MY general experience with Malawis is now a bit old but if you just keep a
pair of a mbuna in a tank then chances are that his aggression may become
too much for the female and eventually she will suffer very badly. The
Hierarchy of Mbunas in a mbuna community is a very important aspect in
keeping all specimens under control and healthy and ensuring that there is
not one fish only that gets always beaten up. If you really want to try and
breed them then get 3 females to 1 male in that tank with plenty of rocks
and hiding spaces with ofcourse good filteration.



Alternatively move the pair back to the main tank and keep feeding them well
(good amount of food usually triggers spawning in cichlids) and once the
female is loaded with eggs again, then you can move her to the hospital
tank. You can have a few apple snails in the spare tank to keep it cycled.



The beauty of this tank is that you can maintain a lush planted tank as a
spare one and move the laden female in there. Once the fry are independent,
move the female back to the mail tank and the plans can serve as good
amounts of food for the young cichlids(though they need a bit of protein
based food as well at these early ages).



Nim

Ps: Not a Mbuna expert but just my observations.



_____

From: tropicalaquaria@...
[mailto:tropicalaquaria@...] On Behalf Of mc_sotelo
Sent: 13 October 2006 14:00
To: tropicalaquaria@...
Subject: [Tropical Aquaria] Q about Red Zebra breeding



Hello everyone, could somebody share their experience about breeding
Red Zebra?

I have a pair of zebras who bred in my community tank (composite of
mixed cichlids). I only noticed this very weak female hiding in the
corner of the tank. At first, i thought she got a form of disease
because her pins are in bad shape and i noticed black spots inside
her mouth and on the side of her gills. After I watched closely i
noticed that these spot are moving. So i seperated her into 8" x 24"
tank. After few days she produced 12 healthy frys. However, its not
always good news because I had a poor filtration on the small tank
that I need to frequently change the water. To cut the story short
the fry only grow up to 1 cm., and didnt survive due to my mistake.

Now I got a new 12" x 24" tank with good filtration system just for
the pair but after long weeks they still dont breed. Is it something
to do with the temperature, food or lighting? Or they totally lost
interest with each other? I am also using fine white sand on this
tank instead of pebbles from my community tank. I need to know if I
should instead buy another pair to breed. I really like this species
that I am eager to try breeding them.

Looking forward to your advise.

Thanks






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