Baby Africans Help

[Blair917]

Hi, my OB Peacock female had babies in her mouth (and a few which escaped and were swimming in my main tank). I set up a 10gal using water from my main tank netted the mom and gently squeezed her mouth to release the babies into the 10gal. I then put the mom back into my main tank.

I have had baby Jack Dempsey's before and when this happened i put them in a mesh separator in the same tank and none survived. I'm really hoping that I will be able to raise these ones this time. There are about 15 fish 1cm long and I have so far fed them a few drops of liquid fry food and i crushed a very small amount of food to powder and put it in for them.

I'd greatly appreciate any advice to help me keep these alive, I expect that they will look pretty cool because the mom is an OB and I'm pretty sure the dad is blueish purple.

Thanks,

Blair

[Blair917]

Here are a couple of pics;

Day 1 out of the moms mouth:





Hopefully it will go smoothly, I'll update the pictures as they grow

-Blair

[Blair917]

Here is the Female;



and here is my best guess as to the male;



I have no idea what the babies coloring will look like

-Blair

[thharris]

The female looks like a marmalade cat trewavasae, where as that other picture is of a male socolofi. I don't think that those would interbreed.

About the babies about to raise some myself, last time the young actaly lived when they were in the main tank.
Sounds like your off to a good start so far!

[thefishwife]

With my yellow lab fry, I just use a breeders net and keep them in the same tank. I do however, use an all plastic one so no one can get at them. I also put some rock in there so the babies can hide. I have raised 3 different batches this way and all has worked out for me, then after about 2 - 3 weeks I put them in the grow out tank.

Your off to a good start! I am sure you will do just fine with the new ones. I use Hikari First Bites for them, for the first 2 weeks, then slowly switch them to other foods.

Congrats.

[Smiladon]

Rocks with holes really help them feel secure, but is not a necessity. Make sure that the pH in the 10gal tank is stable as a pH crash can take them down.
I use the holey rocks which serves both purposes above.

As far as food goes, you can feed them crushed pellets or hikari first bites. I used to feed them the small NLS pellets. Make sure to not overfeed. Feed little and feed often.

HTH

[Blair917]

Thanks for the support

I think that you are right about the marmalade cat trewavasae Thharris, I actually rescued this fish from my friends tank when he was on vacation and his family overfed his fish and his temp went up so high that 2 thirds of his fish died, luckily I was able to save the rest. The male was my best guess because they had been sticking very close, but I'm not certain at all. I have no other fish like the marmalade cat trewavasae and was actually pretty surprised when I saw the babies in her mouth.

I have about 6 babies in my main tank with the mom so I'm curious to see if they will survive, my main tank is well populated so I'm skeptical but it would be cool to see them grow in the environment. If i'm unsuccessful I will try a plastic separator next time.

The ph is currently about 8.2ish, and I'll make sure to keep my eye on it. The nitrates are also a little bit high because I was trying to delay a water change on my main tank when I first noticed the babies (I did a water change on it yesterday) but used the original water to fill the 10gal. The ammonia levels are fine and the ph is good for now. I'll just keep an eye on it all.

I'll find some rock to put in there to let them hide a bit too. I appreciate the feeding advice. I think that that is a large part of where I went wrong with the JD's since I had the right food but it just floated through the mesh separator I had them in. I think the male may have sucked them though the mesh at night when they would settle near the bottom. With those 2 issues addressed hopefully these Africans will have better luck.

I really appreciate all the great feedback, thanks!

-Blair

[Blair917]

I was wondering if anyone has a guess on a father, the pics don't do them any justice but here are a few of my 72gal tank.







Thanks

-Blair

[catgoldfish]

Whoa!!!!!!! Blair love the tank!!!!!!! Great colours. One of those tanks I could stare at forever.

[Blair917]

As of tonight all of the babies in the 10 gal are alive and well. The PH seems stable, and they are swimming around exploring the tank much more. I also have the temperature sitting constant. I fed them every few hours in very small doses alternating between the fry food and crushed food and have seen them eating.

I had left a few babies with the mom in my main tank and I honestly have no idea how many there are. I spotted 3 swimming by themselves today in the tank but its hard to say. They make so many hiding spots in the tank I've gone weeks without being able to find fish. I think I have 6 clwn loaches, 6 pleckos, and 2 chinese algae eaters in there but I rarely can see more than a few at a time. I'm hoping that since there are a fair number of spots to hide that the babies in there will live too.

I think that other pairs of my fish are breeding as well, one may actually have fry already. It certainly would explain why my electric blue, which is one of my bigger fish got the crap beaten out of him and is missing scales. I'm going to monitor it, but I may need to pull a couple fish out.

So far so good though