ok I have had several clutches of babies that I have been able to raise and sell. but I always happen to realy notice it latter on in the "pregnancy". now what I want to know is how long do they hold the babies before they spit them out. I would like to be able to sell them instead of being late again as I have so many times before, and end up having just another snack for the rest of my fish.
breeding mainganos
- Thread starter exhumed07
- Start date
well I only have one other tank thats a 20 gallon. and right now it has 8, 2 inch long babies in it. so letting her spit them out naturally is not an option as the young in that tank are large enough to eat the newborn so I'm going to force her to spit them out into a breeder net as I have about 3 times before. so would it be fair to say at about 2 weeks (maybe a few days more) to go ahead and force her then?
Make an egg tumbler. Strip the eggs and raise them seperately. The Cichlid Room Companion - How and Why I Use a Dependaable Egg Tumbler for Mbuna
Just a heads up, most LFS (That I know) work on a 5x mark up or more on livestock. I don't know what going rate is for those in your area but I'd only be able to get a buck or two for a 2-3" fish. If your looking to make money from them, well... do the math
. To make money takes lots of stock and lots of large tanks, or something hardish to breed (discus for example). If your just looking to breed fish for fun and *maybe* off set the cost a little, have at 'er! It can be a lot of fun. The Cichlid Room Companion - On The Economics Of Cichlid Breeding
Chris
Just a heads up, most LFS (That I know) work on a 5x mark up or more on livestock. I don't know what going rate is for those in your area but I'd only be able to get a buck or two for a 2-3" fish. If your looking to make money from them, well... do the math
. To make money takes lots of stock and lots of large tanks, or something hardish to breed (discus for example). If your just looking to breed fish for fun and *maybe* off set the cost a little, have at 'er! It can be a lot of fun. The Cichlid Room Companion - On The Economics Of Cichlid BreedingChris
well thats pretty much it. my lfs only gives me store credit not cash for the fish. but for almost a year now on the few fish that I have been able to raise I have not had to buy any food or deco out of pocket. have only bought one pack of baby food for them and it is still 3/4 full. I don't plan to get rich off of them but just make the fish tank as cheap as possible. and my last batch of maingonos got raped. they were planning on giving me $4 each for the 2 inchers I had but someone brought them 120 of them 2 days before I took mine in and only got $1.50 each. but oh well still entertaining to watch them grow and develope color
When growing out fry for selling you'll need additional tanks to accomodate fry and juvies of varying sizes. Larger fry and juvies can be brutal toward and even predate their smaller brothren.
What's the plan when the fry become too big for the breeder net? (which isn't the safest way to go about as opportunistic larger mbuna in the tank may be capable of sucking the fry right through the mesh). By the time they're in need of larger accomodations they may still be too small to fend for themselves in your 20gal. Though, with that said, 2"-2.5" is pretty much selling size for the ones you've got in there already.
When I used to trade in mbuna fry to the LFS I'd cycle them through several concurrent tanks, starting them out in a 5gal maturity tank (new fry), then move them to a 10gal (small juvies), then finally to a 55gal (selling size juvies).
What's the plan when the fry become too big for the breeder net? (which isn't the safest way to go about as opportunistic larger mbuna in the tank may be capable of sucking the fry right through the mesh). By the time they're in need of larger accomodations they may still be too small to fend for themselves in your 20gal. Though, with that said, 2"-2.5" is pretty much selling size for the ones you've got in there already.
When I used to trade in mbuna fry to the LFS I'd cycle them through several concurrent tanks, starting them out in a 5gal maturity tank (new fry), then move them to a 10gal (small juvies), then finally to a 55gal (selling size juvies).
well I am a lil late for my maingano. she started spitting them out early. I was able to rescue 9 of them though. not sure if they will make it. I think they should. they are swiming in my breeder net and staying off bottom. but I have never had young in there that were this young. they yolk sacks are half the body. now she still has some in her mouth it looks like so I"m wondering if they were taking up to much room in her mouth or something and she spit them out.
