# First Time Fry -- Lion's Cove Electric Yellow



## Randifer (Nov 4, 2012)

Here is a video of my new babies. The mother finally spit them late last night. She has been holding since 3/16. Looks like we have about 22 fry. She is part of a 55 gallon tank that has all male Haps/Peacocks and 4 Electric Yellows (1 male/3 female). This was her (and my) first time. From what I have read on here, we were pretty lucky to end up with this many fry to survive. She handled the stress in the 55 gallon pretty well. But I moved her into a 5 gallon by herself 3 days ago. I will add her back to the 55 tonight when I turn the lights off. Now I guess I have to go ahead and find a bigger tank for my other guys. I may use the 55 just for these little guys and gals to grow up in.


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## Demigod (Mar 22, 2013)

Awesome! I just found my first holding fish a few hours ago so I'll be in this position 3 weeks from now.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

So cute. The adults might pick them off over the next couple days, but whatever is left after that has a good chance. No synodontis in the tank?


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## Randifer (Nov 4, 2012)

DJRansome said:


> So cute. The adults might pick them off over the next couple days, but whatever is left after that has a good chance. No synodontis in the tank?


Fry and the Mom are in a 5 gallon tank all by themselves. Going to take the Mom out shortly tonight. Will leave the babies in the 5 gallon until I get my new tank set-up. Then will put the babies in the 55 gallon by themselves.


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## Demigod (Mar 22, 2013)

How are the fry doing?


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## Randifer (Nov 4, 2012)

AaronB said:


> How are the fry doing?


So far so good... i don't think I have lost a single one. They are getting big (compared to what they were when she first spit them). 

I am crushing up flakes for them. They come out and attack it when I put it in. But if it hits the bottom of the tank... they pretty much won't touch it after that.

The unused flakes seem to get "spores" on them... is that normal? I have to vacumn the bottom of the tank every two days to keep them away.

Randy


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## Demigod (Mar 22, 2013)

I'm not sure I've ever encountered anything like that... but I'm very, very new to this hobby. But congrats on the fry! I should have some Red Zebra fry here in about 2-3 weeks.

After adding a Pleco to my tank and doing a 60% water change this afternoon my tank is now on fire with activity whereas it was very calm before. I now have my 2 oldest Electric Yellows doing the dance and her vent area seems somewhat swollen... my fingers are crossed!


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

You should feed less and vacuum the fry tank if any is left....I hesitate to say 4X daily but...just feed less. Yes leftover food can start to grow bad stuff.


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## Randifer (Nov 4, 2012)

DJRansome said:


> You should feed less and vacuum the fry tank if any is left....I hesitate to say 4X daily but...just feed less. Yes leftover food can start to grow bad stuff.


Thanks... i'll cut back some. I just feel bad that some of the guys do not look like they get any food unless I put extra in.

R.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Well, there is always the vacuuming option...


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## Demigod (Mar 22, 2013)

And just like that, my first yellow lab is now holding! Took a few days of convincing but she finally gave in to his pressure.


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## Randifer (Nov 4, 2012)

AaronB said:


> And just like that, my first yellow lab is now holding! Took a few days of convincing but she finally gave in to his pressure.


Congratulations... to both of you. :wink:


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## Randifer (Nov 4, 2012)

Above are the little guys (and gals) 7 days after being released by Mom.

Put the Mom back into the main tank... here she is below with her Male Hap and Male Peacock tank mates. She has adjusted back just fine.


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## Demigod (Mar 22, 2013)

Me again. How big are they at 26 days? I just stripped my lab of her first batch of fry today after 18 days and my red zebra at 21 days last Wed... just want to get an idea, visually, of how big they can be in 4 weeks. Both of my females only had 9 fry each.


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## Randifer (Nov 4, 2012)

I would say they are about 1/2" now at 25 days. Some are slightly smaller and some are slightly larger. I know it's hard to judge the size from the video. If you look at the 1 week video... I had thrown some 1MM sinking pellets in the tank just to see what they would do. They seem about the size of their heads then. I put some of the same size in for this video... you can see they look much smaller compared to the fish's body.

They are easier to count now. Looks like I have 30 of them. So far, I don't think I have lost any of them.

This was her first batch of fry. She is already holding again back in the main tank. Has been for about a week. May let nature take its course on this batch.

Randy


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## Demigod (Mar 22, 2013)

Thanks! They sure do look orange in the video. Do they have any black stripes showing at all? If not, I wonder when that begins to show up?


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## Randifer (Nov 4, 2012)

no black stripe yet... no idea when that comes. But you can see the Mom in the first video of this post ... I think these guys will color up nicely.
R.


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## Demigod (Mar 22, 2013)

I wasn't suggestion they weren't what you say they are by suggesting they look orange... my Red Zebras all look almost identical to your first video. Somewhat yellow, a little tinge of orange. My Labs are neither yellow nor orange. Any idea how hard/easy it is to breed traits from the parents into the fry? My lab parents are both lacking a bit in certain parts of their stripes. The males dorsal doesn't run thick all the way to the rear, but the females does. The other 3 stripes are full on the male, but the female only shows hers when she's really fired up. So I'm wondering if the offspring will be just a "touch" better on both and look better than the parents... or does it work the other way around?? Will the fry have the least desirable traits?


