Yellow Lab Fish Breeding
Pregnant African Cichlid Question?
I currently have a 55 gallon freshwater, mosty peacocks, albino’s, yellow lab and a kenyi. I had one female OB peacock, i noticed she was pregnant, a mouth brooder, her mouth was swollen, ive bred before so i know for sure she was pregnant. I went back to look at her and she didnt have anything in her mouth, and she began to eat with the rest of the fish. Where are the fry??????? I know she could have layed them somewhere, but where? this means i cant vacuum my tank unless i know where they are. please help someone.
You don’t have an impregnated Peacock, as you noted these are mouthbrooders, so you’d have a “holding female” Pregnant fish, that term is reserved for live bearers for future reference. I’m sure you’ll have luck again if you’ve already bred your species.
If the female is eating food, taking the food in, with an opened up mouth, not just letting the food in, then she’s not holding anymore. She didn’t lay them anywhere else either, as you noted a mouth brooder is not going to let the eggs sit in the substrate, she will hold them in the mouth for about 18-22 days. It sounds likely to me she either got stressed and dumped or swallowed the eggs. It does happen sometimes. Much of this might depend a bit on just what exactly is in this tank, the sexes, and such.
How long exactly was she holding. There is a chance, since you didn’t isolate this female, that she’s been holding already. I would suspect she didn’t just dump the fry loose to eat, that’s not the typical actions unless she’s already at term and getting weak. I suspect she just aborted the brood is all. You mentioned you bred before, but this is the same female or no? Keep in mind many first time spawns often fail, it’s not unusual.
The only thing that might give a chance again is if you didn’t pick up on the fact she’s holding a brood, and it’s already been a couple weeks, she could have just spit them out, and you’d look at ALL the decor. At their size, they are food for any adult males in your tank and are not likely to be found out in the open. You’re going to have to take all the decor out of the tank, carefully, not to disturb the substrate and cause a clouding effect, and look for fry. Be ready to move quickly as males will eat any small fish they see. If you find nothing, it’s either she already spit them and they got eaten, or she swallowed the brood before, aka she just wasn’t ready.
