flash_oesc Posted January 16, 2013 Report Share Posted January 16, 2013 The setup. I have a 75G tank, with 12 Demasoni and 6 Labs. I have one of each that is holding, and I noticed around January 6th. Last night, I spent what seemed like hours trying to catch the poor ladies. I have them both in a 10G now, with a couple cichlid stones. I’ve got a new filter (HOB) on it, that I filled with bio from an old filter. I also squeezed two filter pads ‘juice’ in to the new filter. The ask. From people who have successfully raised fry from such small fish: Did you strip them? When? Did you leave the fry in the main tank? If you separated them, did you return the mom as soon as she released them? Did you use a HOB, canister or Sponge? Is crushed up NLS Cichlid formula good enough for the fry? Any other advice? We have this 10G set up for the fry, and have a 55G that is sitting empty to use as a potential grow out tank, depending on the number/size of the fry we get. Thank you in advance for the thoughts, comments and opinions. Eric Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wingin' It Posted January 16, 2013 Report Share Posted January 16, 2013 Congrats on the fry! I always strip by females after a couple weeks...or when I see there are free swimming fry in Mom's mouth. I also keep adult fish seperate from fry until the fry are no longer tasty morsels. I usually use a HOB or an internal filter...always from an established tank. Depending on size of the fry, i'll feed micro live food to crushed NLS or other fellet food\ or flake...whatever I have on hand. Keep up on your water changes and feeding and they'll grow like weeds for ya. Best of Luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Znaika Posted January 16, 2013 Report Share Posted January 16, 2013 Just a side consideration: squeezing the "juice" has little use. The useful bacteria are attached to the media. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flash_oesc Posted January 16, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2013 Just a side consideration: squeezing the "juice" has little use. The useful bacteria are attached to the media. hmmm...I feel greatly misinformed. People told me it was useful. I did also transfer over biomax rings from an established filter. I'll be sure to check water properties when I get home from work. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted January 16, 2013 Report Share Posted January 16, 2013 I have has great success with Mbuna moms in a fry tank. I actually left the mom in there a week after she spit, feeding her well to get her strength back up. She almost never (I never saw, anyway) ate the fry. The most females I had spit in a 10gal at a time was 2, and both were fine with the fry - they were P. saulosi and M. cyanerhabdos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayba Posted January 16, 2013 Report Share Posted January 16, 2013 (edited) I also have left a female Mbuna, Cyprichromis ,and many peacocks in the fry tank. The best way I have found to move females is after light out wait a couple of hours, and scop her up with a dimly lit flashlight. Net her, leave her in the net, scoop up the net from below with a container full of water, take her to the new tank and place everything in the new tank, remove the container and net. Voila. She won't even really wake up. Works like a charm. Nervous spitters like Cyprichromis are successfully moved like this all the time by me. I never strip Cyrichromis (In a pecies only tank fry won't be eaten) some cichlids I strip mom and toss her back in the tank unless she needs some time to fatten up. Then she gets time away from the group to binge eat. I have used squishings many times to seed other tanks. Squeeze it out in the new tank, let the new filter scub the water for a day or so. Instant cycle. Just gradually raise the bio load, as there is still mch growing to be done. This is a seed, not a plant....lol Grow formula crushed is ok. NLS wafers are great, just dump one in and swap it out the next day. Brine shrimp is the best.Newly spit cichlids can go straight to grow usually. I have used HOB filters with a chunk of sponge over the intake and currently have matten filters for all my tanks under 25 gallons. Simply easier to run airlines when there are many tanks, also if the power goes off, they restart for sure. Lost a group of L-199 plecos while in Mexico for 2 weeks. The water evaporated lowering the level by an inch, so when the power went out for a moment, it couldn't get suction enough to restart. Came to L-199 soup HTH Edited January 16, 2013 by Jayba Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flash_oesc Posted January 16, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2013 (edited) I have has great success with Mbuna moms in a fry tank. I actually left the mom in there a week after she spit, feeding her well to get her strength back up. She almost never (I never saw, anyway) ate the fry. The most females I had spit in a 10gal at a time was 2, and both were fine with the fry - they were P. saulosi and M. cyanerhabdos. So, you let them spit, opposed to stripping both of them, in a 10G, and neither mom (that you know of ) ate the others babies? I would love to let both moms spit naturally, and stay with them for awhile. I'm just nervous with my lab being significantly larger than my demasoni, that the demasoni fry would be a 'small' snack. I'm also equally nervous about putting weakened fish