woah...babies.

[Reefdude]

I was just feeding my 75 gallon african cichlid tank that has a mix of of africans.... and all of a sudden i noticed babies...maybe 1/4 inch big. I was in shock and awww!!! I feed the hell out of this tank and have plants everywhere....the last thing i expected to get was some babies . I have no idea which fish bred but they need to keep it up. has anyone had cichlids..if so how many babies should i expect and will the parents keep up this behavior. will the other cichlids in the tank try to munch the babies?? "its always when you least expect it"!!! I think adding RO water a few weeks ago maybe put them in the mood....?????

[Henry]

I have some cichlids, but never any babies. I would think you would want to removed them from the tank before they become food.

Henry

[Charley]

Cichlids come in two basic sizes:

The diner.
The meal. :lol:

When my Cichlids (Labeotropheus fuelleborni ) would breed, I would always try and "strip" the babies from momma before she spit them out. If I missed that, I would snag them as soon as I found them, and place them in a grow-out tank (I had 10 - 20 longs). Those I missed kept my feeding bill down. Ok , being Cichlids, they can eat until they pop, but *maybe* it reduced my feeding bill a little..

Charley

[Sherri]

I've had africian cichlids for about 15 yrs. Use to breed and sell to LFS. What do you have? Most of the time the females will carry the eggs/babies in their mouths for up to 3 weeks. They themselves won't eat. You usually can tell if they're holding by the bulging mouth/throat and they sorta tumble the eggs/babies in their mouths. I would take my female about 14 days and take the babies out of her mouth into a baby nursery. If you allow the female to spit....it's dinner. Ya got to separate 'em.

Fun!

Sherri

[Reefdude]

well there is only a few..so most probably got eaten a few days ago
:( oh well
free food

[Andrew]

like the others said, catch them when you see them.
depending on what variety, the parents may try to protect them, at least for a while, esp. lamprologus sp. I am currently breeding l. brichardi in a community tank and though they're diligent parents, i'm moving the little ones to prevent their dissapearance. I've also had malawi mouthbrooders and found this to work well with them also (catching).

to feed them, i pulverize a very small amount of common foods, i.e. frozen brine, flake, tubifex, etc. into a fine dust, hold it beneath the water surface and let it sink (in rearing tank)
good luck!!!!!!!!(and at worst, you'll have some high quality live foodfor your cichlids )

the parents could reproduce every couple weeks or more

andrew

[AlienAnchovies]

cichlids were the first fish i kept, (bought them from john at malawi cove since before i can remember R.I.P. malawi cove) and the first i ever had breed were ps. demosoni and ps. elongatus
my elongatus had a batch of well over 70 fry so expect tons usually if you have enough rock work in the tank (texas holy rock) around 20 will survive

[Reefdude]

I'v found 2 little ones up to this point..and put them in an extra 3 gallon eclipse i had sitting around..im hoping to find more but I still dont know exactly which fish did the deed?????? :?

[Sherri]

Try & look at your females. One should be a bit thinner than the rest from holding the babies. She prob has more of an appetite than the others also!

Sherri