On Ice

TLM4x4

TLM4x4

Large Fish
#1
Jul 21, 2005
706
0
0
71
southern oregon coast
#1
I just put one of my electric blues in the freezer...did I do the right thing? She is the one that was holding eggs..to which the other females started hitting her full force in the mouth to get at them I presume. I put her in a breeding box still within the tank. She held them for almost 4 weeks and then *poof* they were gone. No fry, she must have swallowed them. I kept her in the breeding box for another week to fatten her back up and let her loose. ALL of the fish went after her and just beat her to a pulp with blood spots all over her poor body and her tail almost a memory. I dont have another tank I could have put her in to be safe and I just couldnt take looking at her poor beaten body. Gawd I feel so awful right now....never thought I would be crying over "a fish".
 

Orion

Orion

Ultimate Fish
Moderator
#3
Feb 10, 2003
5,803
3
38
Kentucky
www.thefishcave.net
#3
There is always a chance that a fish will recover, but sometimes we feel that it is best to let them go and put them out of their missery. If she was that badly beaten then it sounds like you did the right thing.

As for why this happened, you need to talk with C-man or Wayne as they have good experince with breeding Malawians and can give you good insight to the behaviour. Wish I could give more to help.
 

C

Cichlid-Man

MFT Staff
#8
Jul 9, 2003
8,866
14
38
38
Columbia, SC
www.youtube.com
#8
Sorry to hear that, its always hard.

And it always happens. No matter what a holding female is not the most liked in the bunch, that is because she is basically hiding food from the others. I usually try and keep multipule females to each male so his attention is turned away from one certain female.

Its harder to do that when you have other fish like that in the tank. A lot of the times the females will swallow the fry for whatever reason, most likely stress and it takes a few times to get it down.

I don't really care for those breeder nets/basket/box things. They seem to always degrade my fish and stress them out to much. I would much prefer to move them to a whole new tank during holding. However you don't have this option right now :(. 30gals can get pretty croweded with a pleco and 7 Mbuna...1 being an Auratus.

More rockwork and hiding places can always lighten the load on that female, she can hide rather than run from them all the time.
 

radamsk1

radamsk1

Large Fish
#10
Apr 23, 2005
153
0
16
45
Long Island, NY
#10
I think you made a good choice. I almost always try to do everything for a sick or injured fish.

Once I found my blue acara, who was in a hospital tank, that jumped 6 feet onto a tiled floor in my garage into a pile of dust, and he was then attacked and covered in ants. I thought he was sure to be dead, however I saw his gills trying to move. I picked him, literally had to wash him, and placed him back in a covered tank. Needless to say he was injured from the lack of oxygen and had some fin die-off. However, after hard work and continually feeding him with a dropper, he has now fully recovered and is more sparking blue than ever! However, if you don't have anyway to quarantine a fish, or even an extra tank to put it in and it was badly injured, the best bet was to euthanize it like you did.
 

R

R0UNDEYEZ

Large Fish
#11
Sep 2, 2004
467
0
0
#11
Once I found my blue acara, who was in a hospital tank, that jumped 6 feet onto a tiled floor in my garage into a pile of dust, and he was then attacked and covered in ants. I thought he was sure to be dead, however I saw his gills trying to move.
Click to expand...
Holy crap! thats what I call a survivor !
 

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W

wayne

Elite Fish
#12
Oct 22, 2002
4,077
3
0
#12
This is very sad. This is also, I am sorry to say quite typical behaviour. I would be tempted to say that you should pull some of those fish out and get some mbuna that are more suitable for a 35 because....
1. Don't keep mbuna in pairs it doesn't work for reasons you've now seen. Keep one male male with as many females as you can, 5 or 6 is not reasonable.
2. Get more fish to break up the crowd a bit. Also be aware a 35 is a very small tank for mbuna, right at the bottom end of what's practical, so you can only get very peaceful mbuna like yellow labs. Auratus for example are not long term practical in less than say a 6 foot long tank.

Hope that didn't sound too harsh, but you don't need this to happen again.
 

TLM4x4

TLM4x4

Large Fish
#13
Jul 21, 2005
706
0
0
71
southern oregon coast
#13
Yeah wayne, I realize a 35 isnt really practical for a mbuna community but its what Ive got at the moment. I guess even with all the research I did before adding to it (my son moved out of state and had given me two of the cichlids the Jo and the Electric male) being different species I had this idea that if each had a female it would be "ok". However, as you know it is very difficult to do when the LFS doesnt even know what sex they are when they sell them, which I understand. I do have two yellow labs and I know one is F and the other is M. I love those little guys they are SO dang cute. But I am thinking of taking the auratus to the LFS and talk to him beforehand and see if he will trade me but for what? another lab?
 

W

wayne

Elite Fish
#14
Oct 22, 2002
4,077
3
0
#14
I would personally try to rearrane things so it was all yellow labs, or 4 yellow labs + 4 of something blue and pretty peaceful.
Suggestions for small, blue, peaceful mbuna - afra?
 

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