When to seperate?

[Creature125]

Hi there, just wondering at what age/size do people remove fry from parents? I have a batch of agasizzii fry that are about 3 weeks old now still in with parents. No issues, both parents still caring for fry without any aggression towards each other or the fry. They did spawn again last week but ate the eggs. The tank is about 60 litres. Similar situation with boreli except she currently has a clutch of eggs that will hatch in the next 24hrs but has a batch of fry around 2 weeks old.
Cheers,
Craig

 

[Karin]

Hi Craig

I am in a very similar situation to yours. I have a Borellii batch of around 25 fry or so and a nijsseni/baenschi same old batch fry of around 40. It is very hard to count. They are now three weeks of free swimming stage. It is my first experience so I cannot tell what the most usual procedure is. I can tell what I am doing/going to do.

The borellii female is a great mom although she has kept the male out of the game at a corner of the tank (small tank btw). I am about to set a new bigger tank for the borellii family/pair in the near future. For the moment the fry is doing really ok under mom´s supervision. In the neighbors tank is dad who is in care and mom is not allowed to get even close. The fry is pretty happy around him. He is a great dad, bad husband. Eventually I will take the female out of the tank as soon as I can. I will wait and if signs of aggression to fry starts to take place I will take the fry out at that very moment (giving/selling them up). Hoppe it helps. Let’s wait for other´s answer.

 

[Mike Wise]

Well, there is no hard and fast rule. Some fish attack fry once a new batch of eggs are layed, other will keep fry until they're almost sexually mature. I try to keep the fry with their mother for at least 6 weeks, even longer if I'm not interested in a second batch of fry. The soonest I remove the fry is as soon as I see the female trying to drive the fry from her brood territory.

 

[Creature125]

Thanks for your responses, both of my pairs are great parents and showing no signs of aggression despite the second batch of boreli eggs now hatched and being cared for by both parents. Will keep an eye out for any aggression.
Cheers,
Craig