The Aquarian's Net

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One of the most interesting aspects of the aquarium hobby is breeding fish.   For me, watching fish is fun, but watching how they react and behave to certain situations is much more exciting.  Being able to breed fish and watch their behavior as they raise their young is the one real big advantage that freshwater fish-keeping has over saltwater fish-keeping.  There is something amazing and inexplicable about watching a male betta continually rebuilding a next built out of bubbles, while at the same time catching fry that mistakenly swim or fall out.   Equally as interesting is watching a female kribensis gather up her young into her mouth, just a few at a time, and then moving them over to the cave where they will spend the night.

A holding female albino Eureka peacock.  Notice how the mouth looks very full.  Holding females do not eat while they are holding.

Mouth brooders are fish that hold their eggs in their mouth until their young are free-swimming.  This is somewhat common in cichlids; the peacock cichlids of lake Malawi are good examples of this type of breeding.  Sexing of these fish can vary greatly.  The aforementioned peacock cichlids are easy to sex as the males are absolutely beautiful, exhibiting bright yellows, reds and blues, while the females tend to be steel colored.  Other fish in this category can often be sexed by comparing the dorsal fins.  Males typically have dorsal fins that end in a point, while females dorsal finds are usually rounded.  

The main advantage of mouth brooding is that the young are larger and fully able to survive on their own when they are released.  In some cases, the parents will be used for a safe harbor after the young have been released.  In the aquarium mouth brooders can be difficult to care for.  In the wild, the holding fish will usually group together away from the rest of the fish.   Since they live in very large lakes, this is not a problem, but in your aquarium, this becomes a bit more difficult. 

You may find that the females are beat up in your aquarium and may require moving.  However, moving the fish can cause new problems, as females will often spit out their eggs if they become panicked. 

The remedy for this situation is a very large tank with lots of hiding spaces.  In fact, you will really need very little more to breed mouth brooders.  A ratio of 3 females to every 1 male is recommended, but even with a 1:1 ratio, you should have to do little more than put the fish together to get them to breed.  Feeding the fish live or frozen foods may help, as is the case with most fish, but in reality, mouth-brooders may be the easiest of all fish other than livebearers to breed.

When breeding mouth-brooders, it is important to keep a careful watch over your fish.  When a fish spits its fry, they fry will most likely be ravenously consumed by the fish in the tank.   To avoid this, most aquarists will "spit" their females before they release the fry.  This should be done with great care so as to not injure the fish.  In general, if there is anyway to get the female to spit the fry without forcing her mouth open, it would be preferred.  I personally like to catch the female and put them in either a guppy breeding trap or a similarly sized net.  Most females will soon release their fry because they are so stressed about being caught in a small place.    Though this will frighten the female, it will only be for a short time it is certainly better than man-handling and possibly injuring the female.

Fry from mouth brooding fish are usually quite large, and can be removed to a fry-raising tank immediately.  As is the case with most cichlids the young will readily eat just about anything you throw at them, so purchasing a specialized fry food will not be necessary. 

Shell Dwellers and Bubble-Nest Builders--->