PlecFan Posted December 20, 2015 Report Share Posted December 20, 2015 Hi guys, so my female saulosi has a gob full and I want to put her into a fry saver when the time is right. We have 12 fry out of her last batch who survived simply being raised in the community tank but she is currently sharing with young flame backs and azureus so don't want to jeopardise the fry once released. When is a good time to catch her up and pop her in the fry saver and how should I do it to minimise stress and possibility of spitting/swallowing? I'm thinking at night after light has been off for a while? Problem with that is the immense hidey holes I would have to disrupt to get to her would be enough to stress her out.... Any hints? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbunamad Posted December 20, 2015 Report Share Posted December 20, 2015 Probably best to strip the tank of décor to make catching her easier during the day. If she is a good mum she most likely will hang on to the fry and not spit while you are trying to net her. Try not to prolong the chase. Being in a mixed tank can you be certain the father of the mouthful was a Salousi? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlecFan Posted December 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2015 Probably best to strip the tank of décor to make catching her easier during the day.If she is a good mum she most likely will hang on to the fry and not spit while you are trying to net her. Try not to prolong the chase. Being in a mixed tank can you be certain the father of the mouthful was a Salousi? Yeah the male saulosi was the only male in the tank at the time of spawning and I was lucky enough to be around (and excitedly watching on) when the deed was being done! Iv actually removed dad now as there was only the one pair (been looking for more females but havnt found any yet) and I didn't want him continually harassing her. The spawn happened on the 11th. When would be a good time to put her in the fry saver? Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donny@ageofaquariums Posted December 20, 2015 Report Share Posted December 20, 2015 Saulosi are excellent mothers. I would let her hold 14 days and then move. That way, if she spits the fry will be easy to raise. I usually just wait until their throat goes dark, but thats only because I usually have a few dozen females and no chance of tracking who did what/who when. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlecFan Posted December 30, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2015 Here are some pics of the last lot of fry that originally came with the adult pair I was talking about above....the fry don't seem to look like those I've seen on the Internet .... The tank they previously came in had only frontosa as tank mates so can't see cross breeding happening there...but what the heck are these little buggers?? When they came here they were all yellow, no markings of any kind. Now....well this...I thought Saulosi didn't start "barring up" (excuse the pun lol) or more politically correct "colouring up" untill much bigger? About 8 out of twelve have changed with the other smaller ones still a good solid yellow...is this normal??? There is a pick of mum and dad too... (Excuse the glare spots on the photo of dad apparently taking photos of blue fish under blue lights doesn't work out that well!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DFishkeeper Posted December 30, 2015 Report Share Posted December 30, 2015 (edited) Hey mate, I've been breeding a nice true strain of Saulosi for a few years now, and also bred them for many years prior before taking a break from them for a while. The barring on those fry looks all wrong going by those pictures. The young males in my strain will start to bar up at 4cm or so, but they only show vertical bars, faint at first and gradually becoming darker as their blue body colour starts to kick in. Your fry seem to have horizontal barring as well, almost like a Melanochromis interruptus. There doesn't seem to be any horizontal or otherwise wrong barring in the pair shown in the bottom photo, although it is a bit dark to be sure. Is the top photo of the same female as the bottom photo? The head and body shape seems different in the two photos, the bottom photo looks more like a saulosi female head and body shape then the top photo. Or maybe its just my old eyes playing tricks on me You say these fry came with the pair, so maybe they are not from this pair and whoever you got the fish from made a mistake? If you are absolutely sure they are from this pair, then they don't seem to be throwing true fry. Sorry I can't post up some pictures for you of my fish, but I'm an old fart and just not into taking and posting pictures of fish. If you are still chasing additional Saulosi females, I have been thinking about reducing the size of my young adult colony, I already have heaps of fry coming through and I'm not even bothering to strip them currently. Shoot me a PM if you're interested in some females and we can work something out. I'm at Palm Beach on the Gold Coast. The link below will tell you a bit about me and my fish. http://www.qldaf.com/forums/dfishkeeper-breeder-registry-palm-beach-african-cichlids-gibberosa-frontosa-164/ Cheers, Doug Edited December 30, 2015 by DFishkeeper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlecFan Posted December 30, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2015 Hi Doug! THANK YOU!!! I've been going crazy trying to find female Saulosi without freighting or driving for hours! So firstly a big YES PLEASE THANK YOU VERY MUCH! I will pm you after I answer your questions. Ok first of all yes the two photos are of the same female. The difference you can see is likely from her having a mouthful over the last three weeks ? She spat the fry this morning and has lost some condition due to brooding but yes, she is the same girl in both pictures. I only have the one female and one male. I got these guys about 6weeks (maybe more) ago from a man who housed them with a colony of six Burundi frontosa (whom I also purchased from him) In total when I purchased the set up (tank included) he had the 6 fronts, the 2 adult Saulosi pair, ( male 1 female whom we are discussing) the 12 fry that were around 0.5mm (the same fry I posted pictures of above that have grown) and 2 featherfin catfish... He told me he had never had anything else in the tank and had all but the featherfins since juveniles. So to my knowledge no there has never been anything else that they could have crossed with to produce the fry pictured....given he was telling the truth! I've just caught out the male to take a photo for you. He has no horizontal barring that my uneducated eye can see (he is a bit stressed due to the catch and doesn't like his photo being taken so excuse the blanched look on him!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
