Pseudocrenilabrus multicolor victoriae

Just thought I'd share a few pictures. I have three left of the five I started with, after a lot of aggression. Two males and one female -- each living in a separate tank until I can get more females to add all at once to spread that aggression from the male(s).

They are from the Lake Victoria basin.

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Wow, those are nice looking fish, are those all males in the pictures?

wow neato pics!. those are gorgeous males there. especially the last photo.

Very nice!

The small one in the second pic is the little female. The others are the two males. The last picture shows a male after he was moved to a separate tank. You can see the difference in color when he is over black sand.

Betty wrote:You can see the difference in color when he is over black sand.

I love how the sand color makes our cichlids change. Only problem is getting an environment where they can all shine! LOL

Will you be at the Christmas party Betty? Might be able to bring you a few more females.

Hi Cory. I don't think I'm going to be at the party, but will definitely be in touch if I can make it. Thanks.

I still want to get up to your store -- one of these days!

This topic is nearly two years old now, but thought I'd update it since I finally found some this summer.  

I had no luck finding females and never made it to Cory's store (before the Co-op). Then one day I noticed cichlid-gal's stocklist.   And thanks to her generosity, I now have several young victoriae and I'm sure there will be some females in the bunch. I've had them for a couple of months now and though they are still small, I'm starting to see signs of male coloring on a couple and definite male coloring on this one. I hope the rest are females!  

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They are doing well, cichlid-gal.  Thanks!

Nice looking fish! I love Victorians.

Those are beautiful!!!!

KaraWolf wrote:Those are beautiful!!!!

 

Seeing fish like these make me contemplate new set ups.

Awww Betty....they look wonderful.  You take such great pictures.  Look at those blue lips...love it!

I'm so happy to see them growing up and showing that happiness for you.  I hope you have lots of females too.  I just placed the last few that I held onto for myself (there were 5 of them) from my growout tank into my main tank and I'm hoping most of those are females for me also.  I only have three adult females and those poor ladies are almost always holding babies.

I received some of these fish from Donna  too and to my surprise one of these small/young females is holding already...can't believe it. Donna did warn me they breed early!  Now I need a plan and have i'm guessing a week to figure it out as I've read it's 10 days holding time, right Donna?

The female I think is holding...
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Ryan...I would leave her in the tank for now. She is young and if she is holding (she sure looks like she is) she will do better if you let her just run the first few courses undisturbed. After she is grown a bit, if you want to raise some fry, you can pull her to a hang-on fry rearing box. And although a lot of articles say 10 days holding, I think its more like 14 days. The babies are tiny tiny when born. I feed mine with BBS, cyclops, and then a little crushed flake. I left them with mom for while and let her care for them in the box, then after a few days I pulled the mom to a recovery tank. Mom stayed there for about a week getting time to rest and rejuvenate before returning to the main tank.

And congrats!

Make that two females holding...here we go! I'll have to take a video tomorrow night and upload it.

Missed seeing you tonight Donna, get better soon!

Thanks everyone and congrats BallardFishGuy!

Betty, had did I miss this thread and those pictures?

Very nice looking trio.

cichlid-gal wrote:Ryan...I would leave her in the tank for now.  She is young and if she is holding (she sure looks like she is) she will do better if you let her just run the first few courses undisturbed.  After she is grown a bit, if you want to raise some fry, you can pull her to a hang-on fry rearing box.  And although a lot of articles say 10 days holding, I think its more like 14 days.  The babies are tiny tiny when born.  I feed mine with BBS, cyclops, and then a little crushed flake.  I left them with mom for while and let her care for them in the box, then after a few days I pulled the mom to a recovery tank.  Mom stayed there for about a week getting time to rest and rejuvenate before returning to the main tank.

And congrats!

Donna - you are right, 10 days came and went and now were on day 11 and no fry yet. Of corse we will be gone most of tomorow and back Sunday night so I hope she spits them Sunday night and not sooner... here's hoping!  

Day 15 no fry yet but seems close as it looks like there are fry in her mouth now instead of eggs.

