A. ortegai fry care help

[TacocaT]

Hello! A couple days ago I finally got my A. ortegai pair to breed in my community tank, but it took me by surprise and at that point I hadn't built the artemia nauplii setup yet, so for the first 2 days since they emerged from the cave as free-swimming I tried my best to feed them with Hikari baby food. Only this morning were the nauplii ready, which I have been steadily feeding and will continue to feed this for as long as necessary until I can switch to non-live food. Regarding this, what is the average timeline I should be expecting for types of food to feed throughout their growth stages?

Seeing as they are still only about 3 days old, I've left them in the care of their mother, but I fear that she will soon turn on them given that there are plenty of opportunistic tank mates. I do have a small fry cage available that has some mosses and a buce, but I'm not sure when I should attempt a transfer. I don't have another small tank available for mom and kids, so that is out of the question.

Also, should I expect a die off of fry at some point due to the lack of proper feeding for the first few days? I am basing this off whiptail catfish fry care where you must drown them in food during their first week otherwise they die inexplicably at two weeks. I'm hoping that they've been getting enough food from the microfauna in the mossy area where they've been kept by mom.

Thanks so much for help!

 

[TacocaT]

Here are relevant photos:


Full tank:

 

[anewbie]

About 48 hours after the frys are free swimming start feeding them bbs

Not sure which species of whiptail you have but the ones i have have enough of an egg sack to allow them to feed for close to 5 days without external food:

Anyway the normal stage for cichild frys is wriggler (eggs hatch but they can't swim yet) and then they start swimming....

Yes if frys don't get enough food they will die. Btw this is angelfish fry that show them in wriggler stage with egg sack:

I would leave the fry with the mother at least the first time to see if she can guard them. Sometime they are successful - for example i have peru orange tetra with my ipirianga which are very predatory of fry and she made it clear to them to stay away and what do you know they won't go near her - i had them with another breeding fish that simply did not know how to deal with them
--
The food thing is an issue and live food (food that move) is best bbs is the common solution but micro worm can work - I feed from 1 to 4 times a day with 3 or so the first 2 weeks being the target by week 4 i i no longer see a need for live food though if you have live food it is quite healthy for them - my ability to hatch bbs is not as good as most people and the number of broods i am dealing with can sometime be a bit larger than i prefer.

 

[TacocaT]

Thank you! Regarding the free swimming bit, I didn't get a chance to see the fry until they were free swimming, as I think the wrigglers were all huddled up in the mom's cave until they swam.

Also an update, I no longer see any fry, and the female has begun displaying to the male again, so I fear the fry may have all perished or been eaten by mom. However, given that I didn't really do anything to trigger this would it be wise to assume that she'll start laying eggs soon again and I'll get a second chance?

Thanks!

About 48 hours after the frys are free swimming start feeding them bbs

Not sure which species of whiptail you have but the ones i have have enough of an egg sack to allow them to feed for close to 5 days without external food:
View attachment 18327

Anyway the normal stage for cichild frys is wriggler (eggs hatch but they can't swim yet) and then they start swimming....

Yes if frys don't get enough food they will die. Btw this is angelfish fry that show them in wriggler stage with egg sack:

View attachment 18328


I would leave the fry with the mother at least the first time to see if she can guard them. Sometime they are successful - for example i have peru orange tetra with my ipirianga which are very predatory of fry and she made it clear to them to stay away and what do you know they won't go near her - i had them with another breeding fish that simply did not know how to deal with them
--
The food thing is an issue and live food (food that move) is best bbs is the common solution but micro worm can work - I feed from 1 to 4 times a day with 3 or so the first 2 weeks being the target by week 4 i i no longer see a need for live food though if you have live food it is quite healthy for them - my ability to hatch bbs is not as good as most people and the number of broods i am dealing with can sometime be a bit larger than i prefer.