African holding fry

Is it the male or female that holds the fry in the mouth ?

And from the time you notice it holding the fry, how long before the parent
can no longer keep them safe in the mouth ?.

I have one that is holding fry again and I need to set up another tank
before I start to loose any. The last lot that survived (3-5 months ago)
went from 18 to now 13 fry. So, how long do you think I have to set up this
new temp tank.

On Sat, 14 Aug 2004 00:03:02 +1000, "skozzy"
wrote:

Is it the male or female that holds the fry in the mouth ?


Almost always the female. Paternal mouthbrooders are very rare.

And from the time you notice it holding the fry, how long before the parent
can no longer keep them safe in the mouth ?.


Depends on the species. Some brood for about 15 days, some for about
50 days but most about 25 days.

I have one that is holding fry again and I need to set up another tank
before I start to loose any. The last lot that survived (3-5 months ago)
went from 18 to now 13 fry. So, how long do you think I have to set up this
new temp tank.


Depends what sort of fish they are.


Steve
--
EasyNN-plus. The easy way to build neural networks.
Build networks from numeric, text and image files.
http://www.easynn.com

You should be able to see in her mouth from front on as well, and be able to
judge if they are still eggs, or have developed into fry. I usually try to
keep her in the large tank until she is ready to spit the babies, unless she
is being picked on, then I will seperate her earlier. I set up a 10-15g with
water from the big tank, and set the heater to be the same (if you want to
stay breeding, make sure you always have an empty tank and a cycled filter,
once they start the just keep going!!) Put a sponge over the filter intake
as well, so you dont suck up any fry. There is never liquid fry food in the
lfs here, so I usually grind up my dry fish food (all the kinds in the
freezer) in a coffee grinder for the fry, frozen daphnia is good and small
too
Good Luck
Kelly

"skozzy" wrote in message
u...
Is it the male or female that holds the fry in the mouth ?

And from the time you notice it holding the fry, how long before the
parent
can no longer keep them safe in the mouth ?.

I have one that is holding fry again and I need to set up another tank
before I start to loose any. The last lot that survived (3-5 months ago)
went from 18 to now 13 fry. So, how long do you think I have to set up
this
new temp tank.

The food part I have sussed out very well, boil a chicken egg, remove the
white and keep the yellow, put it in a dehydrator, then grind it and feed
them, it works 100%


"Kelly" wrote in message
...
You should be able to see in her mouth from front on as well, and be able
to
judge if they are still eggs, or have developed into fry. I usually try to
keep her in the large tank until she is ready to spit the babies, unless
she
is being picked on, then I will seperate her earlier. I set up a 10-15g
with
water from the big tank, and set the heater to be the same (if you want to
stay breeding, make sure you always have an empty tank and a cycled
filter,
once they start the just keep going!!) Put a sponge over the filter intake
as well, so you dont suck up any fry. There is never liquid fry food in
the
lfs here, so I usually grind up my dry fish food (all the kinds in the
freezer) in a coffee grinder for the fry, frozen daphnia is good and small
too
Good Luck
Kelly

"skozzy" wrote in message
u...
Is it the male or female that holds the fry in the mouth ?

And from the time you notice it holding the fry, how long before the
parent
can no longer keep them safe in the mouth ?.

I have one that is holding fry again and I need to set up another tank
before I start to loose any. The last lot that survived (3-5 months ago)
went from 18 to now 13 fry. So, how long do you think I have to set up
this
new temp tank.

I removed her to a new tank, but after moving her I see they are still eggs.
How long do they normaly stay as eggs before hatching ?

"Kelly" wrote in message
...
You should be able to see in her mouth from front on as well, and be able
to
judge if they are still eggs, or have developed into fry. I usually try to
keep her in the large tank until she is ready to spit the babies, unless
she
is being picked on, then I will seperate her earlier. I set up a 10-15g
with
water from the big tank, and set the heater to be the same (if you want to
stay breeding, make sure you always have an empty tank and a cycled
filter,
once they start the just keep going!!) Put a sponge over the filter intake
as well, so you dont suck up any fry. There is never liquid fry food in
the
lfs here, so I usually grind up my dry fish food (all the kinds in the
freezer) in a coffee grinder for the fry, frozen daphnia is good and small
too
Good Luck
Kelly

"skozzy" wrote in message
u...
Is it the male or female that holds the fry in the mouth ?

And from the time you notice it holding the fry, how long before the
parent
can no longer keep them safe in the mouth ?.

I have one that is holding fry again and I need to set up another tank
before I start to loose any. The last lot that survived (3-5 months ago)
went from 18 to now 13 fry. So, how long do you think I have to set up
this
new temp tank.

It depends on the fish, yellow labs, haps and bumblebees I've bred held for
2-3 weeks, but brownae's and sp.44 about a week and a half. The dehydrator
is a great idea, I've done the boiled egg in a cheesecloth, but it fouled
the water so bad, I never did it again.
good luck

The fouling of the water is the moisture content of the egg, that is why you
need to dry it out. I have been doing this for a while with other fish,
including my salt water for the adult fish. Once the egg has been dried
enough (not 100% dry) you can crush it into a powder. Once dry the egg keep
well in an air tight container for months. As for feeding, I have a small
plastic spoon with a cup size around 2mm, I put in one spoon of the dried
egg.

The other thing I used to do years ago with other fry was to put milk, wheat
based breakfast cerial and a few drops of yogert (live strain) in a flat
container, lay a few ice block sticks over the top and put the lid on and
left it sit for a week. Small worms would grow and you would see them on the
sticks, I would then wash the stick in the tank and the fish would love it.
I haven't used this method for year as the smell of the decaying cerial and
milk would make me sick.

It depends on the fish, yellow labs, haps and bumblebees I've bred held
for
2-3 weeks, but brownae's and sp.44 about a week and a half. The dehydrator
is a great idea, I've done the boiled egg in a cheesecloth, but it fouled
the water so bad, I never did it again.

My fish had another round of babies again, this time 22 of them, over the
weekend I made another batch of dehydrated eggs, 18 eggs all up, it filled 2
jars. Its 2 weeks now since they were born and they are now 8mm long, nose
to tail.


"skozzy" wrote in message
u...
The fouling of the water is the moisture content of the egg, that is why
you
need to dry it out. I have been doing this for a while with other fish,
including my salt water for the adult fish. Once the egg has been dried
enough (not 100% dry) you can crush it into a powder. Once dry the egg
keep
well in an air tight container for months. As for feeding, I have a small
plastic spoon with a cup size around 2mm, I put in one spoon of the dried
egg.

The other thing I used to do years ago with other fry was to put milk,
wheat
based breakfast cerial and a few drops of yogert (live strain) in a flat
container, lay a few ice block sticks over the top and put the lid on and
left it sit for a week. Small worms would grow and you would see them on
the
sticks, I would then wash the stick in the tank and the fish would love
it.
I haven't used this method for year as the smell of the decaying cerial
and
milk would make me sick.

It depends on the fish, yellow labs, haps and bumblebees I've bred held
for
2-3 weeks, but brownae's and sp.44 about a week and a half. The
dehydrator
is a great idea, I've done the boiled egg in a cheesecloth, but it
fouled
the water so bad, I never did it again.