African cichlid breeding question

[jarrodaden]

I will being by saying that I do not know the species of most of the cichlids that I have.

There is a video of my tank here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CphQQxrc1o

Obviously, I have frontosa and lemon peel. The rest I don't know their scientific or common name. Any help identifying the specific names would be nice.

To get to my point, I am inquiring specifically about the orange peacocks. One of them has taken to hiding in one of the better spots in the tank. It doesn't readily come out for feeding. I am thinking this could be an indication that breeding might have taken place with these newly acquired fish. Here are my questions.

1) Are these fish even large enough to breed?

2) Is there an easy way to sex these fish?

3) How can I tell if I have "carrying" females?

4) If I have "carrying" females, now what? I have seen some information about "stripping" them but I am a complete beginner with mouth brooders.

Thanks for any help.

[armthehomeless]

I will being by saying that I do not know the species of most of the cichlids that I have.

There is a video of my tank here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CphQQxrc1o

Obviously, I have frontosa and lemon peel. The rest I don't know their scientific or common name. Any help identifying the specific names would be nice.

To get to my point, I am inquiring specifically about the orange peacocks. One of them has taken to hiding in one of the better spots in the tank. It doesn't readily come out for feeding. I am thinking this could be an indication that breeding might have taken place with these newly acquired fish. Here are my questions.

1) Are these fish even large enough to breed? I've seen peacocks breed at 2"

2) Is there an easy way to sex these fish? Male peacocks are colorful, females are grey.

3) How can I tell if I have "carrying" females? The mouth will look full . . . sometimes it will apppear as through the female is chewing bubblegum.

4) If I have "carrying" females, now what? I have seen some information about "stripping" them but I am a complete beginner with mouth brooders. Don't worry about stripping at this point. Immature females will often swallow their babies the first couple times. Eventually (if you want to keep the fry), you could remove the female to another tank to let her spit the fry naturally.

Thanks for any help.

.

[jarrodaden]

ATH - Thank you for the help. All 3 of these fish appear to be very similarly colorful so based upon your response I have all males. If this is true for all of the cichlids in the video (link above) then I have no females at all.

[cichlid1409]

frontosas are monomorphic and cannot be positively identified until they reach 4-6 in by venting and even then its not 100%.

for the yellow labs (lemon peel) you have a pretty good chance of determining sex at 2" if you use the coloring method. The male will have black on the dorsal and lower fins (anal and pelvic), all of the same intensity. The female has black on the dorsal and much lighter black on the lower fins. venting will be most accurate.

[JAYGEE]

sorry to thread jack, but it is on the same subject.

How long do female yellow lab hold for? I have a female that has been holding for the better part of 3+ weeks. I can see eggs in her mouth that look a yellowish color. How would I know if the eggs were fertalized or not?

[armthehomeless]

sorry to thread jack, but it is on the same subject.

How long do female yellow lab hold for? I have a female that has been holding for the better part of 3+ weeks. I can see eggs in her mouth that look a yellowish color. How would I know if the eggs were fertalized or not?

Yellow labs hold 3-4 weeks generally speaking . . . same with peacocks. If it is over three weeks, you should not be seeing eggs inside the lab; you should start seeing fry by this point.

Returning to the peacock, it isn't an albino is it? Sorry, but I did not watch the video . . . you may want to keep a close eye on the fish that is hiding and make certain that he isn't getting bullied. Make certain that his fins aren't torn.

[armthehomeless]

ATH - Thank you for the help. All 3 of these fish appear to be very similarly colorful so based upon your response I have all males. If this is true for all of the cichlids in the video (link above) then I have no females at all.

As cichlid1409 mentioned, frontosa and yellow labs look very similar. The best way is to vent mature specimens for these species.

[jarrodaden]

Returning to the peacock, it isn't an albino is it? Sorry, but I did not watch the video . . . you may want to keep a close eye on the fish that is hiding and make certain that he isn't getting bullied. Make certain that his fins aren't torn.

I have three peacocks white / red in color. I also have 3 albinos. There is some occassional quick chases but nothing appears to be violent and nobody looks hurt. The albinos don't seem to be hiding much and I wasn't worried about them really. I have no idea about the sex of those either.

I realize now that you either pay little for luck of the draw with sex or pay much, much more for proven trios and guaranteed success. I am just not going to pay $25 or more per fish. That seems stupid to me.

I like the fish I have and I would like to see them breed, but I am not paying that amount.

[JAYGEE]

Yellow labs hold 3-4 weeks generally speaking . . . same with peacocks. If it is over three weeks, you should not be seeing eggs inside the lab; you should start seeing fry by this point.

Ok, Thanks ATH.

[JAYGEE]

I realize now that you either pay little for luck of the draw with sex or pay much, much more for proven trios and guaranteed success. I am just not going to pay $25 or more per fish. That seems stupid to me.

I like the fish I have and I would like to see them breed, but I am not paying that amount.

I bought 5 Red Fin Borleyi s when they were about 1.5 inches now they are 3 to 5 inches now and turned out to be 2 males and 3 females which one of the females is now holding. My yellow lab x red zebras I think is 4 males and 3 females, not completely sure but I have 3 females holding now.

[jarrodaden]

I bought 5 Red Fin Borleyi s when they were about 1.5 inches now they are 3 to 5 inches now and turned out to be 2 males and 3 females which one of the females is now holding. My yellow lab x red zebras I think is 4 males and 3 females, not completely sure but I have 3 females holding now.

I was thinking about this last night. I pulled out my probabilities and statistics book out of curiosity. Assuming that a mom will produce equal numbers of male and female fish these probabilities would apply.

If you order 3 unsexed fish from an online retailer

12.5% all male
12.5% all female
25% "perfect trio" 1 male and 2 female
75% at least one male and at least one female

I like my chances and considerable cost savings by ordering the smaller unsexed fish.

[JAYGEE]

I like my chances and considerable cost savings by ordering the smaller unsexed fish.

I agree.

[sountfc]

I think it depends on what you are after.

If you've got a very strong desire to breed a certain type of peacock, for instance, then paying more for an established pair will greatly increase your chances of satisfying that goal. Plus, there's a very good chance that you're going to end up with a larger, more colorful male right off the bat, and I'll admit that there can be something gratifying in that, because he'll make an immediate impact in the tank and how it looks.

If you're hopeful that they'll breed but it's not the end of the world if they don't, then it's fine to get out your statistics book and play the odds.

I have three peacocks white / red in color. I also have 3 albinos. There is some occassional quick chases but nothing appears to be violent and nobody looks hurt. The albinos don't seem to be hiding much and I wasn't worried about them really. I have no idea about the sex of those either.

I realize now that you either pay little for luck of the draw with sex or pay much, much more for proven trios and guaranteed success. I am just not going to pay $25 or more per fish. That seems stupid to me.

I like the fish I have and I would like to see them breed, but I am not paying that amount.