I laughed a little when I read your "I thought it was the male"-comment because I had the exact same thing happen to me. One day one of my boys was holding....imagine my suprise...he was in fact a she. The only 100% method of sexing yellow labs, as I've read and been told, is to compare the anus and vent. That is a complicated method. The only way I've been able to do it is to see them holding.
If the fish has stopped eating it is most likely holding. The one that is pestering her is probably the male that didn't get to impregnate her. Labs are harem-loving fish, so one male should really have 3 females around so that the girls don't get picked on all the time. If you have two boys and one girl, it is probably the snubbed boy that is chasing her around.
I think the best thing would be to remove the female to her own tank, if this isn't an option I would say no to the breeder net. I tried it when my first female got preggers and she really didn't like it, which leads to stress and miscarriage (aka she swallowed!
) Chances are her fins are going to get nipped a bit and she'll probably lose weight. After all she isn't eating and her primary objective at this point is to keep those eggs alive in her mouth.
Um...not sure what the little babies eat, but they can hold for like up to a month, which is long enough for someone else to chime in here and provide you with that info. I've had three pregnancies in my tank (two different girls), and none of them survived to the point that they've spit out fry. I read on a couple threads that if you get the fish young and if it is their first pregnancy, they tend to miscarry until they get a couple "trial runs" in.
Good luck with your expectant mother, and I would suggest that you consider taking back one of the boys and trying to get a couple more girlies. This would probably better your chances of a successful spawn in the future and lead to less stress on your little lady.
*thumbsups CONGRATULATIONS!
