# Planned parenthood African Cichlid?? HELP!



## Ben_dover (Feb 11, 2014)

I woke up this morning and one of my yellow labs had a weird shaped jaw, sure enough I took a closer look and it had eggs in there! My whole general knowledge of yellow labs went out the window. 
I'm not sure whether its a male or a female now, it has deep black anal and dorsal fins. About two weeks ago it was extremely bloated, I thought it had was constipated or something so I feed the whole tank daphnia and peas and a day or two later the bloating was gone, now I find out it has eggs in its mouth? 
I have never EVER had cichlids breed on me and I was hoping they wouldn't do so. I would like to have them breed sometime in the future but I just got laid off of work and I cant afford a new setup! 
I have no idea how this happened, my fish were all juvenile/fry just a month ago and most are still not big enough to identify whether they're male or female! 
I'm so overwhelmed I have no clue what to do! 
I currently only have one 150 gallon tank set up with 33 african cichlids. If I were to setup a 10 gallon tank or something would I have to move the holding cichlid into it? or just strip it and leave the eggs in there? 
Also how fast would i be able to cycle the tank if I used the water from the 150 gallon and some filter media like bioballs, cerimac rings or sponges? 
I hope there is a affordable solution to this for 50-60$ and under I really dont want those eggs to die either.


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## Ben_dover (Feb 11, 2014)

this is the holding male or female?

IMG_20140306_075745_901 by yungnuts, on Flickr


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## Sparrow19 (May 31, 2013)

Looks to be holding, but I'm not an expert. Honestly if it was me, just leave her alone. They will obviously be a hybrid, so I'd let her have them in there and see if any survive. Might be cool to watch a couple grow that make it, but then you don't have to worry about 20+ or spending time and money setting up a new tank. That's what happens in nature, so I don't think its inhumane.


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## Ramseydog14 (Dec 31, 2013)

I think that's good advice Sparrow...but to answer the other question..I think the 10 gal would be fine without "cycling" based on doing it as you said,.plus adding a small filter.


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## dledinger (Mar 20, 2013)

I set up 10s with new sponge filters for holding mamas all the time. All I do is place a couple big rocks from the main aquarium into the tank. I believe that with momma's limited activity and no food going in the tank, that transplants enough bacteria to get the cycle going without a hitch. Also makes momma comfortable by giving her somewhere to hide. I rarely test water these days, but I've experienced extremely low fry mortality like this. Last batch from a young Acei was 58 fry...I lost one.


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## Ben_dover (Feb 11, 2014)

Thank you guys for all the helpful advice! I think i'm going to try to get ahold of a 10g tank with a heater and filter for under 50$ on craigslist but If I can't get ahold of one I'll probably just do what sparrow said.
I also saw a few people on youtube take plastic containers and drill holes through them, wrap them in Styrofoam and leave hem floating on top if the tank, have any of you tried this method? and would you reccomend it? It seems like a cheap effective method


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## Sparrow19 (May 31, 2013)

Also, if you don't want fry right now, I'd rehome or sell the female afterwards.


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## Ben_dover (Feb 11, 2014)

Sparrow19 said:


> Also, if you don't want fry right now, I'd rehome or sell the female afterwards.


Well now my punda is holding and I dont really have an option but to attempt to raise the fry, the male she bred with is just too dam good looking to miss out on the opportunity to raise, plus pundamilia nyererei's around my area run about 10$-15$ per fish, so hopefully I get the satisfaction of keeping the babies alive and at least recuperate the cost of raising the fry


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## Floridagirl (Jan 10, 2008)

Ben_dover said:


> Sparrow19 said:
> 
> 
> > Also, if you don't want fry right now, I'd rehome or sell the female afterwards.
> ...


In a set up with many different types of cichlids, hybrid are common. My rule is, if I didn't see a spawn, I don't save fry. And, I don't keep fish that look alike, and have 1m to 4-5 females to further ensure interspecies breeding. But, I really prefer my species only tanks. You will need at least a 20 gallon tank to grow these to salable size, with a 40 gallon being better.


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## mclaren880 (May 20, 2012)

I keep bioballs in the back of my emperor 400 and put them into my penguin 200 when i want to set up a 10g for whatever reason. it works well.

As for your plastic container and styrofoam idea... a $5 breeder net will have a similar effect and they work great.


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