Fry in an all male tank

[stany]

So this was a weird find. 2 weeks ago I did a water change and gravel cleaning in my all male tank. After removing the rocks I thought I caught a fry flash by the driftwood in the tank. Thought nothing of it and with the cloudiness from the gravel cleaning thought it must have been waste just floating buy. Today I see not one but 3 half inch fish hiding around rocks in the front of the tank ducking back into cover when anything swam by. I feed my fish pellets so I have to assume they scavenged craps. I last added fish in December, two of which were a Yellow Lab and Clown Lab. The fry are yellow. I know yellow and white labs will cross breed, not sure about yellows and clowns if one is a female. I don't think any males would mouth brood fry that I get in a shipment but anything is possible.They are to small to identify but they do look like yellow labs. I think at this point they are to big to be food for my largest fish, a 4 inch Lake Vic Dayglow so I will get to see them grow up. I do not see typical breeding activity among any of the fish in the tank. I'm thinking some eggs of fry got picked up when fish sent to me were scooped out of the breeders tanks.Or it could be those damn aliens messing with me.

 

[stany]

Bump. Today I learned I have a school of six fry 1/2 inch and less. This is crazy.

 

[chriscoli]

how do you know your labs are males?

 

[Marz]

Well, obviously there's a female in your group, unless they adopted the fry from another tank?

I'll just show myself out now...

 

[stany]

In the case of yellow labs and clown labs 2 1/2 inches long I am not sure you can tell the difference but I've been told by numerous breeders that when you have a number to compare it's not hard to tell males from females. I trusted the online seller knew there stuff. Some species it's easy. Both my yellow and clown lab have eggs spots, but that is not always a good indicator. The 3 fry I saw last night were much smaller that the initial 3 and are showing dark vertical stripes, but all 6 are yellow and have a body shape of a yellow lab, but I am guessing they are lab fry.

Neither lab seems to be harassing the other looking to mate and do not hang out together. Obviously there is a female in the tank but as long as everyone is getting along I'm not going to worry about it. I only have one African Cichlid tank so I could not have gotten them from another tank. I'm figuring the Yellow Lab was a holding female when I received it and I don't think Yellow Lab males hold fry, or it's those darn aliens or my tank went Jurassic Park.

Look for a "free to a good home" in the Marketplace from me if I can catch the little buggers.

 

[FishEggs]

Maybe one of them is transgender?

 

[stany]

That's one vote for the Jurassic Park theory. I'm sticking to a holding female Yellow Lab I got in November sold as a male.

 

[JLW]

At a guess, I would say that you can't make babies without a female.

 

[stany]

In Jurassic Park all the animals were females. I talked with the breeder I bought the Yellow Labs from and according to him typically Yellow Lab females do not have a black strip on the anal fin but may have an egg spot. Mine has a black stripe on the anal fin and an egg spot.

I honestly did not want to put a Yellow Lab in the tank because you can find them everywhere. Wanting a peaceful tank and given their passiveness as a Mbuna I added one and thought with the unique color I would add more color to the tank.

 

[Wet Sleeves]

You sure its not the Clown thats a female?

 

[stany]

Not sure. The Clown also has an egg spot and the fry are bright yellow with the smaller ones showing dark vertical stripes. The larger fry are all yellow.

 

[chriscoli]

dark vertical stripes make me think that the fry are probably hybrids. Yellow labs shouldn't show barring unless they're really stressed out, and sometimes not even then. I find yellow labs to be very difficult to sex.

 

[stany]

It almost seems like i have two different groups of fry. The three that are completely yellow are 3/4 of an inch. The three that have dark bars are under 1/2 inch. I would think if they are from the same brood they would be all the same size. If they survive until I can find them a home I would have to assume they are hybrids as I have no clue what the parents are.

 

[DiscusnAfricans]

If they look different, they could still be from one female, but produced by different males. I'm sure she's quite popular in a mostly male tank. Would definitely have to assume they're hybrids.