Malawi Cichlid Fry

Caring for your Malawi Cichlid Fry.

I refer to a female fish with eggs or Fry as "Holding", they are also known as "Carrying".

Photograph is Provided by www.african-cichlid.com and is Used with Permission.

Introduction

If you are planning on keeping Malawi Cichlids or already do then as long as you have a male and a female you are guaranteed to have Fry at some stage. Malawi Cichlids will breed readily and easily so make sure that if you want to keep and raise the Fry you have enough tanks at hand. It takes about 3 months for the average Fry batch to become near sellable and once a female has released her Fry she can start on the next batch just days after being placed back with her male.

If you do not want to keep the Fry then you are best keeping all males. The Holding female can be left in the tank to release her batch of Fry however these will be eaten by the other fish. This is not something that I personally like to do so if a Holding female can be removed with her eggs then I will always try to do so. If you are planning to keep and raise the Fry then remove the Holding female into her own tank as soon as possible.

The Fry

Malawi Cichlid Fry are fasinating to watch. If you have ever had a Holding female in a tank you can sometimes catch the little eyes staring at you when she opens her mouth.

After about 3 weeks when the Fry get to big to hold the female will release them if she does not feel threatened by anything. If you are lucky you can sometimes catch her doing so or even see them rushing back into their mum`s protective mouth.

At some stage she will not accept the Fry back into her mouth at which point you can catch her and put her back in the main tank. If you want to speed up this process then place small bits of rock or slate into the tank for the Fry to hide in. This will stop them going back into mum`s mouth. Once the female has been removed then it is down to you to care for the Fry.

Care and Feeding

There are many Fry foods available on the market however these can be expensive so all i do is crush some of the adults Flake Food into powder and feed them a pinch twice a day. The Fry will grow very quick at which stage you can introduce tablet food that sticks to the tank or feed them Grindal Worms which is what I do, as well as larger crushed Flake Food. In time they will get big enough to eat uncrushed food. When the Fry are small it is very entertaining watching them swim round with a whole worm sticking out of their mouth which is bigger than they are.

In my Fry tank I use the smallest Eheim 2006 Internal Filter. You can use a Sponge Filter or even a Box Filter. I also have air line powered by an Air Pump going into each Fry tank. When the Fry get bigger I replace the Eheim 2006 with an Eheim 2010. When doing a Water Change I use a piece of air line to syphon up all the debis and waste food then do the Water Changes as described here. I syphon the bottom of the tanks every week and do a Water Change every 2 weeks making sure to clean out the Filter.

Growing Quickly Now

After a few weeks and depending on how big the batch was, you may need to seperate your young fish into other tanks as they will be growing quite fast and need more room. It usually takes around 3 months for them to be near sellable but once they are you can sell them on and start all over again if you have not already done so. Shops will normally take young fish from about 2 inches in length but this can vary from shop to shop.
Other outlets for your fish are eBay Auctions or Aquarists Classifieds.

Good luck with your Fry and enjoy them.