New spitout OB Peacocks!!

[Barb Okla]

I saw a week ago that I needed to get a females OB Peacock to her own tank so she would spit out her fry.. I had some cons in a 20 gal being medicated so they went back into the 55 gal with the rest.. I redid this 20gal and placed her in.. she would NOT spit them out. she was extreamly skinny so it was time for some human intervention.. I netted her and shook it slightly to get her to spit out. She is to small to handle, 2" if that.. I think about 12 are now swimming freely and she is pouting in a corner.. I fed them Hakari first bites and they ate just fine. they should have been out a week ago as some were just really big..

So to keep her from dieing as some will hold till they die from starvation or the fry die to from no food, it is best to strip the females at the beganning of the third week.. I think this one went a month.. she is a first time mother so they do hold longer than they should..

The best way to see if Your females are holding is when U feed the tank, watch and see who eats and who does not. Females DO NOT eat as they have the eggs in their lower jaw sack and they do not really start to show until the eggs go fry and they start to get bigger.. as they grow, the lower jaw sack starts to drop down more.. some females wil NOT spit out in a full tank even with lots of rock work. IF U want the fry, then U have to net them to another tank using this tank water, or get a divider for a small end section for her and the fry.. She wil spit them out then if the others are not around.. U can tease the female with flake food daily so she wil want to eat as she has to spit the fry out to do so. JUST Make sure, she is in her 3 week or she wil not spit them out and u have to much food floating, but easily netted out and fed to the other side..

Pics coming in a day or so.

[Barb Okla]

Well I have tried to get some pics of them, but they are NOT showing up good in the photos!! figures.. I wil try again soon as now they are bigger and that does help..
I now have yellow tail acie fry too! Now those little guys are SMALL!! Spit out July 24.. They are so small that the camra does not pic them up good.. Ah shoot.. I will try in a few days to photograph them all again and see how it goes..

Here are the parents of the Yellow Tail Acie fry.. Just in case no one new what they looked like.. I found this pic in a bigger one. neat they are like this. female on top.. I am thankful she has not held anymore fry yet!! She is due if not over due to hold again.. I placed in more rock so they can just spit them out in the tank.. See my other post in PHOTO GALLERY for the pics of this tank..
[attachment=0]55gal HYBRID Aug 18 09 013x10cc.jpg[/attachment]

[cichlidfish]

Yea, for the fry, if small you may have to zoom in and use tripod but the focusing might be tricky so you may need to use manual focus, have plenty of lighting. Without tripod, if there's lots of light just try a very quick shutterspeed to avoid motion blur, having a background color to make them stand out helps.

[Barb Okla]

Funny U should say the background needs to be darker. I Just pained the 20 gal that I just moved the first Acie fry to, as mom is holding again.. she spit them out last nite. Now the 20 gal I did want all black background and sides due to the window it sits by, but thought it would be neat to do different colors. WRONG!! O well, I should hve scaped it all off and got some black spray paint, BUT NOOOO.. I had to set it back up.. I am not an Artist, that is for sure!! And I need to work on my sutter speed. seems it freezes them with the flash but U lose the natural setting of the tank..
[attachment=1]20gal tank Sep 17 09 005x10c.jpg[/attachment]

Also the double tank stands. Mom Acie is now in the bottom 15 gal tank..[attachment=0]20 15 gal tank Sep 17 09 001x10cc.jpg[/attachment]

[cichlidfish]

yea, i know what you mean about the flash, i hate using flash for anything because of that (without flash camera can't move at all though and need lots of lighting and quick shutter)....oh and for those of us not so artistic like me, I just put a color poster to the back of my tank, yea i know that's cheating
your tank with flash pic looks fine though