# frontosa is holding.. now what



## some_rocks (Oct 5, 2010)

i have a frontosa that has a mouthful of eggs. she never attempted to spawn in my 55 gal. once i could afford a 100 gal i put her in and now about 3 months later she is holding! my male really backed off once she started holding and doesn't bother her at all. that is good. i do have other fish in the tank with them though.

my question is what should i do? would it be best to let her hold them and release them on her own since it is her first? or would it be better to let her hold them until they are almost fry and then strip her? i have a 29 gal not in use that i could let them grow up in. or i can think of is to strip her now and get a tumbler to put the eggs in? put her in the 29 with the water from my 100 gal alone?

also how long do i have to decide what to do? i noticed her holding november 29. i usually pay close attention to my fish so she wouldn't of been holding much before that. 
i really dont have much experience with frontosa spawning although i have had a lot of other cichlids spawn and i have tried three of the ways listed above. i want to keep as many baby fronts that i can, obviously haha.

please help! and thank you for your time and ideas in advance.


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## zimmy (Aug 13, 2010)

some_rocks said:


> put her in the 29 with the water from my 100 gal alone?


Just to clarify do you have a cycled filter to put on the 29 or are you hoping to rely on just transferring water from the bigger tank?

Congratulations, on the holding female! I'm relying on the experience of others, but people seem to recommend not stripping a front the first time she holds. Here's the relevant paragraph from an article in the library (http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/cyphomaniacs.php):

_When your females start to spawn (they are mouthbrooders), DON'T STRIP THEIR EGGS!! I understand you have been waiting all this time and you are excited about having fry, relax. This will pay off, trust me. The females need to learn to hold. The first time you take the eggs of young Fronts should be four weeks. They normally hold for about five weeks. Try not to tempt the female with brine shrimp, and feed at the opposite side of the tank that she is on. The fry can be put in their own tank or be put in a breeder basket (Lustar is the best). _


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## some_rocks (Oct 5, 2010)

> The first time you take the eggs of young Fronts should be four weeks.


she is not that young. i have had her for 5 years and i bought her at about 2.5" I think that she has never spawned because she was in such a small tank.

is this the same for cichlids that have never spawned before? because this is her first time. I talked to the guy I bought my cichlids from (who also owns his own cichlids and salt store) and he did encourage me to wait at least two weeks to let her get used to motherhood duties. I am thinking that at about 3.5 weeks (in case i noticed a few days later) i will strip her and put the mostly fry stage fronts into the 29 with an air stone to help keep them from staying in one spot. if I am putting the babies in there and not the mother, would you recommend putting the filter on right away? it seems like they could get sucked in pretty easy.



> Just to clarify do you have a cycled filter to put on the 29 or are you hoping to rely on just transferring water from the bigger tank?


the 29 has its own filter but it is not running as of now. i was just going to use the 100 gal water so she/or they would not go through any more changes than she/they were already going to experience.


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## zimmy (Aug 13, 2010)

some_rocks said:


> the 29 has its own filter *but it is not running as of now*. i was just going to use the 100 gal water so she/or they would not go through any more changes than she/they were already going to experience.


I might not be following you correctly but if the filter is not running at present, putting the fish in a tank with that filter by itself means you are putting the fish in an uncycled tank, subjecting it to ammonia and nitrite spikes that will cause harm (and possibly death). Unfortunately just adding water from the cycled tank to your 29 will not do much. Bacteria need surfaces to survive on, they don't tend to live in the water.

I'd recommend you set up the filter you are going to use on the 29 on your 100 now so that it has a chance to cycle (the process might take a few weeks). Once you're close to ready to transfer the fish, you could move the filter to the 29, add 2 ppm ammonia to the tank and retest 24 hours later to see if the ammonia and nitrite levels are at zero. The tank is more likely to be safe enough then to add the female or the fry you've taken.


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## some_rocks (Oct 5, 2010)

thanks a lot zimmy. i will let you know how things go and try to post some pictures


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