# Stomatepia pindu



## MIKEJ0226 (Sep 19, 2007)

Does anyone know how long it takes for the fry to be free swimming. I would like to strip mine next time and not make the same mistake I just did. I went to strip her at 16 days like I do with the rest of my cichlids and she spit them in the net and they had just developed into very small fry attached to the egg sac still.


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## duaneS (Aug 31, 2006)

Count 12 days to 2 weeks after spawning, the fry will be ready to fend for themselves. 
Because pindu are so fast, I would catch my 6" female in a large landing net and she would spit 12 - 15 well developed fry at that time. Sometimes she had to be shaken a little to spit the last few stragglers.


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## Tezr (Sep 12, 2006)

I got 14 fry from mine at 16 days after I noticed her holding. Apparently a 2" jewel cichlid can jump into a floating breeder box and eat 14 fry......


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## dogofwar (Apr 5, 2004)

"Apparently a 2" jewel cichlid can jump into a floating breeder box and eat 14 fry......"

I had that happen as well (with a Chanchito and not a jewel)...


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## westafrica (Apr 10, 2007)

Which size do they have when they are spit?

I have 2 survivors from a first successful holding (apparently they got spit when I was on holiday), and when I found them they were 12 and 14mm, which seems quite big, I wonder which age they are... They were lucky that there are many plants & much driftwood in the tank... Here are 3 (bad) pics of one of these 2 survivors :




























I hope next time I will be able to catch the female on time in order to save more fry...

The problem is that at my return I also found a female holding : no way to know when she spawned!! :roll: . I will have to count on chance this time!

Could you confirm that once she has spit the fry, a female pindu never takes them back in mouth?

Thanks in advance for this and for the size they have when first swimming!


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## duaneS (Aug 31, 2006)

Mine were about the size of a 2 day old black mollie. And before I learned the "2 week "let her hold trick" from Ken Davis, I would usually find 1 or 2 stragglers hiding under logs or gaps under rocks in the community tank. I was always amazed by how the newly found or spit fry looked like mini replicas of the parents.
By the way westafrica, those are some excellent photos.


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## westafrica (Apr 10, 2007)

Hi!

Thanks a lot for your reply duaneS, and for your nice comment on my photos (I'm sure I can do better  )

Eventually I chose to catch the holding female, because I had to catch other fishes in the tank and I was affraid that she would got stressed by this rumble and spits all in the tank.

I was frightened that it was a little early and I was right : when she spit in the net the 25-30 fry had still their vitellus. Unfortunately due to my awkwardness I killed at least 7 fry trying to catch them in the net, their vitellus is really fragile and I didn't want to get the net out of the water (I don't think it would have been a good idea with wrigglers...). I'll try to be more efficient next time!

Well the important thing is that I have now 15-20 small pindu with almost no vitellus left, which swim in a little floating tank!  . You're right, they're approximately the size of a fry of a big Poecilia sp.


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