Got fry... what now?

[Wilfried]

Need advice with fry... a few weeks ago a friend gave me some apistos. (See: https://www.apistogramma.com/forum/threads/need-help-with-id.23400/) To my
surprise yesterday I found quite a big batch of fry swimming around and the
smallest female beating up all other which happened to come close... So,
what now? So far I took out two fish which seemed to be males, there still
is the biggest male with two females in the 10-gal tank, each of which took
possession of a coconut. I started feeding brine shrimp and can see all the
fry with orange belly... so, just wait and see? Can the male stay together
with the two females? How long may the fry stay in the tank with the
parents? Suppose there will be new batches every several weeks... What
advice can you give this fish keeper who never got to breed other than some
guppies half a century ago... By the way, I've read several articles
about breeding apistogramma... all tell how to set up a tank to get fry,
but none tells what to do when you got the fry...

 

[Mike Wise]

Your tank is rather small. You will probably find it a challenge to keep a trio + fry in it for long. I'd expect losses of many of the fry unless you really work at keeping the water quality high. As for the adults, a brooding female can be rough on other fish in a small tank.