Hey Art

[DARKPHREAK]

Just wanted to thank you for the info on stripping my female lab. I held her in the net with her lip open and she spit 19 fry out. Hope they all got out but I can't see anymore in there. Now I just got to figure out what to do with all these fry...

[maitre007]

Do you have to strip the female of her fry?  

I believe that I must have truly a weird phenomenon going down in my aquarium that clearly defines my aquarium as a community.

I believe that my female yellow lab, my demasoni and my blue kenyi are all sharing the load to protect the yellow lab fry.  I assert this because when I look close enough in the mouth of the blue kenyi, i see the fry is yellow.

anyways.

[DARKPHREAK]

It all depends on a few things when to strip a female. Mine has been holding for 35+ days and had started to look thin. Shes young and the first time she just swallowed them, I wanted some keepers this time.

[ambushman2j]

yeah, some people are quicker on the stripping trigger then others..personally it would have to be an extreme case for me to strip the female, I don't beleive in it, and I perfer to move the female into her own tank, I feel that she will always spit in a separate tank and the only reason she will hold on so long in the first place is if she doesn't feel the tank is safe for her fry..

maitre, most of the time fry don't even have a colour for several weeks..most are whitish/yellowish..that might explain what has happened

[maitre007]

ambushman2j if your theory is right then the demasoni is holding an hybrid fry since  I have only one of them.  I guess that's where the plot thickens.   I will just have to wait to see how it plays out.

Since none of the three fishes seemed to demonstrated any evidence of starvation, I am certain that they occasionally release their fry in a safe place.

[artw]

well darkphreak I am glad it worked out.

I'll try to let everyone know what I told DF to do.  I don't advocate stripping females unless the female is in dire need of food or near death[/i].

An adult female is MUCH more important than a few fry.

35 days is far too long to be holding.
the typical gestation period for the typical fish in the Lake is between 21-28 days (Ad Konings Malawi Cichlids 3rd edition,  if anyone would like a page reference you'll have to wait until I get home tonight)
sometimes in captivity females especially wild ones tend to hang onto fry longer than they need to in sheer fear of losing the fry to predators for some reason they even do this in their own tank with hiding spaces.  (my experience).

[ambushman2j]

lol art, you like the idea of stripping females, it turns your crank!! lol, you do it even when the fish isn't holding :p you sick little monkey

jk

[artw]

oh, err,  :oops: I didn't realize we were talking about fish. hehe