It all began when Erik, Bob and I went to the American Cichlid Association Conference a year ago in San Jose, California. Prior to this trip I had not been presented with the opportunity to strip.
At the auction I bid on and purchased a pair of adult Psuedotropheus
macrothalmus red hood
for six dollars. Bob and I had to catch an
early plane home so we left Erik to endure a few more hours of fish
auctioning and with the job of caring for our fish on the trip home.
When Erik arrived at our doorstep many hours later we were presented
with a box containing our P. macrothalmus and several other fishy
purchases (plus a few empty bags, ask Erik if you wish to be regaled
with the tale of his woeful journey home). To my surprise, the female
P. macrothalmus had quite a mouthful of fry. I had no idea how old
the babies she was carrying were, but I did know that she was very
stressed by the auction and her journey to Seattle and something had
to be done.
The next day Bob and I debated about what to do. The decision was made to capture her and attempt to remove whatever was in her mouth. We decided it was ok to sacrifice some fry if it would help the mother survive and spawn again. Bob netted her, and I held her in one hand very gently, so as not to harm her, and with my finger I held her mouth open while dipping her head in and out of the water to wash the babies out. To our surprise the babies were huge, about 1/4 inch in length, and there were approximately twenty five of them. It was an amazing sight to see this many babies come from the mouth of a four inch fish. They must have been really crowded in there. The babies all survived and the mother recovered nicely. We were very impressed by what a wonderful parent she was. I know I certainly wouldn’t carry twenty five babies in my mouth from California to Seattle!
More next time on my second stripping experience...
Anne Pace keeps a variety of freshwater aquaria and a marine aquarium. She is also GSAS librarian.