# breeding yellow labs, plz help!



## sangi1a (Jan 11, 2009)

iv'e pretty much done every thing i can to try and breed these. i heard they were easy to breed so i tried them and had lots of headaches. can anyone give me suggestions?

here's my setup:
75gal.
cascade 700 canister
wishper 60 HOB
heater set at 78
iv'e got bubbles along the whole back wall 
sand
there is a huge rock wall that has 41 caves

fish:
4yellow labs(2m,2f)
2 male red zebras
1 male melanochromis auratus
2 female kenyi
1 mixed hap 
4 tiger barbs
4 convicts
1 pleco

the convicts breed every week. i feed them tetramin flakes 47% protien. i do a 5 gal w/c every day.

suggestions???


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Ideally remove all the fish but the labs and the pleco. You can add other species, but the ones you have are somewhat problematical for breeding pure labs.

Add at least two more yellow lab females...four would be better.

Increase the pH to around 8.0. Feed New Life Spectrum Cichlid Formula and do 50% water changes weekly.


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## sangi1a (Jan 11, 2009)

i cant remove all the fish but i can isolate the labs into a 20 gal. 
would that work?


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

No they would kill each other in such a small tank. You would need a 36" tank minimum and one male four females would work in that size tank.


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## hollyfish2000 (Aug 23, 2007)

> i heard they were easy to breed so i tried them and had lots of headaches


Which of your stock are you trying to breed? You have a really odd mixture for a breeding tank. Your zebra, auratus, kenyi and hap don't have potential partners of the same species. So you're breeding ... hybrids? If you're breeding labs, add more females and remove some of the competition for the male labs . . .

Convicts do breed easily, as you know, but they are New World cichlids and should not be mixed in with an African tank. You don't seem to want them to be breeding, though . . .

You need to decide which direction you want to go. The easiest route would be removing the convicts and the mixed hap. Decide which two of the rest of the species you like the best and then make arrangements for breeding groups of 1 M-2/3 females. Labs and zebras should not be housed together if you're interested in distributing fry.

You have a good sized tank and that gives you a lot of options if you can narrow down your wants and needs . . .


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## sangi1a (Jan 11, 2009)

ok i will remove the convicts and the mixed hap. but can i still keep the ratio of 1m3f with zebras, labs, auratus, and kenyi? i want them all to breed with their species.


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## khaki (Jan 12, 2008)

If you want to breed yellow labs then you need to get rid of all central american fish. I would say get rid of the 2 male red zebras, 1 male melanochromis auratus,2 female kenyi, 1 mixed hap, 4 tiger barbs,4 convicts ,1 pleco. You need groups with these fish or else you will end up with a lot of hybrids. Thenn add more females yellow labs. Do some more research on what kind of species you can keep with yellow labs that wont cause hybrids. My yellow labs aka electric yellows always breed when i give them a big water change.


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## Stickzula (Sep 14, 2007)

I have had good success breeding labs with kenyi in the tank(55g). I agree that it is too risky to breed labs with the zebras in there though. Those two seem to crossbreed even if their m/f ratios are right. I would say that all of the fish could stay without much risk of hybridization, with the exception of the zebras. I know that the barbs and convicts are not african, but they can handle the harder water and higher ph requirements. The kenyi are female, I there is no issue there, if they get knocked up, you know it is a hybrid clutch. The auratus is a bit aggressive and that could be keeping the labs from spawning. I would get 2-3 females for him if you intend to keep him and have a happy tank. The hap is no threat for hybridization or aggression, but should probably be removed for it's own sake since haps get stressed by the active and aggressive habits of most mbuna. I would reccommend keeping the temp around 80* and the ph between 8.0-8.2 and do a 30%-50% waterchange weekly. That's what mine is and my labs breed like rabbits. I would also add 2-3 female labs and consider removing the extra male. It is not a problem keeping more than one male lab, but if one male is trying to spawn, the other male is likely to break it up. I would also consider feeding a high quality food. I perfer Dainichi, but I NLS is good too. Some people like Hikari. Most people swear by NLS, but I have had better looking, healthier fish with Dainichi.


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## Kanorin (Apr 8, 2008)

sangi1a said:


> ok i will remove the convicts and the mixed hap. but can i still keep the ratio of 1m3f with zebras, labs, auratus, and kenyi? i want them all to breed with their species.


How can you possibly breed anything but hybrids from these 3 species?


