Why do you strip?

[Kaia]

I would like to know the reason behind everyone's decision to strip? I found a cool article:
http://www.cichlidae.com/article.php?id=151

[danielratti]

Good source of income and its easy to do.

[Kaia]

Well you can get viable fry without stripping

[Regalblue]

I actually am putting myself through school & only doing as long as I have to.

[Steve]

Never start a topic with the word "strip" in it while Blair is on the site  You will learn grasshopper

[Regalblue]

Never start a topic with the word "strip" in it while Blair is on the site  You will learn grasshopper

What's that supposed to mean?!?!? 

Oohhh!  We're talking about stripping fry from a female mouthbrooding fish. I must've misunderstood,  maybe the OP should've been more specific. 

I'm so embarrassed now.

[linuxrulesusa]

For a more serious and fish-related answer: some species tend to eat their fry if you don't strip the fry.  So if you 1) want to raise fry of a harder to spawn species without waiting until they spawn again, or 2) want to raise a decent number for profit (or at least to sell), or 3) want to make sure tankmates don't eat the fry/control when they 'hatch', or 4) want to avoid aggression by pulling a holding female out of the tank and putting in isolation and then being seen by the group as an outsider...you will strip the fry.  Downsides include possibly damaging the female's mouth, or stressing if you do a poor job of it, e.g. banging the fish's head on the container while stripping the fry.  But it's not hard to do.

[Ron]

^ Nice to see good responses from people who are serious about the hobby. Joking around it fun for a while, but sometimes it gets too repetitive.

Nice article - there are many, many other great articles on that site as well FWIW.

[Kaia]

Ya I was curious to know if that made the females spawn sooner? I'm also wondering if people get more viable fry if they wait?

[Steve]

On a serious note..

Kaia..I have only had my fish spawn/breed once so far. When my lab did I didn't know if I should strip or what to do, so I simply put the holding fish on a 20g long tank alone alone and about 2 weeks later it spit 10 fry. I pulled that fish out and re introduced it to the main tank that day. Shes fine and the 10 fry she spit are still fine and 1.25" long to date.
So anyway...I did not strip, but that's the only time I have had holding fish so just giving my take on what happened here is all.

[Regalblue]

^ Nice to see good responses from people who are serious about the hobby. Joking around it fun for a while, but sometimes it gets too repetitive.

Nice article - there are many, many other great articles on that site as well FWIW.

awe come on... there hasn't been any good strip threads in quite some time & IIRC it was me who got it last time.

Ya I was curious to know if that made the females spawn sooner? I'm also wondering if people get more viable fry if they wait?

stripping a fish doesn't necessarily make the fish spawn sooner. But it does speed up getting the fish into breeding condition.

[four_by_ken]

We don't strip them until they are full fry.  We don't want to deal with egg tumblers.

Reason... so they don't let them loose in the tank and then we loose them all.

[Ron]

Ya I was curious to know if that made the females spawn sooner?

It'll help them recover sooner, which could reduce the time until they spawn again.

I'm also wondering if people get more viable fry if they wait?

What does "viable" mean in that context? Capable of working successfully; feasible? 

There's some belief that fry imprint upon their mothers during that period and if you strip fry, they'll be less likely to hold as long term once they start having fry of their own, especially with tropheus, sandsifters, etc. IME it's more of a European frame of mind on the topic and over here we tend to strip fry without concern.

Stripping also induces the risk of physical damage IMO. If the mother closes down somehow on the fry as they are coming out, they can become damaged/kinked or die. If you strip too early and have to tumble the eggs, if tumbled too roughly they can become damaged/improperly formed.

[RichE]

I have only had a few fish holding since I started back with the "breeding attempt" and to be honest I didnt even know they were ready until someone pointed out that there was fry in the tank.

Now that I have gained some knowledge on the whole thing, if I see a fish holding I just move her to a small tank and let it happen "oh natural". Sure you can gain more fry from stripping but I am trying the theory of the fish going "full term" and letting her do her thing.

I might not get as many fry, but I feel its less stress on the mother.

If I am wrong please point me inthe right direction, as I want to do it right:)

[four_by_ken]

I dont think anyone is wrong, as long as the fry survive.

I dont have enough tanks to separate the females while they are holding.  I dont want to deal with egg tumblers.

So, thats why we use the hang on fry tanks.  We wait 2 weeks... strip them (they are fry at this time), and put them in the fry tanks until they are larger and then put them in with the other fry.