Demasoni Mother Remembers babies!

HOLY COW! Craziest thing in my history of fish keeping just happened! I seriusly cannot believe it! As you all know, I had a demasoni cichlid that spawned for me... I had stripped her eggs from her mouth, and I think I left 1 egg in there.... out of the 9 eggs stripped, 6 survived.... well until yesterday... so, the tumbler they were in was always in the same tank as the mother... and she always hung out near the tumbler... i thought she just wanted to eat them.... then, yesterday I went out and purchased a little aquarium net for the babies so they could get more swimming room.... I woke up this morning and only had 3 fish out of 6 left! I was sad, i thought the mother that was hanging out by the net finally got to eat those lil fry she had been watching in the tumbler so long.... So i moved the remaining three to there own 10gal tank.... and the mother looked like she was finally holding again! I thought maybe that protein she ate made her spawn again... So, I stripped today to find the three fish that were not in the net breeder in her mouth, plus the 1 egg I left in there had turned in to a baby!!! I couldnt belive it!

She had recognized the babies, and didnt eat them, but held them in her mouth! Now, I am not stupid, and i do think there is a possiblity that I didnt strip all the eggs and maybe missed some that have been growing in her mouth.... but really weird the numbers were the same as the missing ones! I really think she held them, cause she was circleing that breeding net with the remaining three and chasing anyone away from it. just really cool

glad to hear she did not make a quick snack out of them

I just cant believe she would recognize them as her own young after I strip them, and was away from them for 3 weeks... motherly instinct is crazy!

That's really cool, is she in her own tank with the young or is she holding them in the main tank?

Hmm... You know I'm a big believer in letting moms hold and spit for a few reasons including seeing that protecting of the young, but I'm having a hard time with this one. I don't know if mbuna would be that good!

I don't see how she could have gotten the babies out of the net even if she did recognize them as hers and wanted to protect them. Was she the only other adult in the tank with the netted fry?

I have seen my mbuna kill babies that were in breeder nets before. It's why I never use them without modifying them to keep the adults from being able to bite at them through the netting and sucking them through.

It does make you think about the possibility though -- that three more fry turned up in her mouth when three were missing.

betty,

I know what you mean.... and no, there was many cichlids in that same tank she was in... What I thought was weird is she always hung out by the tumbler, and the breeding net... if anyone got close she would chase them away....

well now she has none in her mouth.... and she is with the adults... the babies are in there own lil tank... hopefully I wont mess up again and get to raise all these lil guys til they are strong enough to go back with the adults...

How big you think I should get them before they could be lunch?

good question. my dems are so aggressive toward newcomers that i am not able to add any to the group without them being killed in a matter of mins.

ya their motherly instincts are REALLY strong. i ended up stripping a female recently myself, couldnt get em all cuz i didnt wanna stress her out, and omg did she ever get pissed when she tried releasing the rest a cpl weeks later. NOBODY could get within a 2 foot perimeter.. most aggressive cichlid behavior ive seen.. didnt do any good they all got eatten quite quickly, but still to watch a fish get so worked up over offspring is kinda neat to watch.

pics of mom?

pics in my demasoni holding thread.... but super bad news... all babies died! stupid 10gal tank I put them in was not cycled. i thought if i used 100% water from the other tank it would be fine... NOPE... huge ammonia spike because of the new filter. ALL DEAD! I WANNA CRY!

Aww, that's too bad. With six tiny fry in 10 gallons of water, I would have thought they'd be fine for a while. Sorry you lost them.

you know, I honestly thought i wouldnt have a problem either! couldve been something else I guess... and ammonia gotten bad after they died.... oh well, live and learn.... I wish i had a better setup for babies... i wasnt expecting them though.... I will be more prepared next time.

went back on the other thread shes a real beaut man sorry FYL on the babies i mean

Its all good aquaman.... Thanks. Like I said, I was not really prepared for babies at all! I honestly was going to use this tank as a grow out for my Tropheus babies, but I have a good 9-10 months until that happens, so I figured the deal I got for the dems and rustys would keep the tank ready for the babies..... So, if you like my group of dems, they will definetly be up for sale in a lil' under a year.