"Yoda4peace" wrote in message
ups.com...
I guess my first question is, does anyone know how labs breed and is my
scenario consistent with that? And second, could they be creating just
one baby at a time or am I missing something?

Thanks so much for your help!

Peter


Peter,
Yellow Labids breed in typical Mbuna fashion. The female will harass the
female until she's ready to breed with him. Then when both parties are
ready, the male shakes and shimmies with his side towards the female. The
male and female form a small circle with the males head towards the females
tail and vice versa. The female will lay an egg, then mouth the male's anal
fin area which causes him to discharge his milt, fertilizing the egg which
he's circling over at that point. The female picks the egg up in her mouth
and lays another. The process continues until she's laid and picked up all
the fertilized eggs. There are some variations in the process with different
mouthbrooders, where the female will pick up the egg first and then the egg
is fertilized while in her mouth.
For Labids, it's typically about three weeks to a month before the
female releases the fry into the tank from her mouth. She does not eat
during this period, or only eats very little. This is the distended jaw you
see. Typical broods for young labids range in the 4 to 13 range with larger
fish producing more fry. Labids have small mouths and brood sizes are
typcially small.
Tim