Artificial raising of fry..

[ste12000]

Hi all, in my living room display tank i have 6 Apistogramma 'Steelblue' one stunning large male, a subdominant male and four females. My females are constantly breeding and at anyone time there are usually fry hiding in corners being protected by the bright yellow females, they never last more than two days before the discus and other fish polish them off, I have artificialy raised around four broods in seperate tanks and always syphon off the fry. My question is this..

Would i be able to syphon off new freeswimming fry then capture the female and still expect her to look after the fry in a new tank?? or will she react to the shock by eating the brood or neglecting them? I dont want to remove a pair to a breeding tank for a couple of weeks as the harem is working perfectly and i dont want to disturb it more than i have to. I would like to watch the female raise the young though.

Any thoughts anyone????

 

[LeviathanGirl]

Its almost certain that the female will eat the babies if you remove them from the tank.

 

[tleehm]

Very likely the female will eat fry/egg if heavily disturbed.

If the harem is working the way it should, probably you should consider leaving her with the fry together with the harem unless you're concern about the fry survival.

I'll probably remove the other male and any female that isn't part of the harem instead.

 

[beleg]

I have experienced with my A. sp "steelblue" female that if you keep them in the same tank with a breeder/incubator box she doesn't eat her fry. They may behave different in a separate tank though.

 

[Mike Wise]

This method often works: siphon water from the community tank into the brood tank. Partition the tank with a divider. Siphon out the fry and place them in one side of the tank and put the female in the other. Let them stay this way for about 24 hours. If the female regains her brood dress and the fry are attracted to her (and her to them) across the divider, then remove the divider. Apparently the female needs to recognize the scent of the fry again once she is moved.

 

[ste12000]

Thanks guys,
i might try the divider method but at the minute i have lots of tanks/not enough time, and have just syphoned off 60 fry.... i have several tanks with spawning dwarfs and have plenty of opertunities to watch parents with fry at the minute.