural way possible by just putting the female in a more confining jar or floating mesh tank. 80% of the time she will release the fry within 30 minutes, if not, then she returns the the holding tank.

I would like to hear from other "Africanophiles" about their experiences.

[ambushman2j]

The method I ended up using was somewhat similar, I removed it the first day it was holding into a 10 gallon tank with lots of rocks, it was the first time this female was holding too, and it ended up holding for 17 days, at which point I replaced the aquaclear mini with a bio foam so the aqua clears flow didn't harm the fry, my invation of the tank must have scared the female as she released 3 fully grown fry that day, (no egg sacks) and the next day she released the rest, total of 9 fry..I left her in there for about 5 days, gave her some brine shrimp and staple food and then took her out and put her back into the community.  all fry have survived so far

What's been working for me, is to isolate the holding females within the first 3 days. They tend to hold their eggs better at this stage. (first time holding females are sometimes the exception). I SMOOTHLY and SWIFTLY coax the female into the net and transfer her into a holdind tank in the shortest time possible. I usually wait 14 days (or 2 days after I can see eyes in her mouth) then I retrieve the fry in the most natural way possible by just putting the female in a more confining jar or floating mesh tank. 80% of the time she will release the fry within 30 minutes, if not, then she returns the the holding tank.

I would like to hear from other "Africanophiles" about their experiences.