didn't know my fish had babies

[jhank]

I was doing a water change and pulled out one of my holey rocks to get the dirt underneath. when i put the rock back in i noticed a dead baby on the towel where the rock was sitting. How many babies do cichlids have and what should i do to keep them alive around the adults. there are a lot of hiding spaces. I am not sure how you can tell when a female is going to have babies...I did notice the color around one of my female electric yellows mouth turned almost black.???? is she gonna have babies ??? :roll:

[William]

Malawi cichlids are mouth brooders and as such you can se a "sack/buldge" under the mouth of the females when they are carrying fry.

The number of fry they get vary depending on the size of the fish and the species. It can be anywhere from a few fry to several thousands fry for large central American cichlids. Malawi cichlids like you keep don't get anywhere near that number and perhaps 20 fry is relativly common for a first time breeder. (for a females first batch)

Some fry might survive in your tank if it has a lot of hiding places. If you want more fry to survive it's better to let the female spit in another aquarium devoted to raising fry.

[jhank]

okay so I just moved to a 100 gallon tank and durring the process of switching over i discover one fry was still alive. I caught it and placed it in a net breeder. Do you think it will do okay by itself? I am selling the other aquarium (no room) so will this net me sufficient for a while?

[William]

Yes i think it will be ok. Just make sure to feed it.

[Janine]

thanx for your help
i just wish i knew enough to tell which ones were having the babies

[William]

Which species to you keep?