Mbuna breeding?

[Darbex]

Ok so here is the deal starting yesterday Soni noticed that one of my Johannii (well think its a female Johannii) wouldnt eat and might be a mother. So I came home last night and noticed that she was withdrawn and her lower jaw looks enlarged, possibly holding. The only thing is I have a male Johannii in the tank but he has never really shown interest in her other than swimming around together and they have been together about a year. Well my Blueberry Zebra goes up to her and begins to tremble and swims into a cave. So I thought he had been trying to court her but nothing ever happened. Then earlier this week the Hongi that I recently got was swimming next to her and then they both began swimming in circles around each other similar to what i read about courtship. So has anyone ever seen or heard of Mbuna's cross breading I know its common among Peacocks but didnt read anything about Mbuna's

[Tiapan]

Re: Mbuna breeding?

i have heard that they can and will cross breed, but it seems like everyone is trying to get some, so who knows who is the daddy. but yeah some of them can cross breed. a lot of the different names for the fish are areas that they are from, so the basic fish is the same.

[Darbex]

Re: Mbuna breeding?

Interested to see what these boogers will look like all comments are welcomed

[Tiapan]

Re: Mbuna breeding?

sometimes hybrids are cool looking, sometimes they arent. the only reason why fish get so different is because they breed in one small location for so long, of course when you are dealing with lakes the size of small countries it seems a little more realistic. it would interesting to find out how many varieties are really hybrids from a few regions who bred together, think of it like dog breeds, they all originally came from wolves, and look at the variety of breeds we have and all the different traits they have.

[Hanson77]

Re: Mbuna breeding?

They will cross breed with ease.  I had one that had loose morals and would breed with just about anything in the tank.  It didn't matter if it were a Sunshine Peacock or another Mbuna.  She was just a breeding machine.

[Brownsnoutuk]

Re: Mbuna breeding?

They will cross breed with ease.  I had one that had loose morals and would breed with just about anything in the tank.  It didn't matter if it were a Sunshine Peacock or another Mbuna.  She was just a breeding machine.

No, she was a sl t

[Darbex]

Re: Mbuna breeding?

So she finally got rid of the babies. I have spotted 3-4 babies hidding in the rocks and today she had her first meal that I have seen in about 2-3 weeks. I am sure there are many more that I just cant see.

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Mbuna breeding?

Congrats!

I love seeing tanks that have multiple generations swimming around in them! I miss my little Ilangi babies.....

[Darbex]

Re: Mbuna breeding?

well my Mbuna female is holding again along with a couple others I decided that I wanted to try and make them spit so I can have a higher percent survival. Well they all swam fast and I think I now have to many hidding places so I was only able to capture one before I got tired and will try another time. So I got my female Sunshine to spit and she successfully dropped 4 babies and surprising to me a baby snail. Either she still thinks she has them in her mouth or she was holding some back from me but I didnt want to stress her to much. But I am really excited that I was successful at it. I put them into a 2g tank until I get a tumbler. I want to know how long till i need to feed them? They still have the embroy sack where there belly is.

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Mbuna breeding?

Make sure you have an airstone in that tank to keep them from contracting fungus and as soon as their egg sac disappears then you will need to start feeding them.


Maybe we can get Raul to have a workshop for GHAC about stripping fish.....I hear he's the strip king or something like that...

[Darbex]

Re: Mbuna breeding?

ushingit:
I dont think I wanted to know that Raul is the stripping king. j/k I did put an air stone in tank. Should I leave them in there or get a tumbler? Also should I add the babies from the other females?

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Mbuna breeding?

If the other female's babies are still egg sac bound I don't see why not other then having them mixed up and having to seperate them later.

Probably gonna be easier to tumble seperately.

[Zulaab]

Re: Mbuna breeding?

Are they eggs still or are they wigglers or free swimming..  The best way to find see what they are.   Once they are free swimming they are going to be ready eat shortly after that.   make sure that the egg yolk is gone.  If they a eggs with eyes then you need a tumbler.  Else as long as they can move on their own then just heavy aerated water using a sponge filter

[Darbex]

Re: Mbuna breeding?

I have an air stone in the 2g tank. They are wigglers with the egg sack on their bellies. They lay on the bottom and try to move but the sack weighs to much. I think it would be a great topic at the next meeting to talk about stripping