Electric Yellow Labido (Labidocromis Caerulus) Fry and Adults, March 5, 2001 Photos

We had no idea they were even old enough, but one day Tammy spotted a tiny Yellow darting in and out of the rocks. The hunt was on! It took us several days and we darned near tore the whole tank apart to get them, but we managed to catch all 6 fry which we had been able to spot.

We had thought momma had a throat problem, we didn't know the Labidos were mouthbrooders and because we didn't think they were old enough yet we hadn't researched breeding methods. When Momma Yellow's throat problem went away we just thought she'd gotten better from whatever was ailing her. We knew she wasn't eating until her swollen throat cleared up. Round about New Years, maybe 5 days after she'd "gotten better" the first fry was spotted.

When her throat started swelling up again we decided that this time we'd put her in a maternity tank so we wouldn't have to chase down all the fry again. By now we knew that the gestation period was about 19 days so two weeks from the time we thought they spawned we moved her out of the 120. Two weeks later she hadn't spit the fry yet and we were starting to worry for her and the fry. We tried tempting her with all her favorite foods, but no dice, she just hid in her cave and wouldn't spit the fry. Finally after doing as much research as we could on stripping fry we decided to have a go at it. We dismantled her cave so the tank was bare and netted her. I cradled her in my right hand and pried open her mouth with my index fingernail of my left hand. To my surprise, four little brown fry immediately came streaming out of her mouth, like they had been waiting to escape! We moved them to a 2-1/2 gallon tank and went at it again. Momma Yellow wasn't particularly thrilled about it, but she was surprisingly docile for a procedure which I thought was quite invasive. This time about 12 fry came flying from her mouth. We gave her a rest before we decided to finish the procedure. I figured there were one or two left, but to my suprise there were 6 more in there! It hardly seemed she could hold that many fry in her mouth.

So, we have three 9 month or so old adults, some 3 month old fry and a bunch of month old fry and the other female is holding another brood which is due any day now!