Pelvicachromis pulcher spawned

[FishSoup]

i had bought a pair of P. pulchers on a whim from c328 a couple of weeks back, just for the heck of it.. next thing i know, the female was displaying to the male. then suddenly kept attacking him, so i took him out 2 days ago.

This morning i gazed bleary-eyed at the tank and suddenly realised a cloud of fry (i think easily about 100) swimming below the proud mum

I'm now cycling my old two footer to house the fry when they get a little bit bigger...

Just wondering, when is a good time to take the fry out?

I'm presently feeding the fry sera micron.. do you guys think its suitable?

Really hope for a good survival rate on these little guys

[Cacatuoides]

Good to have a bunch of java moss for the fries to take cover and feed on the micro-organisms....best is to feed live bbs!!

congrats on your spawn...this species spawns easily without much special needs

[FishSoup]

Thanks i'm hoping that my Ap. agassizii will be the next to spawn though i think i'll have a while more to wait, as the female is still so small

[Cacatuoides]

Focus on conditioning your fish well by proper feeding and nutritions, better to have a healthy breeding pair

[Ah_ZhaN]

Awesome! You house the pair alone or together with any west african tank-mates ?

[stormhawk]

Just feed the fry with BBS and live Daphnia. They will grow big very very fast.

[FishSoup]

Ah_ZhaN : Used to house the pair in a tank with a few neons and a trio of celebes rainbows.. however, upon spawning, the female promptly killed the neons, as well as 2 of my wood shrimp .. thankfully i managed to shift the celebes rainbows out before they got massacred.

Stormhawk: i really want to get daphnia, but i have no idea where to buy them.. you know of any sources?

[stormhawk]

I did get 2 bags of daphnia from Y618 when I was there 2 days ago to purchase a German Ram pair. Y932 sells them too, but stocks finish early at times. Some people told me that Redhill has a LFS that sells them, but you need to call in advance. Supposedly C328 has them too, but I have not seen them. Maybe they are sold out by the time I arrive.

Anyway, the freshest Daphnia that I have bought so far, has to be from Y932.

[FishSoup]

Thanks! i'll have to make a trip down to take a look then

Its weird, but the fry seem to be decreasing in number from what originally looked like maybe 100 fry, now there only seems to be fewer, maybe 50 fry... could the mother be eating them? But she still seems to be taking good care of them!

[FishSoup]

Do krib parents cull or eat dead fry?

I was observing the mother with her fry today, when i saw her take one into ther mouth, and when she spat it out it was dead.. she then proceeded to take in into her mouth again and swallow it

Is this normal? Is she eating her fry? i want to remove her, but i'm unsure about how to take care of the fry once she's taken out

[FishSoup]

Okay, its definite this time.. the mother took two live wriggling fry into her mouth, and when she spat them out, they were dead. She then swallowed the corpses. I removed her immediately, and now am left with a skittish female in my quarantine tank and maybe 40 babies left in the main tank.

Any tips on how to care for the fry? Sigh. Am at a loss here. Will they die without the care of their mother?

[illumnae]

i've raised apisto fry without their parents before from day 2, so it's doable i guess. i used decapsulated brine shrimp eggs to feed them (or you could use live bbs if you're free enough to hatch them and subscribe to the 'live is better' theory) and just waited for them to grow

[FishSoup]

hmm.. okay. I'll try to raise them on daphnia, sera micron, and crumbled flake food.. my only worry now is the babies are all spread out over the heavily planted tank, so i can't really administer the food at their exact locations... will this be a problem?

Dang. Everything was going so well til today