Banggai egg stipping????

[mokarran]

Can anyone help?

Please could someone advise the best way to get the male to spit the eggs, have tried but with no success, he spat them later in the tank!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm in the process of making a kriesel and don't want to lose another batch......

Is it best to take him outta the water in the net, I've even tried tapping the jaw and lifting him out!!

If there is a certain way could someone point me in the right direction, my male is not holding the brood and I'd like to go down the road of stripping as oppossed to nature's way.

Cheers Mokka

 

[David M]

Hmm, I can't get min to hold 'em and yours won't let go

Awaiting replies, I'm planning to do the same with the next mouthful I figured it'd be easy, guess not, eh?

 

[Coraldynamics]

Hi Mokka and David...

Mokka I replied to your email, but thought I would post it here as well to help others....

...My own successes have been few as of late. I am not sure what the deal is but I am attributing it to under feeding of the parents.

To get him to spit the eggs, I simply hold the male in my hand just out of the water in a collection cup. Gently open his mouth with your free hand. I can't stress gently enough, be very gentle as to not damage his mouth in any way. He will eventually juggle the eggs out and into the collection cup. I have had them spit within a minute, and sometimes takes several minutes before he lets go.

After MACNA I am going to get back into them hard and heavy. I will try to get some better documentation done.

Hope that helps you out....

 

[JCnflies]

I used to strip a lot of African cichlids, and i am a rookie in the salt. But the best way I know of to strip Africans is to get a piece of airline tubing (the soft blue is the best) and cut it on and angle so it comes to a point. The whole piece only needs to be two inches or so. Work the rounded point into his jaws and use it to gently separate the jaws. You will se that you can pry his lower jaw done.

This even worked well on tropheus - and they had the strongest jaws I ever saw on a mouth brooder!

 

[spk]

Ok,

Real stupid question. Why do you want to strip the eggs?
Let him carry till they hatch and then strip. I know all the benefits with regard to numbers etc, but if you cannot get him to spit then leave him for a while.

the other way to do it perhaps, is to follow through. If you noticed that he spat after a while, catch him, see if he will spit, if not put him in a breeder net and let him spit when he is ready and then take over.

Steve

 

[Coraldynamics]

Hi Steve! Hope all is well! That is not a stupid question at all...

Stripping the eggs allows the male to continue eating and remain fat and healthy. Also, pairs are known to not hold to term in smaller aquariums, so stripping allows you to use smaller tanks to house the breeding pairs.

I have a couple of pairs that will not hold to term. I have even blacked out 55g tanks on all sides so they are not disturbed and they still spit the eggs after day 2. I have been able to get a 22 egg nest to hatch from one of the pairs by pulling them early.

The male does ingest a few of the eggs over the holding period to make up for not eating the prepared foods. So it is possible to get larger nests/production by pulling them before he gets hungry enough to eat them.

There are probably more reasons to or not to pull them, but those are the ones I use to justify pulling them in my own mind...

 

[mwp]

BTW, FWIW, one added tidbit from my years stripping africans at the hatchery - it helps if you pull the fish backwards, with mouth open, through the water, flushing water IN the gills and OUT of the mouth. Makes the stripping go VERY quickly.

Matt

 

[David M]

Hmm, I noticed a male holding yesterday, if he still has them today I'll try it.

Stephen- since I have 3 pairs breeding now and 2-3 more in the making, do you think I could set up a continuously running kreisel and toss in eggs as they come, removing hatched fish along the way? That would be cool. Not sure how I'd keep it clean though.

 

[Coraldynamics]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8142919#post8142919 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by David M
Stephen- since I have 3 pairs breeding now and 2-3 more in the making, do you think I could set up a continuously running kreisel and toss in eggs as they come, removing hatched fish along the way? That would be cool. Not sure how I'd keep it clean though.

I am trying this out. I have attached the hatching jar to the broodstock tank system and using that water and a small pump for flow into the jar. I have tried the last 3 batches this way with no success. I did have a heavy cyano problem during the time though so I think I will continue in this direction a few more times and will be upping the nutritional intake of the parents. I have two breeding pairs that are very regular, and have nests two days apart. The others have not started yet as they are still too young.

Keeping the hatching jar clean is fairly easy with a skinny bottle brush. With the two pairs so close in cycle to each other, I have time to clean it between nests though.

I think it will work if I can work out the cyano issue. As it turns out both should take nests while we are at MACNA so I may be a month behind if they spit as I expect them to.