Babies are coming

Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.. one of our yellow labs has a mouthful of eggs. I will post a pic if I can get one

Yay well done!! Pics please

Ok, here is one, will keep trying to get more. She is hiding in a cave, ready for 3 weeks of fasting. You can see the big bulge in her throat

OMG! That is amazing!!!! I would love to have fish like that! What are you going to do with them all?

Oh that is great - this isn't the tank wth the whitespot is it?? I hope not, I am sooo looking forward to seeing how this goes on.

How long till they are hatched then??

It is the tank with whitespot

She will hold for about 3wks then into the kitchen tank to, hopefully spit them out. Moving her too soon can make her spit the eggs and not pick them back up again or she may swallow them. This will be her first brood so she is inexperienced too.
On the other hand she could also spit/swallow if she gets stressed by the other fish

tardis wrote:

OMG! That is amazing!!!! I would love to have fish like that! What are you going to do with them all?

Well as long as some survive, i'll sell them on or swap them at the LFS. Might have to keep a couple as they're my first :lol: (well, hers..lol)

Oh MC, I hope they're ok, that is such bad luck, what effect would the ich medi's have on all this, or is it all ok with eggs.

Im hoping there will be no adverse effects. The yellow lab still seems to be holding the eggs in her mouth.
One of the other Aceii is showing signs of slowing down & not eating but as for whitespot, the very sick one only has one whitespot on his back. I don't think he's gonna last the day. No other fish have any signs/symptoms.
I'm waiting for a delivery of WS3, fingers crossed it comes tomorrow but i'm just wondering now if it's worth re-treating the whitespot...???

I think I would - only because I would be worried what effect any delay in treating could have - I know it's only 24hrs but it could take hold in that time and at the mo only one fish is badly affected.

Dosing the tank again would not do any harm to anything would it, so what have you got to lose?

How cool is that? So does she stop feeding while she's brooding the eggs then?

Yes, bless her. When she's spat the fry, i'll keep her seperate for a few days to get her feeding and get her strength back up. Bit like us ladies really :lol:
I will try and get some more pics, she looks so sweet, like an old man chewing all the time! Soon we should be able to see the eyes so when that happens i'll get the camera out.

now i am confused can see the pics think i have gone blind

Here's a pic, she' not keeping very still

Well she's been fidgeting all day. I can see the fry moving right by her lips, just when i think she's gonna spit them out, she gobbles them back in. It's frustrating now, i don't do waiting

Aaah, that's so cute. I would love to see that!

We're trying to get some pics of her or a little vid where she's munching but she sticks her head in a corner & we just can't get a pic :lol:

Here's a link to a short vid of someone stripping a yellow lab of her fry

wow cool isnt that bad for the fish tho and how many can they hold in their ?

munchycarrot wrote:

We're trying to get some pics of her or a little vid where she's munching but she sticks her head in a corner & we just can't get a pic :lol:

Here's a link to a short vid of someone stripping a yellow lab of her fry

I dont know about anyone else but I couldn't watch much of that vid! Why would that be necessary? It seems a bit cruel.

A lot of people do it so they don't have to keep the mother seperate from the main tank. They strip them then put them straight back in.
It also means the mother doesn't need to starve as long.

I, personally wouldnt feel a need to do it... I will let nature do it.

She is pretty weak with not eating so will need to be fed up before she goes back into the main tank.
The amount they hold depends on the size of the fish and the experience of the mother. Ours is only 9 months old so this is her first batch of fry. I'm not expecting many at all from her.
Someone I know, had a much bigger, more experienced fish who spat out around 100 fry! Imagine what that must of looked like

Well... she has had 2 babies, they are sooooooo cute. One of them already managed to nip through to the other side under the divider, Ben had to catch it & put it back! Lil monkey...

Arh cute aint they lol

she only had 2 ? she swallowed the rest then ?

I think she was so small, she probably didn't have the room or experience to have more. She's only about 1½" herself, bless
She's probably similar in size to a platty, imagine them holding babies in their mouths :face:

Ah, that's great MC. How long do they stay with the parents now then? Do they run the risk of getting eaten by them or do these fosh behave themselves as far as that is concerned?

She will be very hungry as she hasn't eaten for 20 days. If she senses danger she will take them back into her mouth until it's passed. I don't want to take the chance with her being inexperienced. I have put a divider in the tank. She is now in one side & the fry in the other so they can't disappear into the filter or her belly.
She is quite weak so will leave her there to settle & we can feed her up. When we re-introduce her to the main tank, hopefully she will blend back in and they wont notice. They will pick on newcomers and to them, that's what she'll be
As for the daddy Lab, he's done his deed and that's it. He has no paternal instincts whatsoever

Wow that' really good. All that and just 2 fry at the end of it - she deserves a bit of extra feeding!