New Fish?!?! HELP!

MrBishop

Hi all.
Was watching the fish in my tank today and somthing small caught my eye.... A BABY FISH!!! i was shocked and happy at the same time.

i think it is a yellow lab and its about 1cm long. after searching the tank i couldnt see anymore. Is this normal? shouldnt there be a huge ammount of little fry? Also how do i assure this little one is safe and stays alive? i saw "Little One" eating the flakes eirler but is this the right food?

Many thanks

Dan

redchigh

Well if it can eat the flake, then it will be fine. You may want to seperate it.

There are usually a lot of fry born, but they are quickly eaten. You must have a real fighter there.

If you have an extra tank with harmless animals (red cherry shrimp come to mind) then you can drop him in there to grow out... Or get a small 5G but seems like a bit of overkill.

You might just wanna buy a breederbox and put him in. I'm trying to think whether he'd be too small to stay in it or not. *shrug*

If you get him seperated then I'm sure he'd love some BBS (baby brine shrimp) but it's probably not required or anything.

MrBishop

thanks. well ive orderd a breeding box which hangs in the tank. that should do the job... if he can hold out untill then.

ive got all sorts of cichilds in the tank, im suprised its made it so far lol

MrBishop

I cant seem to find the new born. would he be hiding or could he have been eaten?

MrBishop

Also can someone tell me how the fish will treat new born? will it be tolerated? how will i catch it to put it in the breeding tank?

Magzmoir

My guess is that its in the same tank with other mbuna ?....if so then I doubt it will be accepted until it is of a size that it can stand up for itself. The advantage it has atm which is allowing it to survive is that the dominant fish probably dont see it as a threat for any females in the tank (juvies often look like females to avoid aggression), plus its small enough that it can hide from larger fish looking for an easy meal. You may have problems if its male, once it starts to mature it will either have to find a spot in the pecking order, or if there isnt enough space then its going to bump heads with any established fish in the tank defending thier territory.

But really it all depends on type of fish its housed with (all have differing lvl's of aggression) and space in the tank.


Edit - just read that back and realise that for someone thats only done an awful lot of esearch Im sounding like a know it all here is there any experianced mbuna keepers that can confirm it or am I just talking tripe lol ?