Can male African cichlids hold baby fry in their mouth?

Question

I have a 30 gal tank with 3males and 2 female zebra cichlids, they are about 6 months old

Answer 1

Paternal mouthbrooding is relatively rare amongst african cichlids,  some of the tilapiines, (especially the black-chin tilapia) are paternal (which you do not have). If your questioning the fact that the carrying female may be a male due to exhibiting egg spots, then its the wrong approach because females (especially estherae) can have multiple egg spots. The best way to tell they are carrying (have eggs in their mouth) is the area under their mouth will droop and they will refuse food but are NOT sick.

Answer 2

Hi

No they don't. Well I might stand corrected. There may very well be a few species that the males carry, but to my knowledge, all African Mouth Brooders are maternal ones, meaning the female does. I'm not going to say there isn't because I do not know that for 100% certainty. I can say the odds of having a male mouth brooder/carrying type is extremely low though.

Zebras? As in Red Zebra's or what? Males typically target fry, even their own as food btw. Most mouth brooding types, if you want a high survival rate, you need to isolate the female to her own tank, as the males tend to eat the young.

Very well put Jai, and in addition to looking at the mouth/jaw area, when a fish male or female is holding eggs, they will not eat during the incubation period.  This is a very strong indicator someone is holding eggs.