Does older fry keep parents from breeding again?

[raymond82]

Hi,

I have a pair of A. vielfleck that spawned not long after I bought them (actually in pure tap water not long after an unfortunate incident that emptied the whole aquarium overnight). Now we're around 4 months later but they didn't attempt to breed anymore. The female actually seems to be bullied by the male quite often. Most of the brood is out but around 8-10 of them are still in with the parents, could they be the reason the parents don't spawn again?

Thanks!

 

[Mike Wise]

I find that when I keep juvenile fish with pairs of most species of apistos, breeding slows and sometimes stops. This is less likely in tanks where there are more than 1 female per male.

 

[raymond82]

Ok. I'll be going on holiday soon but after that I will make an effort and remove all the juveniles. Not long ago I thought I'd introduce another female that I had in another tank but this wasn't a success, she got bullied to death. I have one more separate female that I could add but I'm not sure how to do this without putting her at risk. First I'll try with removing the juveniles.

 

[steve1572]

I found my veilfleck just wouldn't breed when any fry were left in with them and as soon as I removed them they would spawn again
Yet I have a wild pair of baenschi which have fry from 3 spawns in with them and have bred again
Yet my wild Oregon actively hunt the fry when the female is ready to spawn again


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[raymond82]

That's what I thought before, that the fish would breed anyway and then hunt and kill older fry. That's also why I was surprised they didn't want to breed anymore. Interesting to see that this differs between species. I'm gonna try removing the fry when I find the time, I'm hoping that what worked for your vielfleck's works for mine too!

 

[raymond82]

I finally found the time to remove the juveniles two weeks ago, after that the male started harassing the female a lot so I introduced a second female I have that was in another tank. Now look at this:



Both females have a nest now! One of them will be free swimming quite soon I think, let's hope everything will work out fine. Thanks for the advice anyway, it worked out really well!