# Tank for holding africans



## Philip.Chan.92 (Apr 25, 2010)

I am getting a 15 gallon setup free, is this sufficient to hold a holding female and then use to raise fry? I don't want to strip the fry because from what I've read, fry that were stripped fail more at holding in the future. I plan to use let the female stay with her young for a little while to allow her to recover from 3 weeks without eating. What do you guys think?


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## dl88dl (Mar 8, 2010)

A 15gal should be fine...lots of people I know use a 10gal.


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## Philip.Chan.92 (Apr 25, 2010)

I can only hold one female in there right? Or would multiple holding females be ok together?


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## bae (May 11, 2007)

Be sure to provide the female with some kind of cave or lurking place like a piece of flowerpot or pipe. Some mbuna will eat a little while brooding, yellow labs for example. Possibly more mature fry eat some of what the female sucks in, too. Note that within a few days after release the female may eat the fry if she can catch them. In nature, many mbuna release their fry in very shallow water where they are safer from predators, so their instinct to protect fry after release is poor to negligible.

As for more than one brooding female in the tank, it may or may not work. Since brooding females spend most of their time in their lurking places, have several shelters so there isn't competition for them, and arrange them so the fish can't see each other when they are in their caves. Out of sight, out of mind works pretty well for many fish. You could also put in a partition made of plastic eggcrate. Let us know how this works out.

IME, females don't get notably thin after brooding, so I've just put them back with the group a day or two after I see fry.


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