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My Mbuna's are mating!


alfettaparts

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I already had one female Mbuna suspiciously large around her mouth however last night I watched one of my males (having sex shhhhh) with another female. He shimmered and I saw the female open her genitals and lay eggs while the male fertilised them. She then promptly placed them in her mouth. It was very interesting. Now tonight I have three female's with a mouth full of eggs. Should I place them in my small hospital tank together? Should I place a divider in my 3 foot tank? Should I just let them be?

I guess I'm just thinking out aloud. I have a three foot tank with about 15 fish, mostly Mbuna's. Its well filtered and well maintained however the fish are getting large and I don't think I need dozens of fry as wonderful as it is.

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Congrats!

If its the first time they've ever bred, then chances are the females may spit out the eggs after holding a few days.

In which case, they will just resume their normal routines after that. If they do not, then you have a few options:

  1. Do you want to keep the fry? 
  2. Do you have a fry saver?
  3. Do you have a spare tank?

If you answered YES to the above questions, then:

- Let the females hold for 2 or so weeks. After that, you could isolate them into a spare tank for them to naturally spit out the fry. Let the female(s) rest there for a few days before placing them back into the main tank. Place the fry into a fry saver or spare tank to grow em out. When they're big enough, and you dont want to keep em, here is the classified section for ace :)

If your answer to the above questions is NO:

- Do nothing. The females will eventually spit out the fry. When they do, the other adult fish in the tank will have a free meal.

 

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Now counting four pregnant fish. Why are they so crazy? Fighting and mating. Have they just matured? They are all about a year old. There getting big and I suspect I might have some problems keeping them in such a small (3foot) tank57023b38ec980_IMG_00751.thumb.JPG.6f351e.

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