Breeding?!?? pls... help!

[Nae]

Hello everyone!
I'll be honest, the reason for getting my 30g was..I thought "fishies" were pretty! :oops:
I really had no idea the time and effort that goes into keeping "pretty fishies"! I have now spent more hours then I can possibly count on researching the proper way to keep them. I have asked many questions to many diffrent people. I "upgraded" them slightly to a 50g tank about 6mos ago. I went out and bought a number of diffrent types of slate rock and plants. I've gone with what "most" people have told me. Up to now I think I've done real well. Unfortunatly, about 5 weeks after my tank was sent up I noticed a lil speck of nothing trying to swim around! My hubby and I were so excited!! We were "grandparents" That lil speck was our pride and joy! we must have told everyone we knew... :D.
Now, here's the catch... I now have 2 of my other "lady" fish getting pregnent too!
So to sketch a picture... I have 3 beautiful Cichlids on what feels like a 3 week rotation! I'm up to my underarms in fry!!!! :? .

Where my problems lie are what so people do with the fry after they have givin everyone they know these cute lil fishies!???!
Also how does one tell who the "Stud" in the bunch are? Or could there be more then one "Stud"???!?
I'm sorry to annoy all you who are obviously more educated than I when it comes to this... hobby. I guess this is the only way to learn. :oops:

[William]

I need to know what kind of cichlids you have to help you find the stud ;-)

Your problem is not that unusual when one has a tank that the fish thrive in. I usually just let the fry stay in the aquarium which means that many of them ends up as food for other fish. But otherwise you can keep them untill they get a little larger and sell them to fish stores. How easy or hard this is depends on what species of cichlids you keep.

[BigFutch]

A lot of male African Cichlids of the Mbuna variety have have "egg spots" on their anal fins that they use to "entice" their potential female mates. I found this to be true with all of the mouthbrooders (meaning the females carry the eggs in their mouth) that I've ever owned.

The male will shake / flutter / shimmy their tail end anal fin area in front of the female. The female, seeing what appears to be eggs on the anal fin, comes behind the male and "picks" up what appear to be eggs to the female. In actuality, the male has fertilized the eggs that she is currently carrying in her mouth.

Another way to ID the female is if one of your fish isn't eating, and doesn't appear to be ill, yet is shying away from most of the other fish in your tank, look at her closely and see if she is carrying eggs in her mouth.

Hope this helps!!

Reggie