I stripped the mother last night and got 20 fry out of her.

Of the 20, 2 were dead (is this normal?) and the 18 others are very healthy from what I can see.
The female is doing well too.

But damn it was hard to catch it with the net!!!!!!

Ive placed the babies in a floating hatchery and will probably introduce them into the tank in a month or so.



rmc wrote:
"Andre D" wrote in message
...

Maybe I should explain a bit further.

When I bought the female she already had eggs in her mouth.

Obviously when the LFS guy netted her out of the

tank for me to take home, she spat out all the fry in her mouth. At

this stage they were all free swimming.

I brought them home and put the female in the tank, and the fry in

the floating hatchery.

About a month later I introduced the fry to the tank, and it seem

the other fish dont really care about them

much, because they hide around in the top half of the tank.

The female has now bred agin with a male from my tank.
Im hoping to do the same with these eggs in her mouth.I just wanted

to know when I should strip her.

Thanks for all your help.




--

If you wait until 14 days the fry should be developed enough to have a
high survival rate. If you try to catch her before that she could
spit the eggs or fry too soon. These fish are capable of holding 50+
fry in their mouths. I hope you have planned for that scenario. If
you don't have another tank to put the female and/or fry in, it
doesn't sound like you are properly prepared. If you are not
prepared, it would probably be best to just leave her alone and not
create any more stress. A 10 or 20 gallon tank with just a heater and
sponge filter is all you would need to put the female in but I would
still wait for 10-14 days before moving her. Once she is in another
tank, she and the fry will most likely be just fine.

Mark
http://www.cichliddomain.com