eek! i think my s. red empress is holding!

[groan]

the last fish i had that had babies was purchased holding, so I dont really cound that as ME breeding that fish, im just foster-raising the babies.
This one is my first breeding all in my own tank!
Pegasus, any idea how old the SRE's were that you sold me?

how exciting.
Now I'll have to make a seperator for my 30 so I can house them!

I just noticed today that the female has a little bit of a buldge in her mouth and she is chomping like she has a mouth full of food.

[babblefish1960]

Definitely sounds as though she is holding, and yes it is a mouth full of food, just not for her for the moment. The other thing you could do is simply leave them be and let nature take its course further, as clearly nature has already taken its course, in a manner of speaking. You never know what may happen.

[groan]

if i do decide to seperate her, what's teh general rule of thumb? should i wait a couple weeks then mover her to the other tank or longer?  Im not ready to attempt stripping her just yet, besides shis is her first batch and she isnt yet full grown.

[groan]

according to this article
http://cichlidforum.com/articles/malawi_cichlids_breeding.php
the babies should be hatched and the egg sack absorbed after 2 weeks.
Would that be a safe bet as to a good time that i could move the mommy with babies to the new tank or should i consider doing it after a week when the eggs are hatched?

[pegasus]

The sooner the better... Every time it has to dodge aggression, it could drop, swallow or eat it's eggs. I usualy wait on the third day before moving the female, only to see if it will keep holding. The trick is to move it fast from tank to tank, no over head lighting, no food, keep it calm.
If all goes well, you can start feeding very small flakes around 16-17 days. Watch if the female takes some to feed her youngs direcly in its mouth. They could be release after about 3 weeks.

The ones you got from me were born in June and July, from 2 of the 3 different batches.

[groan]

Perfect! Thanks Peggy!

I'm going to build a divider out of egg crate tonight so i can isolate her then move her on Wednesday.

Crud, i dont have any screening...oh well, they cant swim the small opneings anyways, i'll need screening though for the fry tank.

Thanks again, exactly the info I needed and really? less than a year old and they are breeding? interesting.

[babblefish1960]

You could always use some of your pantyhose after you are done with it, it should work well enough for now Groan, you do have pantyhose right? 

[groan]

how is me wearing pantyhose going to make this transition any easier?
i mean besides the obvious enjoyment...how will it benefit my fish?

[babblefish1960]

Use it as a screen you big silly.

[pegasus]

No No NO !!!  No pantyhose !! Your males would be too much confused. Ok you can slap me for this one... only by the tender gender. 

[groan]

hehe,
I'm going to use eggcrate with plastic screening over it.
I already have a large piece of egg crate so all i need is a bunch of screening and that should be cheap.

going to wrap it around and leave a loop of excess at either side so that it closes the gaps on the sides so the babies cant get through.
I'
ll post pics of my Uber design skillzz

[pegasus]

I use HotGlue and vinyl window screening over the eggcrate to no ill effect. I also use foam sponge strips on the sides to protect the glass and to totally close the compartments.

[groan]

I also use foam sponge strips on the sides to protect the glass and to totally close the compartments...

Great idea! works better than the idea i was going to use and it would work even if i cut it a little short.

i assume the sponge should be available at home depot...

[pegasus]

Great idea! works better than the idea i was going to use and it would work even if i cut it a little short.

i assume the sponge should be available at home depot...

Oh boy! I use worse, totally never tested for aquarium foam use in shipping fragile product like the grey foam sheets that some lamps are protected with... so please use this bit of knowledge at your own risk. I even use these sheets to replace the polyfiber pads on filter cartridges.

[groan]

OK, it is done.
using some egg crate i had, i bought 6 ft of screening (i have about 4 ft left...i know, over compensated) and foam from BA i ended up with this.
It needs adjusting, but it's there now and staying until either babies are gone or at least one half of them are.
It is a tad tall, so much so that I could not get the other half of the glass top back on, thus there is a sheet of plexiglass.

Mommy fish is in now and seems to be settling in OK.

I actually made 2 of these, one larger one to seperate the fish i wanted to catch in the larger tank to a side of the larger tank that had far less rocks. it worked like a charm!!! I didnt need to use the screening since the fish are larger than the holes in the egg crate. I highly reccomend this for catching fish!!

[babblefish1960]

Good job groan, good luck with that, now you have some real work ahead of you.

[groan]

babies are all listless and they dont seem to be eating much.
all my params seem ok. the only thing i can think of is the divider that i put in somehow contaminated the water. maybe the screen eminated something.
i had one casualty so far and i expect to have more. i did a 50% water change but that wasa with the divider in. i took out the female red empress that loked like she was holding and put her back in the 70.

I will continue to do 50% water changes over the next couple days hoping to get rid of whateever contaminate was in teh water.

Oh, i have the test kit that has ph, gh, kh, nitrites and ammonia. i saw another post on here to measure nitrates. is that the same as kh or gh? if not i'll go out toeday and get a nitrate test kit.
let me know asap as i will be going out around noon.
thanks for a quick reply!

[groan]

Things are looking better.
more of them are swimming in open water now instead of sitting on the substrate.

I'll continue to do the water changes anyways and hope for the best.
I may break down the 30 gallon and get 2 20 gallons or 3 10 gallons to use for fry tanks instead of deviding this one. Im paranoid now using a divider like this.

[groan]

just a little update, no more lossese yet, but babies are still a little listless and swimming around the bottom.
params all look good. I'll do another water change.

As for the Red Empress, no longer holding...eating well.

[pegasus]

forgot to ask.... how many fry did you get? For a first brood, 10-16 is normal.