Viejita Gold spawn

[matti2uude]

My Viejita Golds have spawned but when I checked on the today an L260 pleco have taken over the cave with the fry still in it. The fry seem to be fine stuck to the roof of the cave. The pleco doesn't seem to be bothering them.
Do you think the fry will be ok as long as they don't get eaten?

 

[Baronofski]

Congrats!
Still waiting on mine, as of late the female has been displaying some great colour.Let's see what a water change on the weekend does.

When and if anything does happen I was going to separate the mother with the fry and raise them alone.Maybe you can consider doing that eventually?

Goodluck, interested in seeing how this goes for ya.

 

[matti2uude]

When I checked on them last night I couldn't see any fry. Next time can I take the cave with the fry and put it in a fry saver?

 

[Mike Wise]

A community tank is not a place to breed fish; that's what breeding tanks are for. I would move the apistos to a separate breeding tank when I wanted to breed them. Otherwise leave them where they are and let nature take its course. To answer your question, yes you could remove the cave and artificially hatch and raise the fry. You will find that without a female to care for them fewer eggs/larvae will become freeswimming and that the fry will grow slower once they become freeswimming. Females do a lot of work to produce a batch of fry. It is much easier to allow the female to do the work.