# Juvenile Yellow Lab holding Red Devil fry?



## gverde (Mar 3, 2010)

I have a 220 gallon tank with a mixture of mbunas, peacocks, haps, 1 Green Terror and a pair of Red Devils that just spawned. I know alot of people on this board says not to mix Africans with Central Americans but I have had no problems with any of the fish together. When I was a teenager, I had a 55 gal. with a mix of Africans and Central Americans with no problems either. Anyway the tank has been setup for about 2 months. The Green Terror and pair of Red Devils came with the tank when I purchased it. The rest of the fish was purchased through about 5 different stores. Anyway about 2 weeks ago I noticed my 2 inch yellow lab was not eating and coming out of the rocks. I noticed that she was definitely holding. The question is what fry is she holding and being only 2 inches long? The female Red Devil spawned about a month ago and just recently spawned again. There are few small fry hiding under rocks, but most have been eaten and alot of the eggs were eaten or didn't hatch. I'm striving for a all male tank but there are a couple juveniles that I don't know what sex they are. I haven't noticed any of the male Africans courting the yellow Lab so I don't think she bred with any of them. Could they be the Red Devils fry? And should I manually pull the fry from the Lab soon? Thanks.


----------



## PepoLD (Dec 9, 2009)

whow lab holding red devil eggs? that has to be the most amazing thing i've ever heard haha, well if thats the case...!! idk if thats even possible hehe but you should take some pics .

btw labs tend to crossbreed with mbunas, so might be her own eggs


----------



## scrubjay (Oct 25, 2009)

If she's the only lab, I would guess they could be any of the mbunas and perhaps you didn't see it happening.

If they are hybrids, let her spit the fry into the tank and let the other fish eat them.

Just so you know, a lot of people that don't want to mix cichlids from different regions do it for aesthetic reasons rather than out of fear of incompatibility. In other words, we like to have tanks that are representative of an aquatic habitat in a certain region, more or less. People like us look at a tank with mixed cichlids and can't stop thinking that it would be so much better if only that darn [insert fish species here] weren't in there. Sort of like an interior decorating faux pas that you can't ignore. Some people enjoy the challenge of trying to match the habitat and inhabitants as closely as possible to their habitat in nature. But there is also the consideration of water parameters not being the same between fish from various regions.


----------



## crash2673 (Feb 8, 2012)

I have a yellow hap and she will lay and hold unfertile eggs.after about 10 days she will swallow them.


----------



## Mr.Dempsey (Jan 4, 2012)

gverde said:


> Anyway the tank has been setup for about 2 months.


 2 months is'nt enough time to say that the fish are fine together, I would like to see your stock in 2-3 years. Im not trying to *********, Even I know the fish in my CA/SA tank will have problems and someone will have to be removed even with the bigger tank they'er going to be moved into.


----------



## mysterycichlids2 (May 11, 2012)

This is absolutely impossible!! A juvenile can't hold babies. Would you care to show us an image or video of this? The problem is that it's not eating...


----------



## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Note that this is a 2-year old thread that was resurrected by crash2673. Also note that I've had labs holding at 1.5" so the holding part (of their own fry of course, or multipunctata) is possible.


----------

