yellow lab won't release

[mandem]

turns out, i have another female in the tank. was hoping to be done with finding new homes for fry. her chin is huge and i moved her to another tank several weeks ago. nothing's changed. she hasn't released anything. the other would release the same day i moved her. anything i can do? i'm assuming instincts take over at some point (right?)... they can't starve themselves to death or anything can they? just curious.

thanks.

[Lumpy]

Re: yellow lab won't release

Strip her by opening her bottom lip Be very gentle with her. Use your finger nail and open her bottom lip and shake her back and forth the fry will come out while her lip is open. Again be very gentle

[mandem]

Re: yellow lab won't release

yikes. any more pointers? do i do this keeping her in the water? just net her and hold her in my hand to keep her still? thanks.

[Lumpy]

Re: yellow lab won't release

Make sure you wet you hands first try not to handle her to much you do not want to rub off her protective slime on her body. Hold her head under the water with one hand between your index finger and thumb and with the other use your finger nail to open her lower lip. While you have her lip open shake the fish back and forth slowly the fry will come out of her mouth as you shake her. Be gentle with her she is very delicate. I would leeve her with the fry for a couple days  or as long as a week and then remove her . She will begain to feed again soon after you put her back in the tank. I HOPE THIS HELPS

[Zulaab]

Re: yellow lab won't release

Yellow Labs will hold their fry anywhere from 18-25 days.
If she has been holding for 4+ weeks and you know for sure its been 4+ weeks then you may want to try and make her spit.. but until then let nature take its course... you will be so excited when you see them come out and she takes care of them.  I am not 100% sure but some fish and I dont know if this includes the yellow labs, that some spit... and once they do they dont care about the babies after that.  You will need to listen to one of the yellow lab experts.

[mandem]

Re: yellow lab won't release

thanks to both. i sure seems like more than 4 weeks but i'm not positive. i'll give it a bit more time. she's small... just over 2" so i'm not really looking forward to trying to handle her. something like a moose in a china shop i think.

[Cesar]

Re: yellow lab won't release

I was thinking the same about my female,see seemed like she wasnt ever going to spit! held for about 28 days and released about 24 fry,just let her hold especially that you really dont want the fry,either shell spit them out or swallow them Id really doubt the later.BTW my females have nothing to do with their fry onced released.
-C

[Zulaab]

Re: yellow lab won't release

Cesar I believe you are correct... Yellow Labs spit and release - no protect - when it comes to their young... ie once they spit they are on their own.  I noticed that once when by mistake we moved some yellow labs from one tank to another and by mistake we stripped one, and she never looked back for her young..

[imagirlgeek]

Re: yellow lab won't release

I had a similar experience with our yellow lab recently.  She's small, like yours, and seemed like she held forever!  I finally stripped her and 13 fry came out.  I put them in an egg tumbler (it doesn't get as nasty as the net breeder) and they were fine, but our female was distressed about them being in there.  She hung around the egg tumbler all the time and would go at it with her mouth.  I felt really bad and finally moved them to another tank.  I thought she was trying to protect them, but if they don't protect, what was she doing?  Anyway, I decided to just let nature take it's course next time.

[SOULJAA]

Re: yellow lab won't release

Using a q-tip also works.

[mandem]

Re: yellow lab won't release

looks like i was just a little impatient. this morning she had released some of them. no worries now. will be posting later looking for good homes. possibly for the female too. thanks.