Holding or sick

[JonZeigler]

OK! One of my Red Zebras is not eating. Now, when I take a peak, I don't see anything from the outside of the tank. Should I pull her/him out and take a look, or should I just wait an see. It has been at least a week now, maybe two. This will be its first time holding. I've had this one around for about a year. Its look healthy, but is loosing weight.

I am still not sure on the sex of the holder. I now have a small one with the blue tint on the lower fins. The one that seems to be holding is a darker orange, about three inches; with little spot on all the fins. Not just the egg spots on the larger 4 inche that dominants the tank. I guess she is the female. :?:

[merlyn2221]

Be really careful! I had a first timer hold and not eat and she died with 5 eggs in her mouth. :bawl:
She never spit the eggs/fry and I suspected she might have had an internal parasite on top of holding.

I'd use an anti-parasite medication like Hex-A-Mit while you isolate her. I don't think it will hurt the fry, but then again I'm not sure. It just depends on what's more important to you, her. or the fry.

The other alternative is to isolate her, raise the temp to about 85-86 degrees slowly and use aquarium salt. I'd do this for 3-5 days then see what happens. Make sure you do appropriate water changes, too. If she does start to eat, you could feed her Pipzine mixed in with her food for a week, just to be sure that she does not have any parasites left.

Don't forget, too, that some of these fish hold for up to 28 days. I'm not sure about Red Zebras, but I think I read it's somewhere in the range of 20 days. Regardless of how many days, they sometimes don't eat, especially if it's their first time holding.

They other thing is if you know for sure she's holding, you can strip the eggs from her and let them hatch on their own. I have never done this, but have read posts that some do it. You might want to check older posts regarding this issue.

I hope it works out for you. Keep me posted.

[JonZeigler]

OK! I mention before that he/she is a least a year old, but I think it's more like 9 months. It was about 1-1/2", if that when I purchased her.

She is moving well. I mean I have seen fish that are sick. They try to eat, but as soon as they are finished eating they start to behave sickly (floating in the corner, swiming vertically, etc). Sorry about your lose. :(

I was not that expecting to set up a holding tank. It has been a while since I had to do something like that. I use to do that with my Guppies. Man are they hard to keep alive. Anything can stress them out. I could use my 2.5 gal and get the second filter from my Guppy tank.

I've read other post about stripping myself. I was going to wait until release starts to set up the tank, but I guess now is a good enough time. I forgot about the long holding time. If this is true, then it explain why I don't notice anything inside from looking outside.

I remember when I first saw my first female holding. I thought she had real parasites. I told my wife my fish was dying :( . Then I noticed the fry swimming around the next day. I put two and two together :o . Then I had to tell my wife :oops: .

OK, I am going to prepare the holding tank and see what happens.

[merlyn2221]

As long as you do water changes every other day or so, the 2.5 should be adequate.

I have a 5 hospital/nursery set up only because it's easy to medicate since most meds are in 10 gal doses. I just halve the dose.
I run two Whisper juniors on it when it's in use. The rest of the time I just run one with an extra filter pad. It's made my life so easy! Much better than the 10 gal or 20 gal tank taking up space.

Since you already have another tank for the guppies, you could always keep some extra media available in your main tank and dismantle the smaller tank if you don't need it. Then when you have to set it up again you'd have a cycled tank by using the media from the main.

Hope all goes well, keep me posted.

[JonZeigler]

OK-I couldn't wait. I took her out of the tank, and yes there is something in her mouth. They don't seem to be moving. Anticipation is killing me... It looks as though she has food in the back of her mouth. Now I don't know what to do. Should I take a better look, or am I looking at her insides :?. If she is holding, yes, I am happy. At Last!

I've set up the 2.5gal; just waiting for tank to acclimate. I added salt and some of the water from the main tank. Filter from the Guppy tank is working fine. Need a cover. As I was telling S...Mermaid; lost last female while all fish were in a holding pale (she jumped out of pale). Same male and he is still aggressive. Don't want to go through that again.

I will, still, move the mother/fry if I am right. I will check again in a couple of days. When do you think I should move her? I mean how long before the holding tank is OK? Don't want to stress her.

[merlyn2221]

Oh man this is tough! Being the impatient person that I am, I'd probably want to hold her out of the water to get a better look. The only way I knew mine was holding was because I looked inside after she died and saw the eggs.

How long has it been since she hasn't eaten? Is it close to spitting time, hopefully. Now I'm dying to know too!

Hope everything goes well! I'll be looking for "good news" that you'll have some fry soon.