> 2 male red zebras
> 1 male melanochromis auratus
> 2 female kenyi


If you want to breed and be confident that you are producing non-hybrid fry, you have to make some major changes to your stocklist.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Zebras, Auratus and Kenyi are all aggressive mbuna so they need more than 3 females to a single male. Zebras and labs will crossbreed, so if you want fry, don't keep them in the same tank. I believe labs and kenyi might have the same situation with the yellow males.

Auratus and Kenyi should be kept in 75G because they are so aggressive. If you want to try to breed maybe remove the labs and add females to the groups of zebras, auratus and kenyi. The auratus and kenyi especially should have lots of females. Six or eight females for one male would not be too many.


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## labido27 (Apr 11, 2009)

I have a female lab that tried to breed with my cherry red zebra. Why is it that labidos breed with zebras even when there is a male labido present?


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

The red zebra male is more aggressive than the yellow lab male and he wins the contest.


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## sangi1a (Jan 11, 2009)

ok i got my new fish will this work?
i tried to get the right ratios for each kind of fish

1m4f yellow lab
1m4f auratus
1m2fkenyi

anybody know if this will work? at first i got 1f for my male auratus and he killed her so next i got him 4f all at once and they bred the minute i let them go!

the yellow labs seem like they dont wna breed. the male shows no interest to the females sam with the kenyi


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

I'd get 2 more female auratus and 4 more female kenyi. And maybe another lab for good measure.

If you just rearranged the tank or changed the tankmates, it may take a couple months for things to settle in and breeding to resume or begin.

There are times when you have aggressive species in the tank like auratus and kenyi that the less aggressive species will not breed (my acei would not breed in the Demasoni tank).

Are the fish all adults? Three or four inches long?


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## Stickzula (Sep 14, 2007)

I have a logistics question for you. Why do you want the labs to breed? Once you get the number of labs that you want in your tank, you will have more fry than you know what to do with. Lab fry is a dime a dozen and you will probably have a hard time selling them. You may be able to get your LFS to give you a couple dollars store credit, but mine will only take a handfull of 1.5"-2" juvies at a time. My labs have broods of at least 20 and usually more like 30. Even if they took 10 at a time, that still leaves you with 10 min to house until the lfs will buy more or you can sell/give them away. That added to the fact that it takes at least 3 months to grow them out enough to be sold and you will probably have at least one female holding all the time. So you do the math, it takes 3 months to get sellable fry. It takes 3 weeks for a female to hold the eggs. If you have only one female is holding all the time, you are getting 20+ fry every 3 weeks so by the time you have any that are sellable, you would have upwards of 60 fry. The lfs might take 10 so you have 10 to "rehome" immediately and 40+ to grow out another month or 2. Oh wait, you just had another female spit before you could sell the other 10 juvies so add 20 newbies. Like I said more than you know what to do with. I only keep maybe 3 broods a year and I always have more labs than I can sell. The demand is just not there.

Anyway, if you want to breed them thats up to you. I would add another 2f kenyi at a min. If it were me, I would stock 10 labs 8 auratus 8 kenyi keeping only 1 male per species.


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## Larryboy (Dec 9, 2003)

I am not an expert like the mods but I had _too much _success with labs breeding in my community tank composed of acei(all males), various peacocks (all male), a breeding pair of socolofi and 4 yellow labs (2 m, 2f). I couldn't KEEP the labs from breeding. I believe the key is to get all other than mildly agressive species out of the tank. This tank is at my office and I really couldn't set up a 20 gallon to raise the frye so the community had some tastey treats every few months. I raised the ones that survived in the community tank to sellable age and took all the fry and both mommas to the LFS. I kept the two lab males and got rid of the female socolofi as she got tangled up with somebody other than her "old man" and yielded a bunch of hybrids. I now have an all male tank and enjoy the lack of little surprises. I really think that lack of competition for the females and lack of stress from the bullies will work wonders. Good look!


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## sangi1a (Jan 11, 2009)

well, i live 20mins away from 4 different locally owned pet stores and i have sold them all convict fry and tiger barb fry for store credit. i am good friends with one owner and i know that they will all take mbuna fry. im just trying to fund my hobby and i figure it can pay for itself. i do have 4 other 10gal. tanks that have convict, beta, glodanio, and auratus fry. thanks for your advice. i think that 1 more of each species will be good.


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