PREGNANT RED ZEBRA CICHLID HOW TO

If you have enough space in your main tank, use a mesh divider that has holes big enough for the fry to swim through. What You Can Do To Protect Your Cichlid Fry In Main Tank: But with so many predators, they will soon get tired and give up. If Cichlid fry in main tank have been released and you just notice them now, you’ll find the parents defending the babies aggressively. Separating the fry will always be the best method in breeding Cichlids, but if you’re not confident about stripping the Cichlid, let them spit naturally instead. If you strip too early and find eggs instead, don’t worry, You can take the eggs and put them in an egg tumbler where they’ll grow just like how they would in a mother’s mouth. Important: Make sure the Cichlid fry never get exposed to air or they will get stressed.

Bob her up and down the water gently until all the fry are out.

Pry her mouth open in shallow water (you can use a net) using the rounded end of a paperclip or your thumb.

Take the mouthbrooding female and hold her firmly so as not to get away but not enough to hurt her.

At about 3 weeks after the eggs were laid, prepare a growout tank or tub and wet your hands with tank water.

Most fish farmers strip the Cichlid fry from the mothers for higher chances of survival. This happens about 3 to 4 weeks after laying. If they do, the mother will be able to release them sooner. Good water conditions and optimal temperature will help make the fry develop faster. It makes more sense then to strip her of her fry before this happens (see stripping method below).Īt about the seventh day in the mouth, the eggs have hatched and the fry are almost done eating the sac. Because holding takes such a long time, there might be instances when the mother gets really hungry and start to swallow her fry. She will also grow noticeably thinner as the babies prevent her from consuming food.Ī mouthbrooding female will not eat until the eggs in her mouth have hatched, consumed the yolk sac, and are free-swimming. At this point, sign #3 becomes more obvious to the observer. When mealtime comes, a holding female would seem interested but won’t eat. When another fish comes near the holding female and she finds it threatening enough, she will ram that fish with her head to keep him away.Īt this point, most breeders who are used to this process will separate the female into her own tank where she can release her fry when they’re ready without the fear of them being eaten. Will Cichlid Fry Survive In A Community Tank It looks like she has an overbite or is pouting exaggeratedly.

The buccal cavity is a space inside the mouth just above the gills. Sign #3: Her mouth is fullĪ Cichlid mom holding a brood of babies in her buccal cavity will have a distended jaw. While the others of her kind would socialize, she would rather be hiding behind a sponge filter or an unoccupied corner. When she has the fertilized eggs in her mouth, the brooding female will want to be left alone. First-time Cichlid moms lay the least number of eggs. Mouthbrooding Cichlids can lay anywhere from 10 to 50 eggs in one brood depending on their maturity. The male will fertilize them and she will swallow them in her mouth to brood. This is described further in our previous post. He will dig a hole on the substrate to accommodate the courting and mating process. When a female Cichlid is gravid, males will become interested in her but it’s usually the dominant or alpha male that has “breeding rights” in a community. Here are some telltale signs: Sign #1: Her male digs a hole

PREGNANT RED ZEBRA CICHLID HOW TO

One way how to keep Cichlid fry alive is to spot a gravid female before it lays eggs or while it’s holding eggs in its mouth so it can be protected. We mentioned this in our previous post, “ 3 Reasons Why Cichlids Dig Holes”.īut the aquarium is a more controlled environment, and there are certain things you can do to save your Cichlid fry. The average Cichlid fry survival rate in Lake Tanganyika is only a little above 20%. In the wild, most Cichlid eggs and fry get eaten by the many predators that lurk in the waters. If you want to raise Cichlid fry, you should intervene before this happens. But community tanks without any places for the fry will barely have any babies left because the adults, including the parents, might eat them. Without your intervention, there might be several Cichlid fry that survive in a tank that has enough hiding spaces for them such as rocks, driftwood, or decor.

If you didn’t catch the pregnancy much less the birth, your Cichlid fry will become an extra meal for all the other fish. Fish pregnancy is inevitable if you have both genders of a Cichlid variety in your community tank.

Pregnant red zebra cichlid