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Pet Forum / Aquaria / Cichlids / April 2005Brooding aulonocara baenschi, what next ?
I have a peaceful Malawi tank with two Aulonocara Baenschi, and the female is brooding some young ones. Her mouth has become enlarged, and I can see some babies swimming around inside. This is an 80G tank with 4 other Malawi cichlids and six big clown loaches. So, my question is this. What do I need to do to provide a safe environment for the babies ? I assume that they would get eaten if I left them in the community tank. I have an idle 20G, cycled tank that I could use. Would I try to net the mother and put her in that tank ? That seems stressful to all concerned. Or is it proper to wait for the babies to be free swimming, and then try to net them and move them to the idle tank ? I am afraid that the babies could get in trouble with the filter inlets. Any suggestions or pointers would be much appreciated. I have kept these cichlids for about 6 months but have no prior experience with babies. George > I have a peaceful Malawi tank with two Aulonocara Baenschi, and the female is > brooding some young ones. Her mouth has become enlarged, and I can see some babies [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > > George I haven't bred that species, but the S. freyeri I bred behaves similarly. I netted the female before she released the fry and moved her to a 20 gal filled with water from the main tank. Moving an African is always a wild chase and some stress on both fish and fishkeeper, but the female actually seemed less stressed once she settled in. Maybe because she didn't have to hide in the isolation tank. Once fry were released, I left her there with the babies until she lost interest and fed her conditioning foods since she'd fasted for so long. I fed brine shrimp napulii to the fry until they were big enough to take crushed flake. I know yours is a different species, but maybe this will help if nobody else responds.  Signature__ Elaine T __ ><__'> http://eethomp.com/fish.html <'__>< rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com >I have a peaceful Malawi tank with two Aulonocara Baenschi, and the female >is [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > > George George, You have two options if you wish to save the fry. The first, and seemingly most popular, option is to strip the females. This process involves removing the fry from the mother once the egg sac has just about disappeared. This will usually be at about two and a half weeks for Aulonocara species. This is extremely stressful on the female and some experts argue that an imprinting occurs on the young when they're carried to term and released naturally. By moving the female to a separate tank, you run the risk of her eating her own fry once she spits them out. This may or may not occur depending on the individual fish and how soon you feed her once she spits. Since you already have a spare tank cycled, I'd recommend moving her. To ensure that you don't stress her out, move her about two hours after the lights go out in the room. Use a flashlight if you can't see to locate her. She'll be sitting on the bottom and if she's not hiding among tank decor, she'll be easy to scoop up. Often times, the fish don't realize they've been moved till the next day. Also, if you have a clear container to scoop her with, rather than a net, she'll never even be out of the water. If she does OK with the fry, watch how much you feed her. Although she hasn't eaten in three weeks and needs food, too much food will quickly overload the bio capabilities of your tank. Because it's currently un-inhabited, the increase in bioload may cause small ammonia/nitrite spike. There should be little problems initially, because she most likely won't be eating while holding. Good Luck, Tim www.fishaholics.org > >I have a peaceful Malawi tank with two Aulonocara Baenschi, and the female > >is [quoted text clipped - 51 lines] > Tim > www.fishaholics.org Thanks to Elaine for encouraging me to move her, which called for a prefilter on the canister inlet and a water change. And thanks to you Tim for the explanation of the options and a great suggestion on how to get her moved with the minimum of fuss. The 20G tank has quite a large canister on it (Eheim 2215), and I have spiked it with ammonia twice a week to keep the bacteria well fed and ready for just such an occasion. One further question if I may. At what point should I remove the mother from the fry and return her to the original tank ? > ... > By moving the female to a separate tank, you run the risk of her eating [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > easy to scoop up. Often times, the fish don't realize they've been moved > till the next day.... There must be a skill element involved here. With the flashlight I was not even able to find the mother. I tried looking everywhere, and it seemed that all the other fish were awakened by the light but still no sign of her. This morning I tried removing some rocks and plants so as to make it easier to net her. That process went about as well as could be expected, with a minimum of dashing around the tank. Thanks to a couple of really big nets. However, on the way to the spare tank she must have spit out the babies since they were all swimming around in the net when I got there 10 seconds later. I released everyone into the spare tank. There seems to be 20-25 fry, and they are bigger than I would have guessed, maybe 1/2" long. They are quite active and swim pretty well. It almost looks as if they are hunting through the gravel for food. They congregate in two corners, possibly for relief from the circulating currents. Most brooding mothers don't hide out in the open. The flashlight scoop method only works when there's not a lot of tank decor. If you use a clear plastic container, or even a freezer storage bag to scoop fish, sometimes it's easier to catch them. They don't realize they're swimming into a bag because it's clear. This prevents the spitting in the net. Congregating fry? Saftey in numbers. If the mother isn't eating or harming the fry, you can leave her in their about a week so she gets her strength back. The only problem is, you won't know if she's bothering the fry until after she's eaten them all. =-) Tim www.fishaholics.org > Most brooding mothers don't hide out in the open. The flashlight scoop > method only works when there's not a lot of tank decor. If you use a clear [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > Tim > www.fishaholics.org This must be a case of nature prevailing in spite of human intervention. I put some medium (Hikari cichlid gold mini-pellet) and large (New-Life Spectrum) pellets in the fry tank and the mother ate it all. The next day I moved her back to the original tank and she seems to be as lively as ever. The other fish are not picking on her or interfering with her feeding. The little ones have been eating some Hikari freeze-dried frozen brine shrimp that I crumbled between my fingers. They seem to be willing to go 3-4 inches from the gravel to grab a bite as the crumbs slowly sink. I can't believe how much life there is in that fry tank. Under good conditions, how many of these fish would one expect to live ? > This must be a case of nature prevailing in spite of human intervention. I > put [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > would one > expect to live ? I'd expect them all to live under good conditions. ;-) Frequent water changes, small feedings. When feeding fry, we have a tendency to overfeed out of fear that the little ones won't find or get enough food. This of course causes waste and decay, etc. Any unhealthy fish that wouldn't have made it, don't usually make it past the mother's mouth when it comes to mouth brooders. As long as water quality stays good, they should all do just fine. Congrats, Tim |
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