Also I notice one of the fish which I believe to be a sub-dominant male biting her or more of a love kiss on her mid section and then he waves his tale at her...am I correct that he's trying to get her to mate with him even though she's holding? He also tried to "lip lock" with her, for lack of a better word. Anyway she whacked him and told him to back off! Anyway fun to see as no harm was done to anyone.

Well she probably has the babies and yes, the males will go after the females as soon as they spawn

I'm waiting for her to release them...haven't seen it yet. Hopefully tonight or tomorrow as it seems past due. Although I know every fish is different...

She may keep those releases on the down low and look like she is holding for a long time when in fact she is releasing, letting them swim a bit, then taking them back in.

That's exactly what I wondered and what I was going to ask you next! So i'll start feeding BBS daily then.

Just a tiny little bit of that and a tiny little bit of crumbled flake...not much of either as these guys are very little. When you see them out and about then you could up the amount some more.

Interesting, still haven't seen her release the fry, maybe she is only doing it at night or "in the weeds" as she mostly hangs out in the front of the tank where I can see her. I guess i'm just afraid they are starving if they are now fry and no longer eggs.

why dont u just strip her Ballardfishguy?

You're right I could but she is young and it's her first batch, so I'm going to let things be.

That being said I may put a breeders box in the tank and put her in there to get away from the others.
Did I mention how hard they are to catch!!!!!!

I think it's a great idea that you're not stripping a first time mom!  

Has she been eating anything at all?  Some of my mouthbrooders will take in a little bit of food while they are holding and I've wondered if the fry were getting fed.  I've also had them hold over their estimated time and the fry were okay. (No experience with the Victoriae, though.)

Yeah I'll just keep watching her and making sure she's ok... if things don't look good I'll put her in the breeders cage.

Donna - a little progress (sort of) today...

I haven't been seeing the holding female eat and was worried about her so I enticed her with live black worms and that did the trick as she took some in albeit she had to spit her fry, or a few of them to eat. One unfortunately got eaten by the large male right away in the frenzy  but two got away and I watched them and sucked them up with a baster and set them aside safely.

I then (after a while!!!) caught the female and put her in the breeding cage with the fry back in the main tank. I added a small cave and ferns and frogsbit to the cage so that she could hid still but I noticed the two fry are at the top and she is at the bottom...will they find her again or will they not come back to her? Just curious as this is a first for me.

 

I'm not sure Ryan about the seperation of fry from Mom. Most of my fry remained low in the box not venturing far from Mom and Mom staying close to them. I'd just leave them now and let nature take its course. You don't want to stress her more than you have too and if she has more she will spit them eventually. Just give her time to recover before putting her back into the main tank.

I just helped them find her way to them...gentle guidance with my finger pushed them down to her and then she scooped them up.  

Now I think i'll leave her in the cage a few weeks and make sure she is eating and make sure the fry are getting bigger...

Sounds good Daddy!!!!

Now I just need to talk the wife into a bigger tank for these guys!  

Donna, how long will the mom hold off on eating the fry?  With my other mouthbrooders, I wouldn't trust them with the babies more than two or three days after spitting them.  

Betty - I believe from what Donna has told me she will care for them in her mouth for some time spitting them out and letting them go back in as needed. Donna was even telling me of some fry she had that were really big fish trying to swim back into mom's mouth.

Today she spit them because she was so excited for the live worms. She has now taken them back in once I reunited them.

That's awesome if the mom won't eat them for so many days after finally spitting them.  My experience is with Lake Malawi mouthbrooders and they will sometimes spit the fry out and let them back in while they still have a little bit of egg sack left, but normally when the fry are ready to be on their own, the only way they go back into the mom's mouth is as a meal.  My Tanganyikans are much better parents.

Betty wrote:That's awesome if the mom won't eat them for so many days after finally spitting them.  My experience is with Lake Malawi mouthbrooders and they will sometimes spit the fry out and let them back in while they still have a little bit of egg sack left, but normally when the fry are ready to be on their own, the only way they go back into the mom's mouth is as a meal.  My Tanganyikans are much better parents.

From an article online...