[JonZeigler]

Yeeeeessss!!! :D

I just checked the tank. She is doing fine. At first I was having trouble getting the heater to work properly. The temp went up to 95 (turned heater down). Then it dropped to 78. I thought she would stress out. Cichlids are not only beautiful, but they are also resilient. I tried to feed her the last two days: Nothing, but when I used the light from the ten gallon to check, I can clearly see something going on in her mouth. I don't know how long she is going to keep holding, but mother and baby are doing fine, I think.

If you are just starting, good luck. U will know after a while, Cichlids are cool.

Keep U posted.

[merlyn2221]

ALL RIGHT!!

I'm glad she's doing well. I'd keep trying to feed her, just in case she is going to spit the fry soon. How exciting for you.

Definately let me know how things are going.

Good luck, "grandpa!" :lol:

[JonZeigler]

She is not going to make it. :(
I checked the tank this morning and I think she shallowed. I see no signs of the fry, and she is swollen.

[Noelemac]

:confused:
When my female red zebra was holding, some of the fry hatched in her mouth and they were dark like their pops, some blue fish in my photo gallery, and I could see when she was holding through near her gills. It was black or a lot darker than the rest of her. Does this happen when both parents are red zebras or was it because the pops was grey at birth and some of the fry was too?

[merlyn2221]

Oh Jon, I am sorry to hear this.

Is she feeding at all? This is such a sad situation and so hard to try to remedy.

I'm thinking of you and your fish. :(

[JonZeigler]

OK. The mother is gone. After seeing her floating the way I saw her this morning, I didn't have the enthusiasm to check the tank throughly, but as God would have it, there are at least a half dozen fry hiding in the gravel. I forgot how small they are.

PLEASE - I took the heater out of the holding tank, and I was about to give up (I had to remove the mother; its a good think she die with her mouth WIDE open). I think the long duration might have done her in. Any suggestion on how to feed them are welcome.

It's bitter-sweet. Is a long wait until adulthood; but today is my wifes birthday, also. Now we are one big happy family. :)

[Noelemac]

Jon, did you get more fry out of her mouth or eggs, or were you saying since she went with her mouth open what fry she had escaped? For feeding, if they are swimming around crushed flakes. Although I've never striped fry, which this is sort of like, I dont know what to say.

[WorldNation]

well, when i was breeding bettas, a good trick was to get a gallon jug, or any kinda container you can fit lettuce in. Anyways, fill it with water, through in a buncha lettuc, zucchini, peas, even some crappy half dead aquarium plants if you want, and let it sit outside for at least a weak. the veggies and water will turn into a soup kinda substance. and just give some of that to your babies.


if ya wanna speed up the process, cause it usually take a lil longer then a week(like 3-6) :) , you can boil the veggies and water in a pot, then let that cool, stir it up and turn it into mush, and viola! hope that helped

[SGypsyMermaid]

well, when i was breeding bettas, a good trick was to get a gallon jug, or any kinda container you can fit lettuce in. Anyways, fill it with water, through in a buncha lettuc, zucchini, peas, even some crappy half dead aquarium plants if you want, and let it sit outside for at least a weak. the veggies and water will turn into a soup kinda substance. and just give some of that to your babies.


if ya wanna speed up the process, cause it usually take a lil longer then a week(like 3-6) :) , you can boil the veggies and water in a pot, then let that cool, stir it up and turn it into mush, and viola! hope that helped

betta fry are much smaller than mouthbrooder cichlid fry, so they need the infusoria that would grow in your veggie mash. red zebra babies are big enough to eat crushed flakes, baby brine shrimp, etc. you don't have to cultivate microscopic food for them.

[JonZeigler]

I am saying that when I checked her this morning her mouth was wide open, and when I took her out her mouth was open like she was trying to get some air. She was fine for the first few days, so I don't think that the water conditions would affect her so suddenly. Now I didn't remove any of the fry from her mouth, but I think the next time I have a first timer I might strip the fry.
I remember reading somewhere that someone set up some rocks and stuff in the holding tank. That is what I did, and the fry where hidding underneath. I want to open her stomach, but I didn't think they would make down there. I remember reading a tread about different feeding styles. Author Message
SGypsyMermaid

crushed flakes, baby brine shrimp, etc
I going to search from more information, but there is good information in some of these threads.
SGM; I think I can tell the diffence in female and male Red Zebra. You will have to wait until they grow a little. The female doesn't have the big egg spots like the males.

[JonZeigler]

Hay merlyn2221. I just wanted U to know that the fry (Red Zebras), all seven, are doing well. They turn three months old tomorrow, and they are starting to display social behavior already. I have notice that the dominant fish in the tank are starting to chase the lesser ones. I even see some of them move gravel in the bottom of the tank and diplaying adult behavior. They are still in the 2.5 gal holding tank
:cool: