Disappearing fry

[tleehm]

My agassizi "Tefe" has spawned and hatched around 30 fry. Around 15 of them reached free swimmer stage and are happily taking BBS, but their number keeps droping daily. Last night I can only account for 5 remainder and this morning all have gone.

The pair is in a tank of their own, could it be the male that's snacking on the fry in the dark? The number during the day (with the light on) is pretty stable, only when the light turns off is when fry disappears. Perhaps I should keep a night light.

Any ideas why? Please advise.

Cheers,
Thomas.

 

[Apistomaster]

As much fun it is to watch them raise their fry I belong to the school of thought that my first spawn is going to be artificially hatched. After that I can take a chance on the parents raising them. Who really knows why fish eat their young when they don't in the wild. But Apistos may be small fish but they have big ideas about what is enough room and what conditions they need to be comfortable raising their fry in aquariums. Some species are generally good parents in aquaria but many are not.
Larry

 

[tleehm]

The strange part is - their number only decline over night. During the day time, both parents have sorted out their share of work and I've never seen neither of them snack the young (only female pick up and releases through the gill instead of mouth - which is some what different to my baenschi).

Cheers,
Thomas.

 

[TankWatcher]

I'm a beginner too, so please take the advice of more experienced posters over me. But, I read that it helps to keep a low watt night light on the tank, as the sudden turn on & turn off of the light can startle the adults into mistakenly snacking on their fry. You could try this with your next batch & see if this helps at all. I'm trying this at the moment & I have a small desk light set on a timer. It turns on just before the main tank light turns off & it turns off just after the main tank lights turn back on.

This is a temporary solution, as I've ordered a small Marina L.E.D. Lighting System
to serve as a more permanent "night light" for when my female is guarding. This is the light I've ordered http://www.aquaticlifeaquariums.com.au/ . The one I ordered is the $21.00 transformer & white light.

Good luck with your next brood.