african cichlids - mbuna?

Question
We are relatively new to cichlid fish. We have been trying to figure out what is going on in our tank! It is a 180 gallon tank with cichlids we have been told are mbunas. The particular fishes in question have vertical stripes. The one we believe is a male has very bright blue and dark stripes and the one we are guessing is the female is the same only the colors are not so distinct. Anyway, the fish we are guessing is the female had eggs in her mouth. We were planning on getting her out and putting her in a 10 gallon tank, (were still trying to figure this thing out!) so we could watch and see what happened with the whole fry process. Last night we were watching her and she spit out several eggs! Probably like 5 or so. She sucked them back up and a few minutes later spit some out again only this time two of the eggs she did not get and really did not seem too eager to get got eaten by two fish who happened to be close! After picking a couple more up after a few min. she spit more out on top of a rock and as strange as this sounds, something was comming out of the gills of this fish! We have no idea what is going on and any information would be very appreciated because we can not find any info in any books we have looked in. Could this fish still have some eggs in her mouth?

Answer
Hi Amy,
  It sounds like you do indeed have some mbuna from Lake Malawi.  Mbuna is the broad category name for any of the cichlids which hang out near the rocks in Lake Malawi (as opposed to those that live in open water or over the sandy bottoms).  It would be the female that was mouthbrooding.

 As for the spitting them out, that is unusual, though not
unheard of.  It is possible that something was not going right with those eggs and she decided to abandon them.  It is possible that she still has some in her mouth.  This sort
of less-than-perfect parental care is most often seen by
younger females and it is possible that she will try again
in a few weeks and hopefully with more success.  
There isn't really anything you should have done differently -- the mouthbrooding is up to her.

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
  Cichlid Research Home Page <http://cichlidresearch.com>