Breeding Electric Yellow Labs

[rallyfanche]

Hi there! Ive been trying to breed electric yellow labs for quite some time. No matter what I do, they dont seem to want to get their groove thang on. At least in theory, there are 3 females and 1 male. 85 deg water, clean and clear, lots of food, 125 gallon tank.

Anyone out there with experience with breeding these fish? Any advice? Im starting to think I have my males and females confused. How do you tell the females from the males?

[Cesar]

Re: Breeding Electric Yellow Labs

let nature take its course,males generally have more black on the top and bottom fins,usually all black but Ive seen subdominate males have partial black on the bottom fins.Ive got about 8 right now and 2 females holding.Also have to males I can trade you for some equipment or whatever you dont need.
-C

[armthehomeless]

Re: Breeding Electric Yellow Labs

I agree with Cesar. The males generally have more black on their dorsal and anal fins. Although yellow labs are monomorphic, this method is fairly reliable without having to vent them. My males seem to like caves or overturned clay pots to defend  as there territory. This is where spawning usually takes place in my tank.

Out of curiousity, is there a particular reson your temperature is set at 85? What are the other tankmates? What are the water parameters?

[rallyfanche]

Re: Breeding Electric Yellow Labs

Fellas, sorry for the late reply, I was out of town on biz. I should have 2 males and 3 females. The females I think have faded anal fins, and in some cases even white stripes there. I put them all in the same tank, having given up on them breeding a while ago. The temperature? Thats a good question. I have a cichild tank, and Im not sure why its at 85. I must have gotten that from somewhere and always left it there. What temperature would yellow labs like? I have different varieties of cichilds, loaches (clown and botia), and 2 placos. Next week, im breaking down the tank to make it cheaper to sell.

Anyhow, I would be curious to know ya'll process to breed cichilds. My current plan is to divide them up into 3 tanks, males, females and the breeding "chamber" Im going to put a few clay pots at the bottom of the breeding tank, and put the females in the night before to let them get conformable. The next day,  I was going to put 1 male in there and wait a few days to see what happens. If no magic, then I was going to separate them for a week and try again. The tanks are all  next to each other, so the males can see the females. Is that a bad idea? I though it might...get them going to be able to see but not touch. I figured, what worked for me in middle school should surely work here!

The biggest problem is I dont know what to look for. I dont know what courting behavior on electric yellow labs looks like. I dont know what overly dominant, or aggressive behavior in a male looks like. I might be getting aggression and courtship mixed up. The most I can say is that I have witnessed 2 distinct behaviors. 1) is when two cichilds chase each others tail, in a dizzying whirly-ball type display. Cant say it looked very...ah...playful. The second, is two cichilds facing each other and what appear to be biting each others mouths (or as my girl friend calls it, kissing each other to death). Anyhow....any tips fellas?

[Zulaab]

Re: Breeding Electric Yellow Labs

Lake Malawi's temp is between 76-82 depending on location and time of year.  I would recommend lowering your temp first to about 78 and see if this helps.  
Yellow Labs and Armthehomeless can prolly give better information than I can, yellow labs needs a good size in numbers so the males will not chase the females to death.  If you keep all 5 yellow labs together, you will almost for sure see her holding a clutch of eggs shortly.  Remember she will hold for about 25-28 days before she spits.

[Cesar]

Re: Breeding Electric Yellow Labs

the whirlling in a ball is usually two males trying to establish dominance. Which would mean there can only be 1 the other will play the subdominate role unless he gets killed.Yellow labs do the same breeding ritual as other malwi cichlids,the male flutters for the female and chases here all over the tank untill she usually give in,I provide a good size piece of slate rock(flat rock will work) so she can drop her eggs and pick them up,like I said Ive got plenty with 2 currently holding if you want to trade for something I need an extra heater or maybe some sponge filters.
-C

[Cesar]

Re: Breeding Electric Yellow Labs

oh yeah do a water change with some cooler water that may help get the breeding started right away.
-C

[armthehomeless]

Re: Breeding Electric Yellow Labs

Both of the interactions that you observed seem to be interactions between two males - not courting behavior. I have the temperature of my tanks set at 78. Feeding a high quality food along with large water changes often time trigger spawning. Once the female starts holding(you can tell this by an extended jowel), I separate her into a 10 gallon with a cave and lots a java moss. I leave her in there until a couple days after she spits. I have the java moss in there because it seems as though the fry often times eat things that are on the plant - if not the plant itself.  Keep us updated on your progress.

This is how I breed cichlids: Put water into aquarium. Mix males and females in a large tank. Provide lots of caves/options for the males. Provide open space for females. Feed quality food. Change 50% of water to help trigger spawning (frequent water changes also help the fry grow faster). So far this has worked for me for peacocks, various mbuna, Leleupi, J. Transcriptus, and tropheus.

I will admit that I don't purposely breed cichlids anymore. I just don't have the space. The fry are subject to natural selection.

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Breeding Electric Yellow Labs

whoa......85? if you plan on keeping temps that high make sure you have lots of circulation throughout the tank and good surface agitation....the hotter the water the less oxygen there is.

[rallyfanche]

Re: Breeding Electric Yellow Labs

Woah! Sounds like I've been doing wrong. I better cool the tank off....slowly of course. Thanks for the input guys. Im breaking my old tank down this coming weekend, and building partitions to my new tank as well. Hopefuly, Ill have some little uns to show for it soon enough!

Look forward to my next post: "What the heck am I doing wrong?"