back into the main tank... Edited January 16, 2013 by flash_oesc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckmullin Posted January 16, 2013 Report Share Posted January 16, 2013 Just a side consideration: squeezing the "juice" has little use. The useful bacteria are attached to the media. hmmm...I feel greatly misinformed. People told me it was useful. I did also transfer over biomax rings from an established filter. I'll be sure to check water properties when I get home from work. Thank you. Throw the filter pad in pantyhose and tie it off so none of the junk is left in your tank and then place the pantyhose surprise in your tank for a week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flash_oesc Posted January 16, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2013 I also have left a female Mbuna, Cyprichromis ,and many peacocks in the fry tank. The best way I have found to move females is after light out wait a couple of hours, and scop her up with a dimly lit flashlight. Net her, leave her in the net, scoop up the net from below with a container full of water, take her to the new tank and place everything in the new tank, remove the container and net. Voila. She won't even really wake up. Works like a charm. Nervous spitters like Cyprichromis are successfully moved like this all the time by me. Damn. I wish I read that yesterday. I had to remove all my stones, logs, fake plants, turn off filters, take off both sides of lids, use 2 nets...and still wasn't sure if I got the right ones!!!!! As of yesterday, I was going to let nature decide the outcomes...but my urge to see the fry survive kepy me going. I felt terrible. My demasonis lost so much colour (they were fine within minutes of having everything back to normal, but still...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flash_oesc Posted January 16, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2013 I have used HOB filters with a chunk of sponge over the intake and currently have matten filters for all my tanks under 25 gallons. Simply easier to run airlines when there are many tanks, also if the power goes off, they restart for sure. Lost a group of L-199 plecos while in Mexico for 2 weeks. The water evaporated lowering the level by an inch, so when the power went out for a moment, it couldn't get suction enough to restart. Came to L-199 soup HTH That's brutal. I'm running a cheap HOB right now with the 2 fish. I've ordered another air pump, and a sponge filter for the tank. I don't want to run both (or do I?) but I wanted to have both because I'm a nervous papa to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sicklid Posted January 16, 2013 Report Share Posted January 16, 2013 Since I was running out of room for more fry I got this black matting type stuff from Randy at Aqarium Illusions (his suggestion) and put a piece of it in the bottom of my tank. You have to weight it down, The weave is very course and the fry hide in it, so you can have it in the same tank with the males. I checked today and there are 6 and they look fine. If you want to get all the fry , separating is for sure the answer, but this would work too. If you covered the whole bottom of the tank I am sure you would get almost all the fry. I also use NLS Grow only and no problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flash_oesc Posted January 17, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2013 Since I was running out of room for more fry I got this black matting type stuff from Randy at Aqarium Illusions (his suggestion) and put a piece of it in the bottom of my tank. You have to weight it down, The weave is very course and the fry hide in it, so you can have it in the same tank with the males. I checked today and there are 6 and they look fine. If you want to get all the fry , separating is for sure the answer, but this would work too. If you covered the whole bottom of the tank I am sure you would get almost all the fry. I also use NLS Grow only and no problems. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flash_oesc Posted January 18, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2013 (edited) Well, this whole process is much further along than I thought (for the Demasoni at least). Three have been 'spit' by mom, though she is trying to get them back. They are incredible! Edited January 18, 2013 by flash_oesc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flash_oesc Posted January 18, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2013 I just noticed I have another holding mother... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flash_oesc Posted February 2, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2013 (edited) Well, female Demasoni had 6 babies, one was deformed...so 5 healthy babies. Our Lab just gave up hers today while I was at work. We've managed to count 7, but they hide very well. We now have 12+ fry. I'm a proud papa, never had fish breed before. On a less then ideal note, we have two more holding demasoni, and one more holding lab in the main tank. There is a lot of small hiding spaces in the tank, so we're going to let them spit in the main tank, and hopefully they make it. We sadly don't have any more room in the house for additional tanks, or so my wife says. I think the counter looks a little empty :thumbs: Edited February 2, 2013 by flash_oesc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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