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Gump said:
goldfish+CAE=bad day for goldfish.
That was before, Gump. The time that I knew nothing about fish.:dunno: :wink2:
 
Discussion starter · #23 ·
I think what I have must be an entirely different species because I've had them for a year and a half and they've never bothered anyone in the tank. Tried out one of the gold algae eaters who has a really great disposition in the HRP tank - and so far mom has nipped at his fins a couple of time when he gets a little too close to the cave with the fry (though he's only interested in sucking on the glass). Dad hasn't reunited with mom yet, but I'm hoping. If all goes well, I will see if I can catch another one or two tomorrow. If "suckyface" does ok with mom and dad, then maybe I can eventually get the tank cleaned up. It may be risky to some degree, but so far so good - all seem to get along fair enough. No real aggression at all, in fact no flaring whatsoever yet.
 
Discussion starter · #24 ·
Well, a few days later and here's what the tank looks like - mom and dad now have about 48 fewer fry - moved to the nursery tank. There's a rainbow shark (Bully), who's being punished for being ugly with his fellow rainbow shark (Bashful), one gold algae eater (Pokey), a Neon Rainbowfish (kinda runty), and a Bosemani Rainbowfish. Dad had a bug up his butt for all but Pokey - but after a couple of days together, he seems to welcome their companionship. The rainbowfish haven't gotten used to the tank and such yet, just kinda hanging out in the powerhead current doing nothing. Mom on the other hand, really doesn't like Pokey (the only one that dad at first didn't dislike). So we divided the tank and each HRP took several other fish and declared a regular game of chase - but it almost seems that once mom isn't guarding fry, she too will become more of a community fish as dad is doing.

My only question now is to remove the rest of the fry or not - I'm fearing a bad case of "post partum depression" for mom if they all are gone. She seems to be such a good mumsy. Any advice from you guys?
 
saganco said:
My only question now is to remove the rest of the fry or not - I'm fearing a bad case of "post partum depression" for mom if they all are gone. She seems to be such a good mumsy. Any advice from you guys?
:bluelaugh: Post partum depression on fish?:checkedout: :mrgreen:
Nope. That won't happen. She will only assume she lost the fry naturally(death, predation, etc). She will go back to her usual activity when she sees she no longer has the fry. At least in my experience, cichlids don't bother too much looking for the fry after losing them.
 
Discussion starter · #26 ·
Ooooh! Good news! :thumbsup: As good a mom as she is - fiercely guarding and herding them, I was afraid that she would get weird on me if I took them all. So this morning I caught another 15, with only about 6 or so left (hopefully one more netting will do it). I can't wait to see her be "just a fish" instead of a "hungry but won't eat - baby tender"! I know she's really hungry after a little over two weeks of hardly eating anything for fear of moving a few inches from the babies. Got to say, this little gal is a great mom.

Thanks BLUE!
 
Discussion starter · #27 ·
New brood - new questions!

Well, it's been a while for me to visit this post, and now brood number two is free swimming all over the tank with mom and dad bullying the other tank inhabitants just because they are there - but nothing serious or harmful.

My new question is this (always have to have more questions as a newbie!)... the HRP family needs to move to our smaller 40g tank soon and the fun of catching all those babies just thrills me to death :sick:
So when I start catching the little buggers, should I put one of the parents in the new tank before putting the babies so they can start doing the parent thing right off the bat? And if I don't catch them all the first go round (and I doubt I will), then leave the other parent in with the remaining little ones until I've caught all of them? That way, each group of babies has a parent to protect and help them...

And the last question of the day is... how long can I leave the little ones in the tank with the parents safely? I want to delay the next spawning and I'm hoping that having a houseful of kids running crazy will take them out of the mood so to speak!

Thanks everyone, you guys are SOOOOO helpful!
 
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