Breeding O. Mossambica

[badflash]

I'll bet she found them. I've seen good mothers badger other fish holding until they spit and then gather up the eggs. I often find females with all stages of eggs to fy, so they are not all theirs.

[jackalope]

I've been procrastinating, I haven't separated her/them from the males ..... it looks like I have two of them (maybe) I've been laying tile, changing out the manifolds and carb on my truck, etc., etc, too much to do, too little time Gotta get things done if I wanna sell this place .

[badflash]

Mossies don't need to be clipped. Niles and hornorum do unless the fish are close to equal size. If you have at least 5 females with a single male you won't need to clip them either.

[jackalope]

I guess mine were a false alarm .... I've seen nothing to indicate eggs nor fry, and the two that I thought might be holding still don't seem to open their mouth as wide as the others, and still don't go after the food like the others Maybe they have lockjaw!

I bought an 8 foot pool the other day, going to put plywood on the concrete floor to break the cold temps, then I've got some closed-cell double side reflective 1" foam board to put on top of the plywood ..... then I'll fill the pool and get it ready for the fish ...... it's going to be cold all this week, so I probably won't get the fish put in yet, but I've got about 80 or 90 gallons of cycled water that I could put into it so I might just do that and still use the same boifilter .... that way, I think I can change everything in a couple of days, rather than wait a couple of weeks That would be like a 60% or 75% change-out !

[davidstcldfl]

I bought an 8 foot pool the other day, going to put plywood on the concrete floor to break the cold temps, then I've got some closed-cell double side reflective 1" foam board to put on top of the plywood .....

How about a waterbed heater too ? I know, it may not be big enough 'KW wise'....but it would help 'some'. Might be able to find one cheap or even free...and they wouldn't use much electric.
You could lay another section of vinyl or something over the heater, just to add some protection to the pool liner (?)

[jackalope]

I bought an 8 foot pool the other day, going to put plywood on the concrete floor to break the cold temps, then I've got some closed-cell double side reflective 1" foam board to put on top of the plywood .....

How about a waterbed heater too ? I know, it may not be big enough 'KW wise'....but it would help 'some'. Might be able to find one cheap or even free...and they wouldn't use much electric.
You could lay another section of vinyl or something over the heater, just to add some protection to the pool liner (?)

I've got that 1000 watt bucket heater that badflash recommended .... that will sit somewhere in the center (if possible), then I will pump the water into a swirly, and out of that into the biofilter ..... it's still too cold here to have an AP system, it's snowing down south of us and feels like it's going to snow here today ...... this Global Warming is just killing my plans for an AP system this yeear .....

I don't know where I would find any waterbed heaters here, we usually scour the two thrift shops in Lewistown (approx 70 mi. round trip) whenever we go to town (Usually once or twice a week), but I have never yet seen a waterbed heater in either one.

[JCO]

Don't forget http://carigslist.com or can you get it that far out in the boonies

[badflash]

I've gotten them off ebay before.

[jackalope]

I've seen them on ebay ....but for 30 and 40 dollars ..... if I gotta pay that much, I'd just as soon use the bucket heater! I set up the pool today, and put about 30 - 35 gallons of hot water in, the rest of it is cold water ..... I was sure I bought the 8' pool, but when I set it up it's only a 6' ..... it's good enuff for the experiment tho ...... I poured about 6 gallons of ammonia water in it to get it started cycling ..... I had to do a change-out on one of the FT's, so I figured I'd use some of the old water to make it cycle faster Some of the water was so dirty, that I just couldn't bring myself to use it, so it may take a little longer to cycle than I'd hoped.

That 6 footer is 258 gallons .... I didn't go all the way to the top, so I've probably got about 250 gallons in it, but for $12.00 at WalMart, I can live with a 200 gallon FT for now I'm hoping to get the big one going too, so I can get my Blues going as well.

[badflash]

She's not just sucking them up. They actively dive into her mouth.

Get your hands wet. Net her and she'll spit most of them. Next grab her with one hand and hold her lower lip open with your thumb. You'll figure it out. Dip her head down in the water past her gills a few times until the fry stop comming out. Put her in a recovery tank.