[Roms]

Originally Posted by richTV

yes, Dimidiochromis.

i'm sometimes ol' school so i still call them Hap Compressiceps.....similar with Hap Ahli aka sciaenochromis ahli. lol

to alleviate u from having to catch the fry in the first place, a good way is to "milk" the eggs from her mouth.

after ur sure they're fertilized as much as they're gonna be [usually a few days] then catch the female and gently grab her lower lip with ur left index finger and gently squeeze and release with ur right hand near her gill area...keep doing this whilst all the while only having her mouth in the water....it'll cause her to spit out the eggs....should only take at best 30sec so it won't hurt her.

i usually use a big net and just rest at the top of tank so i can collect them.....or u can do it using a small container of ur main tank's water.....whatever's easier for ya.....do it nearer to ground on ur knees though so she doesn't otherwise slip away and hit ur floor from that high up if u were standing.

once collected, put them in a small tank [using ur main tank's water] along with ample aeration but not too turbulent and add some Methylene Blue to that tank....it'll keep fungus down.

i like to milk the eggs because if she constantly holds them in her mouth as mouthbrooders do, she will not eat and become emaciated.....but also, since they're as fertilized as they're gonna be....she is not needed anymore in terms of protection......this is also a good way to quickly induce spawning again.

Yeah, I let my female keep her eggs in her mouth for about 3 weeks until I knew the eggs had hatched and then I caught her and dumped the fry into the 10gal tank... I perfer to let the eggs hatch in the females mouth so I don't have to use a tumbler or incubation.

So I think you misunderstood, since I had the 10gal full of fry I had to catch them and move them to a breeding net in the tank to use the tank for the two jaguars, to save them from being eaten.

Methylene Blue and many other fugus/ick medications will kill many species of Cichlid fry and eggs...

This the same way I strip the fry