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justin
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Breeding African cichlids - 2007/02/24 05:25 What did you think of this article on breeding African cichlids?
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frankcow
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Re:Breeding African cichlids - 2007/03/11 05:27 Good article, helped me quite a bit to understand how to breed African cichlids
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jack57
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Re:Breeding African cichlids - 2007/03/14 12:46 Hi , I have mbuna cichlids which have breeded and I have separated the female to a separate tank where she currently resides with a mouthful of fry. However, I have a problem where one fry has left the mother's mouth and is currently hiding under rocks and the other fry are still in the mothers mouth. Therefore, I feel that the fry are fully developed but am afraid as to why the female hasn't released the remaining fry yet. I was wondering if there was any way to encourage the female to spit the fry out because I fear that the female may eat them as she hasn't eaten for about 4 weeks now.
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justin
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Re:Breeding African cichlids - 2007/03/14 12:51 What you need to do is called 'strip' the female cichlid. You have to be very careful and gentle doing this.

Basically, catch the female without scaring her too much. Hold her in your hand, submerged in the water, facing downwards to the bottom of the tank.

With your other hand, use a small plastic instrument to open her mouth gently. I always found that those plastic toothpicks in the swiss army knives worked wonderfully.

The baby cichlids should swim out on their own. If not, submerge her further, then gently pull her up, so that the water coming through the gills will force the fry out of her mouth.

Just be careful to keep them separated after that, otherwise she will take them into her mouth again.
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jack57
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Re:Breeding African cichlids - 2007/03/14 12:55 With my current experience, that sounds really tricky and I feel it may cause lots of stress to the female. However, I want the fry to survive so as a precaution, I net the female or catch her with my hands? I am nto quite sure how to do this and thank you for your consideration.
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justin
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Re:Breeding African cichlids - 2007/03/14 12:56 I would use a net to catch her. Do it very slowly, and maybe remove any cover/rocks from the aquarium so that she can't hide or injure herself
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jack57
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Re:Breeding African cichlids - 2007/03/14 13:00 Okay thank you but I was wondering if over time, will she eventually spit out the fry or is the only solution is to 'strip' her.
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justin
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Re:Breeding African cichlids - 2007/03/14 13:03 No, it's not the only solution, you can keep waiting if you'd like. But if it's been over 3 weeks, and one of the cichlid fry is already free-swimming, then you really run the risk that she's swallow the babies
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jack57
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Re:Breeding African cichlids - 2007/03/14 13:05 Yes there is already one fry which is free swimming which managed to escape the mother. In the breeding section of the website, I read that there was a follow up article which explains how to strip the female. May I have the link to that article, please.
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justin
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Re:Breeding African cichlids - 2007/03/14 13:10 That article hasn't been written yet. But I will write it based on this conversation!

It's nerve-racking the first time, but once you've done it the once, it's much easier.

I've even stripped a Tropheus female before the eggs had even hatched, and hatched them myself (not in my mouth of course)
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