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Fry can look better than parents or worse. It would take a number of generations to continuously select the fry with desirable traits to improve your strain. And then a number of additional generations to get the improved strain to breed true dependably.

If you have hybrids, you won't be able to "breed out" the estherae though.

Some strains of yellow labs have the black fins within a week of being spit.


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## witamygreatdanes (Sep 2, 2012)

Congrats on the babies! How do you know which is female or male in the yellow labs? I have four of them, but have no idea whether they are male or female.


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## Randifer (Nov 4, 2012)

AaronB said:


> I wasn't suggestion they weren't what you say they are by suggesting they look orange... So I'm wondering if the offspring will be just a "touch" better on both and look better than the parents... or does it work the other way around?? Will the fry have the least desirable traits?


Aaron... I did not think you meant anything negative at all in your comment. This is all new to me. I was going under the assumption that since I bought young Lion's Cove Electric Yellow fish from what I believe to be a reputable breeder and they all colored up nicely as adults, that the fry were likely to color up the same. But I have no idea if my logic is flawed or not.

Right now all the fry are a deep yellow... not so much orange to the naked eye... but dark yellow. I really don't see any signs of the black barring yet, but i'll keep you posted. I plan on keeping all the fry in their own tank for 6 months or so... so i'll keep you updated with their progression.

I read that the Lions Cove females can lose the barring when they get "older"... is that true, and if so, at what aprox. age does that happen?

Thanks!
Randy


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Are you talking about barring on the body, or black fins?

If anything I think the barring develops on more mature fish and the fry tend to have cleaner bodies.


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## Randifer (Nov 4, 2012)

DJRansome said:


> Are you talking about barring on the body, or black fins?
> 
> If anything I think the barring develops on more mature fish and the fry tend to have cleaner bodies.


I was actually talking about the vertical barring on the body. I only have it on one fish... and she is the one holding. I looked back at older videos and realized she did not have it before she had her first batch of eggs. Even in the first video of this post right after she spit the fry, it is not there. But now that she is holding again, it is back... It is fairly light... but it is visible. Is this just stress from not eating and holding?

Randy


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Yes, a holding fish may not look her best.


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## Randifer (Nov 4, 2012)

Just thought I would update this post.

Here are the fry at 3 1/2 months. As best I can tell, only one of the orignal group did not survive. (There are 8 or 9 extra ones added from a small batch about 6 weeks or so after the first batch)

Randy


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## gizmoody (Jul 12, 2013)

Congrats dude! You did an amazing job keeping these guys alive. I'm new to cichlids, but very impressive. Is there anything you wouldn't do if you were to do this again with another batch?


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## Randifer (Nov 4, 2012)

gizmoody said:


> Congrats dude! You did an amazing job keeping these guys alive. I'm new to cichlids, but very impressive. Is there anything you wouldn't do if you were to do this again with another batch?


Thanks. I am pretty new to Cichlids and this was my first batch. I read through a lot of articles on here which helped. But, i set them up in a 5 gallon tank and that did not last very long. So if i did it again, i would start with a 10 gallon tank. I would probably have bought a better heater too. Wouldn't hurt to plan what you are going to do with the little guys when they get bigger too.

Randy


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## Randifer (Nov 4, 2012)

Just a quick update. At about 7 months now. Have them in a 55 gallon tank now. Have lost a couple along the way. These guys are not growing as fast as I thought they would... but moving along.


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## rennsport2011 (Oct 21, 2013)

Not pure Labs, but it looks like you are doing a good job raising them.


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## Michael_S (Aug 18, 2013)

How big are they right now?


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## Randifer (Nov 4, 2012)

Some are just over 2 inches. Most are about 1 1/2 inches. (6 of them are much smaller because they are from a second batch and were all i saved from a batch the female spit in the big tank).

Unfortunately, because of problems with my new tank, all these fry had to stay in a 10 gallon tank until a few days ago. I wonder if that caused them to grow a little slower? I'm interested to find out if they start growing faster in the 55 gallon.

Randy


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## xyzoptics (Dec 2, 2013)

What an awesome thing to follow along, keep the updates coming!


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## JP_92 (Aug 2, 2013)

One of my yellow labs in my all male tank turned out to be female and started holding just over 2 weeks ago. She's in a small tank now. I'd assume the male lab is the father not sure if anything in my tank can cross breed with her or not but the male yellow lab would protect her hiding spot from the rest of the tank. I'm excited to see what happens!


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## Randifer (Nov 4, 2012)

These are the first fry I have ever kept. It is fun to watch them grow. My kids especially liked it... especially when the fry got old enough that you could see them moving around in the mom's mouth. And the first morning my daughter came down and she had spit the fry into the tank... my daughter went nuts and woke everyone in the house up to come see.


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## JP_92 (Aug 2, 2013)

Well my female lab released her fry tonight. She's small and had 7 fry. 6 survived. The tank has a small thickskin in it and I thought I put up a good divider but some of the fry got through. The thickskin is too small for the main tank so I guess i'll get a breeder net tomorrow. The fry look like yours did in the first video so I'm guessing they'll be Yellow Labs. I was actually hoping for some type of unique hybrid fry but it doesn't seem that way yet. Either way this is my first batch of fry ever also and I agree its fun, just wish I had more tanks!


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