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The stalk has landed...


Shara

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So, a few weeks back, I removed one of my M. greshakei from my 3ft Malawi Rift Lake Community because it's tail was almost entirely gone, and placed it in a 2 foot tank to recover and re-grow.

Last week, I placed the fish back, after re-arranging the entire tank so there would be no established territories when I put the fish back in. The fish disappeared, and I had not seen it since! Thinking I'd lost it for good, I shrugged it off as one of the inevitable casualties of the Malawi community tank. But lo and behold, about 5 minutes ago, I glanced up to my tank and saw the very fish I'd thought I'd lost watching me from a cave, I got up to ensure it was in fact that fish, and not just one of my Afra Cobue, and saw that, upon closer inspection the fish I thought I'd lost in fact has a mouthful of beautiful eggs.

Obviously they had bred very shortly after I placed her back in the tank, and she'd been hiding since.

I do doubt that any young will survive the community tank, but I must say, I am pleasantly surprised that she is just brooding and no longer MIA. She's been hiding incredibly well though, for me not to have seen her for nearly a week. No wonder all my fish have been more active outside of the caves, she's been chasing them out. I'd put it down to the re-arrangement of the tank, given they'd been frequenting the caves less since the re-arrangement. But no, it's just the grump mummy. So proud. It's always nice when they breed, even though the tank was never established for breeding purposes, it's always a lovely reward.

Edited by Shara
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Just dismantled my display tank, caught her and transferred her to the 2 ft I'd just aqua-scaped for Apisto's, thankfully the water chemistry is unchanged from when she was in that tank recovering, so I was able to put her straight in. Hopefully she doesn't swallow the eggs, and hopefully she doesn't destroy the plants I've just planted 3 days ago. See how it all goes I guess.

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Sharma can you please prune your signature down to a smaller size as per this post please....

Hope all goes well for a safe arrival of some babies for you :) make sure you have plenty of hiding places for the fry when they are released or mum will treat them as snacks after such a long time with no food....

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Thanks for the heads up, I've changed it now.

Yeah, I've bred African's before, I've always found them to raise their babies incredibly well, in saying that however, I always offer food when she's at the stage where she would be releasing fry.

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