Usually it is about 2-3 weeks apparently.  Our girl seems to hold anything from 2-4 weeks.  I have been letting her do her own thing as she is still on her L plates as a mumma.  This lot she is holding now are heading up for 3 and a half weeks so I am watching her closely to make sure she isn't losing too much condition.  She is struggling to hold them in though so it is only a matter of time.

Our electric blue female has been placed into the birthing tank....hopefully in the next few days she will spit that mouthful out that she is struggling to hang on to.  This is her fourth mouthful and she is a natural mum, thankfully.  When I see she has a mouthful I wait about 1.5-2 weeks and then put the net in the tank and she swims straight in and I move her into her own tank next door to her normal tank and she does her thing in her own time.  her last mouthful was about 50 fry and she is heaps bigger this time so I am dying to see how many she has.

 

We also discovered the other day that our Sumbu Shell Dwarf had paired up and had babies.  Hubby was doing a water change and checked the bucket and found a fry so we pulled the other fish out of there and left the pair and their fry to do their thing.  First time parents....that we are aware of....so we aren't holding our breath but it is nice to know finally that we have a pair.

 

Oh and guppies and endlers have all bred as well hehehe

We have itty bitty Electric Blue fry!!  I figured our little first time mum was ready to go in the next day or so and we set up a tank for her next to the main tank so we could hopefully let her spit in there and not lose any fry to the other EB's in the main tank.  I didn't get a chance to move her though because as I checked the temp on the nursery tank I glanced over and she spat right in front of me.  In the space of 5 minutes we had caught all the other EB's and pulled all of the rocks out of the tank.  She was put in the nursery tank where she spat a couple more fry and then I caught the remaining fry out of the main tank.  We have something like 8-12.  They hide a bit and when they are out they move really quickly so hard to count.  We are thrilled as we didn't really expect to get any from her first mouthful.

 

We also have Brichardi fry and, as of this morning, Leleupi fry.  I have sold all my common guppies and now only have the Purple Moscows and of course they have had more fry hehe

Hubby's Electric Blue female has a mouthful.  It is her first time so we watch and wait and see if she knows what she is doing.  Fins and fingers crossed.

 

Oh and the guppies had babies hehehe

So we currently have 2 batches of Brichardi fry on the go and for christmas we got 2 batches of Leleupi fry as well.  Oh and guppies 

Hi Keelan,

 

Welcome!  Hope you enjoy it here.  Everyone is friendly and helpful.

 

And yeah Butler is a another galaxy away hehe.  Drove up there a few weeks ago to pick up a tank, not realising how far it was from my humble Morley/Bayswater home LOL.  Nice looking area though.  It is like a little city.

 

Cheers

Sasha 

We are very excited....our colony of Brichardi is currently guarding two separate batches of fry.  Our poor Leleupi are being kind of squished up in the front 2 inches of tank by what I call the sentinels so we are trying to get another tank set up for them asap.

Hubby has been spending some time on google doing some research and he now has a few things in mind so I will let everyone in on it once he has made a decision and we have it up and running.

 

We are still looking around and getting tanks sorted out as we have discovered tangs and have found a few that we both actually like....that is something novel hehe.  We will move forward once we have tanks up and running and ready for fish.

 

Thanks for the information and input Jason, Malawiman and Riggers.  Much appreciated.  

We recently got a tank that has a colony of Brichardi and Leleupi in it and they were just eating each others offspring continuously.  We are going to put the Leleupi in their own tank and see how we go.  They are very striking fish....the yellow is so strong and it looks great.

Thanks Jason82 and Malawiman85 for your input.

 

We recently purchased a 4ft tank that came with a colony of Brichardi and Leleupi and they are our first Tanganyikans. They are pretty mellow at the moment so we are hoping they will come out of their shells a bit more and we see some more personality once we have separated them.  

 

Hubby used to have all the Lake Malawi bruisers back in the day, but he has mellowed a bit now and I am pretty sure we are now looking at getting something that offers colour and character rather than high speed chases and the resulting beatings that used to occur.  I am too old to be bothering with putting fish in time outs every day for de-finning other fish.  I have no problem with aggression when they are breeding and raising fry, but if they are permanently just like Northbridge on a Saturday night kinda fish then I am not interested.

 

I have been Googling and I have found Thorichthys Maculipinnis (Elliotis Cichlid), can anyone tell about these guys...they are so colourful and they don't get too massive either.  Do we have any breeders in the Society?  Or can we get them in Perth?

Hubby has also been showing interest in the Neolamprologus Multifasciatus as we have a few smaller tanks that they would probably thrive in.  So can anyone please share their experiences with those little guys?

I really like the gold occies but they would be an expensive fish to start up after I saw them at Aquatix last week for $50 each.  And yes I know size doesn't dictate price but wow they are so tiny!! hehe

So my husband and I are itching to get back into Cichlids, and because of these new rules coming in regarding the importation of fish, we are wanting to breed something that will help keep the fish community going strong without having to go through the insanity of importing the fish.  We are open to all suggestions and we are wondering what do you ladies and gents think we should look at breeding?  

 

We currently have an electric blue (Maleri Island) male and we are waiting for the others that we got at the November auction to grow up a bit so we can put them together and see how they go.  We are open to a getting a few more species though.  We will very possibly have them in species only tanks depending on their needs.  

 

I have been watching videos of the Pseudotropheus Saulosi and I really like them as they are very colourful and active and seem to have a lot of character.  Can anyone give me any information on those guys please?  How hard are they to keep and breed, and would people be interested in buying them if I was successful in breeding them?  

 

Thanks in advance for any advice

That would be....ummmm....oh that's right....guppies!!  LOL  Although we had Leleupi...doing the dirty dance last night so you never know what the future holds

Not that this will excite anyone unless they are interested in some feeder fish hehe, but my generic guppies have produced another couple of hundred fry over the last week and I have 9 ladies in my hatchery baskets in the various stages of birthing or else resting there after just having given birth.  My Purple Moscows have filled up their birthing tank with fry as well.  Oh and my common bristlenose have finally got the memo and I have little mini me bn everywhere in my BN tank as well.  

I can't wait.  Our first auction and it is going to be massive.

Luckily in my case it wasn't water that was the issue, rather it was other males chasing him and him trying a little too exuberantly to get away from them which led to him obviously shooting out of the tiny gap in the corner. I had witnessed it earlier that day they were chasing each other around like lunatics. Thankfully they seem to have settled down now. If it happens again I will check the water. Good info there Bigjohnnofish, thank you.

Oh no....lol

We had the same issue and finally found a pinhole air leak in the plastic intake tap.  It was a manufacturing fault unfortunately with the one we had.  Replaced it and haven't had the problem since.

Thanks for that Riggermortis

Which Pet City store was it please Riggermortis as I wouldn't mind going for a drive and having a look

Hehe....and they say dogs are stupid....yours are pretty clever to know fish breath would give it away hahaha
We have 3 cats and the dog and we have had the numbers drop but bodies were never found.....the cats seemed to hang around the tanks for a couple of weeks after that though....very suspicious lol

Amazing how we can hear them sometimes.  I heard a tigerbarb flopping on carpet after the silly thing had leapt out of the tank many moons ago (about 16 years ago actually).  Hubby's face was priceless when I leapt out of bed, at about 8 months pregnant, freaking out and saying "there is a fish out, there's a fish out..I can hear it"...and then proceeded to find the fish and chuck it back in the tank...LOL.

So guppies are a bit stupid sometimes.

Last night I was on my computer when one of my cats walked over to my little bin next the breeding tank and he was checking out a shopping bag that had fallen out of the bin....he suddenly jumped backwards and then my staffy ever so gently nudged the cat out of the way (read flung the cat about two feet) and licked what was on the bag. I jumped up and pulled the dog away worried he was going to eat something bad for him, only to find my turquoise male laying on the bag looking pretty dry....even though he had just been licked by the dog. I grabbed him by the tail and dumped him back in the tank....cursing the whole time. I put him in a floating basket as he was swimming kind of wonky and the other makes were hassling him and hoped for the best. This morning he is swimming around as if nothing happened. Silly fish....lol

He managed to jump out of a gap in the glass that is about 2-3mm. Time for some lace across the top of the tank again me thinks.

Hi Daniel,

 

Welcome.  You should love it here.  Everyone is friendly and helpful.  I am a newbie as well and I am thrilled with the people on here.

 

 

Regards Sasha

That was probably me....I am so sorry.  I have since read the T & C's and will not do it again. 

Thanks Kleinz.