Need help with newborn cockatoo fry

[RHS788]

I have a male and two females in a 10 gallon. I have a female who set up camp in a cave made from two clay saucers with a 1/2 hole drilled. I just raised the top one, and there are about 30 tiny fry inside.

The last time I raised the lid with this young female, there were eggs inside and she ate them.

I am totally not prepared for this!
Question: Do I leave them be? I have no microworms and no culture of BBS started (actually have done neither to date).

Do I remove the other female and male or leave them? Should I take out the female with the fry and place in another aq with the same water?

Will the fry make it without my adding some food?

I guess if nothing else, I will start a culture of BBS this evening.

I appreciate any advice. First newborns and I would hate to lose them.

Thanks,

Randy

 

[RHS788]

Update

I just looked under the other cave and the other female also has "wigglers" inside. I am at a loss.

I will make my first attempt at BBS this evening, but I haven't a clue on what to do otherwise. I feel I need to get the females in other tanks with the idea of raising young.

What if I move one female with her fry to another tank, and leave the other in that 10 gallon? Should I move the male out?

Thanks everybody for the input.

 

[Rey82]

I would take the male out because he will usually get beat up by the two females if they have fry. I would also put a divider if you can to seperate both females so they can tend to their fry. Do not bother the fry because this might stress the female to eat her fry. I have had that problem before so now the only time I do that is when I know they have fry in their cave and I move it to a seperate tank. I have over 20 fry at the moment that are getting big fast compared to apistos that I have bought from someone else or were traded.

 

[RHS788]

Thanks, what did you feed them?

 

[Rey82]

I buy Hikari Tropical First Bites and feed the fry a few times a day. Once they get a bit bigger I start feeding them cyclops or daphnia. I used to culture microworms but I have seen the same growth with the foods I see now. I am still working on increasing the survival rate. I usually loose half of the fry group within the first two weeks. Right now I just see it as keeping the healthiest ones. I feed the majority of my fish bloodworms once a week but mostly brine shrimp, daphnia, and cyclops. I would like to train my fish to start eating flake food because it is much cheaper but my fish are really picky.

 

[RHS788]

Thanks, I have heard that many fry respond to the instinct of a moving target, thus BBS or mircroworms are good. I also understand the worms are good because they seem to last longer than BBS.

I appreciate your idea of the first bites food, because I don't know when I will have the other available to me, and I simply want to raise some fry. Thanks for your input, and after a couple weeks I will post how it went on this thread.

Randy