I got to watch! COOL!

**Mith** · 05-06-2010, 09:04 AM

Hey, I was about to clean my tanks and happened to see my big black male Bumblebee and a Female dancing around (African Cichlids). So I stopped to see what was going on (at first wasn't sure if they were fighting or what).

Anyway, in order for this breed of Cichlids to produce babies, the female has to drop the egges (usually 2 or 3 at a time) then IMMEDIATELY turn and scoop them up in her mouth. THEN the male, (who's also busy chasing off other fish who seem to inately know when she's dropping eggs) has to fertilize the eggs! In order for this to happen, the female puts her mouth near the anal fin of the male at which point, the male releases some sperm which the female takes into her mouth with the eggs.

What actually happens is, the male has "fake egg" patterns on his anal fin which whe female thinks are eggs... so she attempts to suck them into her mouth at which time the male releases his sperm (cool huh!).

Anyway, this was the first time that I actually witnessed this process! I saw the female release her eggs and IMMEDIATELY turn to suck them up into her mouth. Sometimes she got them all while other times the other fish got them before she did. The male does his best to chase off other fish so this allows the female to get some eggs into her mouth.

This particular female Bumblebee has had several batches of fry (of which I have in a 8.8g baby tank) so I imagine in another 28-30 days, she'll be ready to be stripped.

Cool huh!

Anyway, this was really a neato thing to be able to see. BUT fun's over. Time to clean all my tanks... LOL (50g X 2, 125g, 20g and 8.8g).

Oh, I also watched one of my yellow fish (used to be blue with black stripes but ended up being yellow.. go figure) dancing with my female (blue with black stripes)... though I didn't actually see any eggs layed.

Whatta night!

**HeatherH** · 05-06-2010, 09:13 AM

That sounds so neat! How lucky you were to get to watch.

**Mith** · 05-06-2010, 09:51 AM

Originally Posted by HeatherH

That sounds so neat! How lucky you were to get to watch.

Ya! This was the first time I actually saw this!

**rich311k** · 05-06-2010, 10:52 AM

That is great. It can be fun to watch nature in action.

**gadget228** · 05-06-2010, 10:54 AM

What, no video.

Sounds interesting, would have liked to see that myself.

**Lab_Rat** · 05-06-2010, 06:09 PM

Congrats Mith!

Originally Posted by Mith

Oh, I also watched one of my yellow fish (used to be blue with black stripes but ended up being yellow.. go figure) dancing with my female (blue with black stripes)... though I didn't actually see any eggs layed.

Sounds like you have a kenyi pair too. The males go from blue with black stripes to yellow when they mature.