to fry or not to fry

[Nicole]

Hi, I'm a brand new cockatoo dwarf owner (2 months). I have 2 males and two females. I abosolutely love these fish, I could sit and watch them for hours!
Anyways, I have a few questions about spawning and fry. Recently the female turned a bright yellow and began guarding her cave. I knew from all the reading I've done on this site (thank you) that she most likely had eggs within. About a week later I saw a group a fry beneath her in the gravel. They looked really healthy and mom was doing a great job guarding them (dad was helping out also). I feed them some mashed flake food twice that evening and it appeared as though they were eating. The next day I checked the tank to see how they were and they were gone. Mom was still guarding her territory but there were no fry. They are in a 75 g. community tank with tetras and I assumed the other fish nabbed them at night when mom could not see as well. Am I right?
Is there anything I can do to prevent this in the future? I've heard a night light helps.
Should I siphon the fry out with airline tubing and keep them in a 10g. with a sponge filter?
Initially I did not intend on breeding or raising fry-but I really love these fish so here I am.
Thanks
Nicole H.

 

[farm41]

A night light will do wonders, mom can't protect them when she can't see them. Good luck, I know you're hooked now.

 

[aspen]

nicole if you want to raise a decent sized spawn to adulthood, you should move the pair to a 20 gal spawning tank with a few oto's or other fish that are not egg or fry predators. you can pull the parents when they are big enough, say 1/4". almost all tetras and other fish would love to eat fry over flake.

rick