Catching Holding Females

harris4097 · #1 06-02-2008, 11:48 AM

There must be an easier way !
Have just had to strip entire 4ft tank to catch a holding metriaclima callainos (cobalt zebra) and return a zebra ob female that has been out the tank for a month after having her own fry and getting her weight back.
has anyone ever found an easier way, the minute i put a net in, they all dart into holes, i've tried filling the net with food, light off,during a water change but all have no success.
if i leave the female in the tank i'm lucky to get 4 fry from her whereas if i catch and strip it can be anything up to 60 - obviously far better.
ps stripped my zebra obliquidens (lake victoria) this morning and got 41 live fry and 3 dead (dead were enjoyed by my moori dolphins). 2nd obliquidens should be ready to strip on thursday.

Dom_46 · #2 06-02-2008, 12:32 PM

Its hardcore harris, mine dart off at the sight of net too. i dont think there are any other ways to really entice them to the sight of the net.

slash101 · #3 06-02-2008, 04:13 PM

Usually Mbuna are a pain in the ass to catch!

I have a 'Jalo Reef' Afra and I have tried catching her but its impossible so I left her and there are loads of babies hiding all around the tank. My Champsochromis Caruleus are just too slow to catch them.

The other 6 breeding Malawis and Vics I have are pretty easy luckily!

Fry Lover · #4 06-02-2008, 04:37 PM

sorry to divert the thread briefly (although i've added my useless suggestion at the end of this post

), but i personally could not keep my Malawi if i was catching / stripping females, i just let nature takes it course, i've got loads of fry growing up in the main tank, they seem to do okay for themselves.

i did have one female zebra go incredibly skinny when she was holding, but i decided to just leave it be, as i know i wasn't prepared to set a precedent for myself and try and catch her, she was fine in the end and back to normal appearance / weight now. I view it as the females just have to learn on the job and be independent

I guess you are under-taking some kind of breeding programme Harris?

Good luck, if i wanted to catch any one of my malawi i know full well, i'd have to strip the tank and that simply is not happening unless it's some kind of emergency or i have a fish killing / severly bullying other fish.

I think i'd chuck in a load of their fave food and get the biggest net i can and make one swoop and see if i get lucky

slash101 · #5 06-02-2008, 05:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fry Lover

sorry to divert the thread briefly (although i've added my useless suggestion at the end of this post

), but i personally could not keep my Malawi if i was catching / stripping females, i just let nature takes it course, i've got loads of fry growing up in the main tank, they seem to do okay for themselves.

i did have one female zebra go incredibly skinny when she was holding, but i decided to just leave it be, as i know i wasn't prepared to set a precedent for myself and try and catch her, she was fine in the end and back to normal appearance / weight now. I view it as the females just have to learn on the job and be independent

I guess you are under-taking some kind of breeding programme Harris?

Good luck, if i wanted to catch any one of my malawi i know full well, i'd have to strip the tank and that simply is not happening unless it's some kind of emergency or i have a fish killing / severly bullying other fish.

I think i'd chuck in a load of their fave food and get the biggest net i can and make one swoop and see if i get lucky

Yeah I agree. To me its not worth wrecking a whole tank to get one female out with stressing the other fish..and yourself

etc. Unless it was some ultra rare fish that I could get 20quid a baby for then I dont think its worth it. I just left that Afra and shes spat 2 lots of fry out and they are doing fine. Shes holding more eggs now. They are loads in that tank and they are doing ok, eventhough there are some big haps in there who would readily snack on them.

harris4097 · #6 06-02-2008, 05:12 PM

hi fry lover,
no i'm not really trying any breeding program as such.
if i strip the females i can save the fry - i grow them to about an inch and then some of my nearby fish stores take them in exchange for credit notes, these are used then to allow me to finance all the feeding, replacement bulbs etc, new additions to the communitys and eventually bigger tanks. basically trying to make them a self sufficient hobby as could not continue injecting cash on my wages !!
the times i have left a holding female in the tanks have resulted in really poor yields, possibly due to syonodontis multiplunctatus ? also used to have dimidiochromis comprecicepps (spelt really wrong i know !) nicknamed the malawi eye biter which i believe is quite a fry eater (no longer have the eye biters as the male killed both females) in with my alunacara's and borleyi's are nimbochromis venustus so really need to get the females out of that tank asap.
An example of the poor yield was a holding melanochromis aureateus that was left in with the male, other adult female and johanni's actually resulted in one fry living (now named 'neo' (the ONE from the matrix)) who is still a personal favourite. the female ended up being harrased so much by the male that she died - i think through stress, whereas the other female now gets removed, stripped, left in my 'priory' tank for 3 weeks and then after a re-shuffle of rocks returns in with the male absolutely fine. this has enabled me to have 3 sets of fry each giving me 30+ fry.
Have found another 2 zebra obliquidens that are holding in my victoria tank and will be letting these try in the tank as they are supposed to be great parents - the large female got stripped this morning and is currently in the priory.
The removal of the rocks does give me a chance to really clean the sand thoroughly which is of benefit but with the amount of spawning lately its really becoming a pain in the a**.
Currently have around 200 fry in 2 grow out tanks and 4 holding females again ( 2 are the zebra obliquidens that i've left in their tank)

Fry Lover · #7 06-02-2008, 05:17 PM

yeh i think my fry stand a good chance as there really isn't any hard core predators in the tank and i dont know if you've seen my pictures but it's stacked with ocean rock and also i have a kind of slate bottom, not by design to help fry, but there is always fry under it.

if i didnt get any fry surviving Harris i would probably do a "collection" and strip the tank bare every 2-3 months or something, like you said, when the rocks and everything are out, it gives you a good chance to clean up

I do love growing fry, and it's just a bonus really that it's happening in the main tank, save's me setting up a Malawi fry tank really.

In any event, i stip my tank down and re-design it every 2-3 months anyway

Good luck with your goal

harris4097 · #8 06-02-2008, 05:31 PM

fry lover,
just watched your video clip of malawi set up, really does look good on video - far better than still pics - may have to look into that !
maybe i need to give tank release another chance as the only poss problem fish in my community mbuna tank are the syono multi's which next time i empty the tank are going in with the victorian zebra obliq's anyway as they seem to breed non stop i can loose a few fry no probs.
have been reading old articles from cichlid news today that make a good arguement about not stripping and the imprint on the fry when left to be spat - all about parental recognition etc so maybe a rethink is due

Fry Lover · #9 06-02-2008, 05:35 PM

thanks, my set-up is not to everyone's taste, horses for courses really!

well mate, on the malawi forums i use, seems to be common practice to catch mbuna and make them spit

i'm not bringing ethics into it (i dont see it as a problem if done carefully) and loads of experienced malawi keepers do it

i guess its the old risk/reward kind of thing, except it's more stress/reward debate!

you might well find the rewards outweigh the stress/time factor, like fish keeping in general i find the rewards outweigh the hassle