STRIPPING MY MAMMA CICHLIDS

I needed a 10gl tank for an isolation so I had to strip my holding Auratus mom. She was at 16 days in so it was good timing. I had planned on letting her spit on her own but circumstances changed and I had to strip her. She did well and gave me 24 fry. This is her second brood. In her first brood she had 17 so I'm happy with how she did. She actually starting spitting as soon as I picked her up. Her fry were swimming well and looked to be healthy. Following a brood I like to give the females a week of rest in an isolation tank before returning them to my community tank. Giving them time to recharge, rest and gain some weight. This time I didn't have an empty tank so she went right back to the 75gl community tank.

I stripped her on May 12th. I have her fry in a playpen in one of my grow-out tanks. They are doing amazingly well and have already grown. I really love raising fry. I have two other moms holding in 10gl tanks and the third 10gl is an isolation tank for a sick Cichlid. The females that are holding are a Yellow Lab and a Dragon Blood. I'm excited about both of those broods. The Lab has held twice before but lost them within a couple days. Very disappointing. This time she's doing really good. Since it will be her first successful brood I will let her do it all on her own.She bred with my Red Zebra on May 7th. I'm looking forward to seeing what the babies look like.


The Dragon Blood was holding until today. It just made better sense for me to strip her. If I had more small tanks I would have let her go. I didn't know for sure when she bred because when I got her she was already holding. From the look of her development I put her at about 2-3 days in. Today was at the least 16 days. I didn't want to risk her spitting only because it's much more difficult to catch tiny fry than you can possibly imagine.

I have the Auratus fry in a playpen and I put the Dragon Blood fry in another playpen. I will give them a week or so in the playpen giving mom time to recuperate and the fry to grow a little. Then I'll be putting the Auratus fry and the Dragon Blood fry together in the vacated 10gl. They will be fine in the 10gl for a couple weeks and I'll get the oldest fry (3 months) sold so I can move this double group into the 30 grow-out in about a month.

As tiny as these little fry are they were hungry. Their eggs sacks which sustain them for the first 14 days were used up and these little guys were ready for food. The first food I give them is a mix of blood worm, brine shrimp and Omega 3 Cichlid flakes. I put about a teaspoon of each into a baggie and crush it into a fine powder with my rolling pin. After the first week I upgrade them to a larger pellet for fry and then a grow food. They seem to love it and I feed them often. I also have to do water changes quite often because of the amount of food they get and the itty bitty waste they produce can still become toxic at their size. Just imagine the ratio. 10gl tank with close to 100 fry in it. Talk about overstocking ha!