Strange Kenyi activity!?!

[JDiddy4981]

Ok, I just found out about 2 weeks ago that my rusty cichlids breeded, and now I have about 8-10 little fry swimming about in my tank. And this evening I noticed my female Kenyi is not eating and her mouth looks a little bigger than normal. And another funny this is that her mouth will not open. Like the other fish with open and close there mouth, her's will stay in the same position. Are the Kenyi's mouth breeders? Do I have more little fry on the way again??? Please give me any kind of help!! Thank You!

 

[nifran]

Yup, they're mouth breeders alright.

Sounds like you probably have little ones on the way.

 

[Cichlid-Man]

Congrats! hope they make it!

Kenyis are rare around here and you have to order them, i bet you could sell those fry when they get older and get enough to my a few more fish!

 

[JDiddy4981]

Ok, now that I have some more babies on the way.... now what the hell do i do w/ them?? My tank is heavily rocked and planted and there is no way I will be able to catch them w/o ripping out everything in my tank. My tank is already pretty well stocked w/ fish too, so i dont really need anymore. I really doubt any store around here will take my fish, all the stores by me are retail stores like Petco and Petsmart, no really mom and pop places. What should I do??????

 

[SoulFish]

Well there is a high chance that they fry are hybrids so i would just leave them and let them get eaten, or catch the female and strip them into the tank so they get eaten but the female doesnt have to go a long time without food

 

[Cichlid-Man]

O yeah thats true Soul.....oops forgot.

If you want to sell your fish you need to setup a whole breeding tank to get the pure bloodlines.

 

[Brockway]

Are kenyis tough to breed? And can rusty convicts and kenyis really interbreed? Seems like they wouldn't since ones a mouthbrooder and the other sticks them in caves, but I guess the only difference would be the female scooping up the eggs afterwards!

 

[Managuense]

Egg-laying and mouthbrooding are not the same thing.

All cichlids are egg-layers, but not all are mouth-brooders. the mbuna are ALL mouth-brooders, if this clears anything up.

yes, kenyi are very easy to hybridize.....hmmm. cough BREED!

kenyi are notorious for their ease of breeding, as are basically all mbuna compared to other fish. the only problem is that big male kenyi are not very particular about what species they breed with....

M

 

[Brockway]

Thanks for the info! JDiddy's kenyi was a female though. Could the convicts have "gotten it on" with the kenyi female? Although I'm not sure if he has other mbunas in the tank. I think he put up his tanks pics before, but it may have been his brothers...