africans spawned

holy toledo(watching my language)!!!! so im doing water changes tonight. finished the 75 and started on the 30 gal, moved a rock and im suckin up crap (language??) and i see somthing really small kinda move away from the hose, so i pull the hose out and look closer and there is a little african cichlid.. then,,i see another. and another.... now the way they look, looks like the yellow labs didnt have anything to do with it, my question is will they eat the babies like american cichlids or with they not? i am really quite ignorant when it comes to these guys. the one fish that i believe to be the mother died about a week ago. dont really want to see these little guys get eaten even though im not that big of a fan of them.

Yes, many (not all) African cichlids will end babies, although a few will be smart enough and quick enough to get food morsels yet stay out of the mouths of the bigger fish. So, what do you suspect the parents to be?

im sure they are the Melanochromis chipokae we were talking about last night. i had a female and a little less then a week ago i came home from work and found her dead. but the babies are the spitting image of her. i have only been able to see a couple of them. didnt move stuff around a whole lot. didnt want to stir them up and make them into food.

Yep, you're doing the right thing then (letting them stay hidden). Just try to get a pellet or flake or whatever you're feeding down to the bottom of the tank - although they always seem to be able to find enough food to grow out without us trying. We have a new batch of chipokea fresh out of the tumbler - cute little guys. They come out yellow with their stripes already intact. They tend to hang around the bottom of the tank and they seem very playful. This is our first clutch.

Thats soooo awesome.... too bad mom died... They guard them pretty well, although newb parents sometime eat the babes. .... I always kept a small 20 gal tank for fry after being spit.... just sucked them up with the gravel vac... lol... Found it easy that way... sometimes nettin them kills them.

Did you count how many you had?? I love raisin lil' ones up! cant find a better feeling than that.... especially if you were tryin to breed them.

the most i saw at once was when i first noticed them, and that was 3. last night before bed i saw one hiding . it is pretty crowded in that tank with hiding spots. im just going to let them be, and hopefully some survive.

Got any pics of them?