Would this combination of cichlids work ok?

saganco

I have to wonder what the EASIEST way to catch the fry - their numbers are dwindling badly. Doesn't seem that mom is eating them, if so she's being very selective (sick ones maybe?). More likely they are dying from something or someone else is sneaking in and grabbing a few here and there.

How badly would mom and dad freak if I COULD manage to get down 24" to the bottom and snag them? Should I just take a fairly large net and scoop gravel, java moss, everything around them and then take that to the other tank? I'm looking for the least stressful way to do this - for everyone... ME, the HRP parents, and the fry.

I don't want to loose more and I can't figure out where they are going.

Lupin

What are your water parameters? Seems your water parameters may have gone wrong, fry trapped under substrate or were sucked by your filter(if it was not sponge). If you still have the 40 gallons vacant, you can try moving the fry there. Make it sure it's bare-bottom and operated only by a sponge filter.

saganco

Well, I caught about 48 of the little rascals! Used the java moss rock in a net and waited till it was "visited" by a bunch of them. Still have around 20 with mom - wonder if I should just leave them with her. I was rather hoping that she would start eating more, wandering the tank more, and make up with hubby if the family was gone. The babies are SOOOO happy in the new tank - they are just swimming everywhere - mom wouldn't let them move more than a few inches at a time! Freedom is tasting pretty good to them now, but come bedtime... they may be crying "I want my mama"!

Params are good (only exception being the nitrite at .50). They are in the planted nursery tank now (10g) that has lots of good biological stuff on the sponge filter for them to eat. The big tank with mom has a sponge prefilter, so that wasn't it. I have to wonder if someone has been snacking while everyone was asleep... But maybe there aren't as many as I first thought missing after catching as many as I did... Guess I'll never know since I couldn't count them before...

Do you think I should catch the rest (or as many as possible), or leave all the rest with mom. Empty nest - or just a reduced nest??

Lupin

Catch all of them if you want to raise them.:) Good luck.

saganco

I caught all but two!! Only problem is that since she still has the two, she's still defending half the tank from everyone and not eating much. Oh well, guess it will all work out in the end...

I ended up with around 70 little fry in the nursery tank now! Hope most of them grow big and strong and make me some hobby money now :P