My convict ciclids have recently had fry and they are about 1/2 cm in length (around 5 days old and free swimming). Its all going great, except that the parents are being VERY aggressive towards the other fish. Is it okay if I remove the parents from the tank and let the fry live on their own, or is this a bad idea?
Tank mates are:
6 zebra danio
5 dwarf neon rainbowfish
7 convicts around 4 months old
Yeah.. the other fish will eat the fry in a heartbeat given the chance. the parents are the only things keeping them alive. I'm surprised the parents aren't eating the fry themselves honestly, I wonder if they are wild caught. As previously mentioned the best idea would be to remove the other tankmates if possible. If thats not possible, divide the tank keeping as many fry as possible seperated (expect the rest to be eaten). Otherwise just leave things be and maybe add some hiding spots for the fry.
Thanks guys! where would I be able to find a fish tank divider? I've made a lot of hiding spots for the fry, but they are just staying around the parents!
well - no matter what you do your convicts will breed again in about 3 weeks.... I have already had three batches of eggs and fry.... they are as "christople" says Crazy Good Parents - I would just suggest a good fry fish food - I have been using Hikari First Bites with great success
Hi Etiennehache. I just made a tank divider from instructions posted in the threads here. Cost me $4 ish, since I had part already at home in the office. My tank is a 75 gallon and is 18 W by 20 T.
I bought 2 plastic mesh pieces from Walmart's craft area that were 22" by 13.5" at $1.67 ea. I measured an approximate length and width and trimmed off the excess usiing scissors. I put the seam vertical since I had to fold it a bit to get it down into the tank anyway. I used fishing line to sew the two panels together being careful not to go too close to the bottom incase I had to cut some off or I would cut my knot and it would unravel. Once I had created a full panel, I slid onto the edges vertically, two spines on each side from plastic report covers, cutting off the excess. 4 in all. Now the hard part... I cleared a trench at the quarter mark of the tank. I had to take the spines off, dry it off, twice and cut it down abit. one row at a time so that you don't cut it too small!! Once it was right I piled the gravel against the bottom on both sides to help steady it. I now have my baby Swordtail in there and a pregnant Molly.
Try to shoo out the fish you don't want behind the mesh... my danios kept getting on the wrong side and I still ended up with 3 cory's over there. Hope they won't eat the new baby Mollies. Once I know she has given birth from her shape, I'll catch her and move her over to the big side and all the babies can have the little side. It is NOT pretty but will serve the purpose for now. And it was cheap!!
Also keep it tall, but just below the top rim, as water changes will affect the height and you don't want fish jumping or swimming over if your mesh is not tall enough.
I'm sorry I don't have the thread instructions to post here for you. Try searching DIY tank divider....
Honestly, I don't think first bites should be a mandate food for fry, live bbs, frozen bbs,microworms, daphnia when the get big enough, and egg yolk because it's very high in protein. I don't like feeding the same thing over and over, and brine hatcheries don't cost much, I got one recently
well - I'm new to fish breeding and I don't have any fish stores (other than wal-mart) within 50 miles - so I got what they had... because they were not taking the ground up flake foods...
Thanks everyone for the help! This has helped me so much!
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