My Yellow Electric is Having her first batch of BABIES!!!

Ok guys so i just got home from the superbowl party and after parties only to come home to a knocked up fish!!!

Ive noticed some strange behavior from my largest yellow electric male who looks like half yellow electric half white electric,
lots of digging going on, claiming of over half of the tank (125 gallons) and really wicked coloring and temper.

The Second largest yellow electric cichlid turns out to be a female that is now holding, and it looks like the big aggressive yellow is protecting her.
and protecting his spawning area. REALLY AWESOME STUFF!!!


i feel like i have accomplished with this tank, ive made it well enough for my fish to start a family lol.




ok so, this just sprang on me, i am going to the store tomorrow to buy an egg tumbler.
can anyone out there give me more advice? what to expect? what to watch for? anything i can do to help the fry grow into healthy fish?

i will be watching videos and begin my research as we speak!

If anyone has a spare 10 or 20 gallon tank i would love to purchase.
kind of a last minute need here... i wanna save as many of these guys as possible.


any reasonable priced 10-20 gallon tanks out there?
i have a filter and heater ready to go, just need gravel, lighting, and the tank itself.

congrats on your first batch of babies

I don't have any spare tanks, but I'm sure you'll find something

I got a spare just want some fry when they get big enough

I have an extra 10 and 20H

Congrats on the holder!

When you say half yellow electric and half white electric, it sounds like a hybrid? Or is that just a description of his coloring? What species is he? A Labidochromis caeruleus, like the one in my avatar?

If you're talking about a hybrid, I would just allow the mom to spit the babies in the tank and not try to save fry. I say this from past experience that I am still paying for. My first holding fish years ago turned out to be a hybrid that I bought labeled as a pure species and I still have several of the fry that I had kept, thinking they were pure as well. (If you've read any of the debates over distributing hybrids, you'll understand why I still have them-- they are very much frowned upon and I couldn't bring myself to just euthanize them for that reason so now they take up a tank that I could have used for pure species.)

You can expect the mom to hold the eggs anywhere from as little as 16 days to 21-28 being the average and sometimes over a month. She won't eat or will eat very little during this time. It's not normal for the male to protect her at all. I like to leave the holders in the main tank as long as possible and around 21 days I move her to the 10 gallon to spit the fry on her own. It's an awesome process if you get to see her release them and take them back into her mouth if she feels they are threatened. I don't leave her with the fry more than a couple of days because the mom will eat the babies at some point. I always provide lots of very small hiding places for the fry.

One other thing -- sometimes new, inexperienced females won't hold to term for some reason. It might take them a time or two to get it right.

If you strip, none of that matters. I've had to make my own tumblers in the past. If you find any in a store, let us know. I've only seen them for sale online.

Good luck!

Im not a african keeper but congrats on the babies

Betty wrote:Congrats on the holder!

When you say half yellow electric and half white electric, it sounds like a hybrid? Or is that just a description of his coloring? What species is he? A Labidochromis caeruleus, like the one in my avatar?

If you're talking about a hybrid, I would just allow the mom to spit the babies in the tank and not try to save fry. I say this from past experience that I am still paying for. My first holding fish years ago turned out to be a hybrid that I bought labeled as a pure species and I still have several of the fry that I had kept, thinking they were pure as well. (If you've read any of the debates over distributing hybrids, you'll understand why I still have them-- they are very much frowned upon and I couldn't bring myself to just euthanize them for that reason so now they take up a tank that I could have used for pure species.)

You can expect the mom to hold the eggs anywhere from as little as 16 days to 21-28 being the average and sometimes over a month. She won't eat or will eat very little during this time. It's not normal for the male to protect her at all. I like to leave the holders in the main tank as long as possible and around 21 days I move her to the 10 gallon to spit the fry on her own. It's an awesome process if you get to see her release them and take them back into her mouth if she feels they are threatened. I don't leave her with the fry more than a couple of days because the mom will eat the babies at some point. I always provide lots of very small hiding places for the fry.

One other thing -- sometimes new, inexperienced females won't hold to term for some reason. It might take them a time or two to get it right.

If you strip, none of that matters. I've had to make my own tumblers in the past. If you find any in a store, let us know. I've only seen them for sale online.

Good luck!

awesome and thank you for your response.
I was told that the male is 100% yellow lab. But his coloring is weird... he is yellow, and has black fins like a normal yellow would.
but his belly is whiter yellow then his back. its hard to describe. everyone says its full lab just a lesser. i think hes beautiful compared to the others.
he looks VERY wild.

the male was a rescue mission, a gentlemen explained that the fish was too wild. very mean temper. and i couldnt figure it out until now.
its a male, and he gets crazy when he starts knocking up fish lol... he is protecting his "lady" and his "house" unfortunately he thinks the whole 125G minus a corner is his lol.

as for the tumbler. i considered a tumbler but i wanna watch her hold these guys for as long as possible
going to pick up a 20 today for her to rest in.


her mouth is getting HUGE!!!

as for the babies, i wont be giving any out until they are atleast an inch.


start sending me PM's if you would like baby yellows!!

Nice meting you today, Danny. I love your enthusiasm for this hobby! Ron

fishloverRon wrote:Nice meting you today, Danny. I love your enthusiasm for this hobby! Ron

It was a pleasure, thanks for your kind words and advice.
the tank is up and running as we speak, and beginning its cycling process.
hopefully it cycles before she starts spitting!