Unlike the better-known female mouthbrooding cichlids of Lake Malawi, which release their fry in the shallows and then move on, this tiny mother will continue to protect her fry for several days after release. She provides them a shelter at night and whenever danger threatens. After a couple of days, it is almost comical to see the nearly 100 juveniles try to dash back to their mother’s mouth when you walk up to the tank. I’ve seen so many juveniles that outgrew their mother’s mouth still trying so hard to get in that there were tails sticking out of her mouth and heads protruding from her gills – with even more trying to get in. This is why, for the mother’s health, it’s best to remove her as soon as she releases the fry and give her a couple days to recover before moving her back to the main tank.

Very cool.  I guess I better start doing some reading since I'm sure to have some females in this group. Thanks for the info.

BallardFishGuy, do you have any pics of yours?

Betty wrote:Very cool.  I guess I better start doing some reading since I'm sure to have some females in this group. Thanks for the info.

BallardFishGuy, do you have any pics of yours?

Well technically I do but they are mostly dark and nothing to brag about (maybe i'll upload some later)... my males are starting to really color up especially the biggest alpha male. Unfortunately when I gave half of my 10 fish away (not enough room for all 10) I think I might have sent more female's than males along and that was unintentional and it's looking like I have a lot more males than females in the group from Donna.

Right now I have 5 fish and it would be perfect to be 4 females to 1 male but I think I have 3 males and maybe 2 females...only one is 100% positive female as she is the one holding. So I may need to move out the rest of the males less the alpha male who is mating... and let me tell you these guys are some of the hardest fish I've had to catch. My Rams will almost jump into the net not caring but these guys will dive into any plant and not move unless you can find them and flush them out.

The male aggression has been ok for now as Donna foretold...although with each week passing I can see that will change. 

Ryan...I only left my mom with the babies a couple of days then I removed her to another tank to recover. Like Betty, I don't trust the moms given experiences with the mbuna. Maybe if you leave her you can tell us how long she cares for them and educate us too...thanks.

cichlid-gal wrote:Ryan...I only left my mom with the babies a couple of days then I removed her to another tank to recover.  Like Betty, I don't trust the moms given experiences with the mbuna.  Maybe if you leave her you can tell us how long she cares for them and educate us too...thanks.

Sure will do!

Well it's funny, been watching the female a lot tonight and she seems to keep trying to get the two lone fry in her cage (the spit ones from earlier today) and I thought several times she grabbed them but either they escaped or she is letting them back out of her mouth.

So that means either one of two things, she is trying to eat them  or trying to get them back in her mouth, either way they aren't going for it and they dart away whenever she tried to nab them. I'm perplexed at what is actually happening!  

I'd like to know as well, but if you want to make sure those fry survive, it might be time to separate them. They are ready to start eating and mom could probably use the rest and several good meals before having to deal with those males again!

Well I just couldn't do it, the two lone fry seemed to want nothing to do with momma and I saw them eating just fine so rather than risk it I'll leave them in the breeders net/cage for now and I released the mother.  I have been fating her up with lots of live food these last few days so hope that helps.

Next step is to get the tank down to the 1 male...maybe a project for this weekend.

Betty wrote:Very cool.  I guess I better start doing some reading since I'm sure to have some females in this group. Thanks for the info.

BallardFishGuy, do you have any pics of yours?

Betty....just checking in. Has your group started spawning yet? The younger ones I kept back from the 2nd spawn of mine have already started holding in my big tank. The males vie for attentions from them. Alas...many females holding but no survivors as my 125G is just too big and has too many baby "eaters" and alot of flow I think. If I want another spawn from these I will have to pull another female to a breeder box.

Not that I know of.  I've been so busy the last few weeks and haven't spent much time just sitting and observing, so I don't know what's really going on in my tanks.  I had noticed a small fish staying down in the rocks during feeding time, but I couldn't get a good look at her? so I don't know if she was holding.  She was so small that she wasn't holding many, if any at all.    

I tried to get a few pictures the other day, but they aren't too good.  I might post a few anyway, later today if I get the chance.

Thanks for the update Betty. My babies have really grown...I'm starting to have trouble telling the babies from the parents in some instances...mostly with the females. The males are still a bit smaller than the adults but showing colors real well.

Mine aren't adult size yet.  A few of them are still quite small. All of them are hard to take pictures of!

This is the male that is coloring up nicely.

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