Finally got some fry

[DNash]

I have had my current pair of A.Cacatuoids for over 6 mos (very first pair were killed off during attempt to add the current female as a second) in a 35 gal long tank, typical setup with plants and overturned pots, etc. Watched many, many displays of breeding behaviors...but never any eggs or fry seen...I pretty well gave up hope since our local water is Ph 8.0+, and I didn't want to mess with it further. About a week ago, I suddenly noticed about 20 small fry (about 3/16") swimming around with the female!

Now feeding artemia (Tom auto hatcher - works great!) and crushed flakes, which they devour - and they seem to like the algae in a couple plants as well...growing fast, some are over 1/4" now and actually look like mini cichlids (this is so cool!)...all are fairly see through except for small spots allover. I just seperated the male with a tank divider as he seemed to start taking interes, didn't want to chance them getting eaten, though mom was still chasing him away.

If I can keep them alive, when should I seperate from the female?

How soon can they be sexed? Right now most appear to be males (because of high Ph?), but hard to tell.

Thanks for any comments or other advice...now I remember why I set up this tank...

 

[javoski]

Wow !!! Ph 8.0 ?!!!!
Do you have plants? CO2 would make the ph drop .... or some driftwood or some peat in the filter .... No chemical at all.

If I can keep them alive, when should I seperate from the female?

I am really interested in that question also.
My fry became free swimming last friday. I put the male in another aquarium in the same day ... as the female allowed him to eat a couple of fries. She kept the neons and corys away (in a 200l tank).

Today, I bought a big net hatcherie/breeder ... as soon as the female lose her interest in them, I will move them to the breeder, as I it will make much easier to feed them.

 

[DNash]

I only have one live plant, which seems to be thriving...an Anubias. Rest are plastic. I am aware of the peat thing, and I do have a piece of mopani drifwood in there. I set this aquarium up in my home office (where I work every day), and admittedly haven't had a lot of time to do more than basic maintenance...had good intentions, but the fish seemed healthy and happy anyway, so I was going to just leave it be. These babies are a bonus, and I'll try to do the best I can to keep them alive..maybe even move to another tank when they get bigger, in the meantime the tank divider seems to work well. I will likely move the female to the other side soon.

Good luck with yours.