Fry – releasing and survival

Third, is the survival of the fish fry. While allowing the female to hold the eggs to ‘full term’ before releasing them is ok, fry survival rates are questionable. In a community tank, fry survival rates are “very very low”.

A common practice is ‘fry stripping’. Basically, it’s removing the fry from the female before she releases them. This is usually done between 2-3 weeks since spawning, when the fry are ‘ready’ to survive in the open water. I usually strip the fry at 2 to 2 ½ weeks and keep the fry in a fry tank.

If stripped too early, the fry will still be underdeveloped and are at high risk to die from fungus growth – underdeveloped fry will require a ‘tumbler setup’.

“Troubleshooting”

Still have problems? Haha, cichlids can be very uncooperative sometimes.

A common failing among aquarists is to feed too much. Overfeeding results in fat fishes – fat fishes are also less likely to spawn. A method I practice is to stop feeding for a 2-3 day period to ‘trim down’ the fishes. It works too.

If you have a community tank, try to temporarily transfer the fishes you want to breed to a separate setup or a less populated tank. I’ve tried it, and it works!

Female spawned, but the eggs disappeared? It is pretty normal for first-time mothers to NOT hold successfully during her first try due to inexperience – she may spit them early or swallow them. Also, if tank mates are very aggressive, mothers may be ‘forced’ to spit out the eggs early – “Happy hour” for all the other tank mates. Also, the male or female may not be sexually mature ... and hopefully not infertile (keep your fingers crossed).

Low fry survival rates? Fry get eaten? Fry don’t seem to survive in the tank? In my experience, fry stripping is the best way to ensure high survival rates – without stripping, fry survival rates were 0-10%; with stripping, fry survival rates were 70-95%!!!

Also remember that fry are more ‘sensitive’ to water quality & water parameter changes. Take due care.

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~ John ~
I am a Malawi Fan!