After sitting next to this loud Aqua-Tech 30/60 i realize i may need a new filter solution for this 20.
if you got anything laying around ill buy it off of you.

UPDATE!


Today i put her in her own 20 gallon tank.
Many people already have asked. WHY. What about your tank cycle?

I used one of the filters that has been on my 120 Gallon for months.
i also didnt do a water change on my 120 for a little over a week, and before i did the water change i used that water to fill this 20 gallon..

ive tested temperatures, and water parameters... its good to go.


ready for this?
Ok, so i spooked her a bit while trying to get her out of the 120...
but after putting her in her own little space with only 1 decor (its a plane crash cave)
i got a fantastic view of the eggs... looks like she is holding quite a few of them...
im really proud of her!

So for my own sake....
did anyone else get this excited to see their first fish pregnant?

So for my own sake....
did anyone else get this excited to see their first fish pregnant?

YES, I did!! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Betty wrote:

So for my own sake....
did anyone else get this excited to see their first fish pregnant?

YES, I did!! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Ironically, The fish that is preg has been my favorite since the beginning!
now she surprises me with pregnancy! woot!

man i can't wait...


she was such a pain to catch at first... then it almost seemed as if she knew what i was trying to do...
and she basically jumped into the net.
i grabbed her out of the net and gently put her into her new tank, she didnt even wanna leave my hand.
she was lookin at me, just chillin, wigglin..
it was a moment lemme tell you.

now she peeks her head out of her plane crash and just looks at me, then when i turn to look at her she pokes her head back in lol...
playing hide-and-go seek!

lol after 18-24 days ur gonna want to strip her. if you want large numbers of fry survival. also do you have a brine shrimp hatchery? this is the best way ive found to get good growth out of fry for quite awhile. just beware if you wanna do it the natural way as mom will only not eat those babys for so long. after like 12 hours i believe her hormones stop working and she will go back to normal (aka eat anything thatll fit) GL to ya and i hope it works out. always nice to catch fish breeding. not sure how i will get my fish out of my 125 myself... lol

Anthraxx wrote:lol after 18-24 days ur gonna want to strip her. if you want large numbers of fry survival. also do you have a brine shrimp hatchery? this is the best way ive found to get good growth out of fry for quite awhile. just beware if you wanna do it the natural way as mom will only not eat those babys for so long. after like 12 hours i believe her hormones stop working and she will go back to normal (aka eat anything thatll fit) GL to ya and i hope it works out. always nice to catch fish breeding. not sure how i will get my fish out of my 125 myself... lol

i don't.
i am going to pick up a shrimp tank very soon.
for now, im going to crush flaked food into small bits, and maybe try a cube of brine shrimp.
ill figure out the feeding situation.


im going to strip the her when i can visually see fry in her mouth.
right now they are still eggs, i got a fantastic view moments ago.

she came out to check out her new home, and basically stuck her tongue out at me. lol

I feed mine frozen baby brine shrimp and powdered food. I have a little mortar and pestle set that I use to grind pellet food into powder.

They will only need a little bit of food at a time, several times a day if possible. The first time I overfed mine and ended up with nasty looking worms (planaria and nematodes of some sort).

Do you have any pictures?

If you cant find a mortar and pestle, you might use a tea diffuser - the fine seive side of it. Put in a little flake food and use your thumb and grind it thru into fine powder. I did this when I didn't have any live or fine food.

Another thing I do for angel fry and Malawi fry - hard boil an egg (chicken egg -not fish egg), take out the yolk, put it into a little water, mush it up with the back of a spoon creating a slurry. You can feed it to them from an eyedropper as is or you can freeze it for future and break off bits, mix it in a teaspoon of water, create a slurry and feed it to them. Or just swish the frozen block in the tank until enough has thawed into the water. This is old school, but works for me....
Ron

fishloverRon wrote:If you cant find a mortar and pestle, you might use a tea diffuser - the fine seive side of it. Put in a little flake food and use your thumb and grind it thru into fine powder. I did this when I didn't have any live or fine food.

Another thing I do for angel fry and Malawi fry - hard boil an egg (chicken egg -not fish egg), take out the yolk, put it into a little water, mush it up with the back of a spoon creating a slurry. You can feed it to them from an eyedropper as is or you can freeze it for future and break off bits, mix it in a teaspoon of water, create a slurry and feed it to them. Or just swish the frozen block in the tank until enough has thawed into the water. This is old school, but works for me....
Ron

Wow i will DEFINITELY try this, great advice thanks a bunch! you've been an awesome help!
Ill give the crushed flake food a shot at first, or maybe even crush up algae wafers into powder and see if they go to town on it.

they have no choice on the egg trick, im tryin that out lol.

Betty wrote:I feed mine frozen baby brine shrimp and powdered food. I have a little mortar and pestle set that I use to grind pellet food into powder.

They will only need a little bit of food at a time, several times a day if possible. The first time I overfed mine and ended up with nasty looking worms (planaria and nematodes of some sort).

Do you have any pictures?

yeah im going to look for some frozen brine here in a few days,
i don't have any pictures of her yet, she is shy.
she pokes her head out at me for short periods of time and then she goes back and hides.
almost making sure i am still watching her