Well I pulled the fry from the 2 males tonight. The big male had 12 this time, and the first timer had 5. I'm sure both of them had more fry when they first hatched, so I'm considering pulling them as soon as they all get hatched out next time. What does everyone else do? Or do you take them at all?
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Dr. P
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Being that yesterday was my males first batch of fry I decided to leave them in beside the others for the moment. I'd rather give them the chance to raise the fry on their own, however, this is a trial run for both me and the Zebbies so I'll see how things go.....if things goes belly up, I'll be more inclined to move them next time.
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Hi Glockfu and welcome to the forum.
This topic has been discussed previously in passing in a few threads, but I agree it is worthy of further discussion.
There really isn't a right and wrong thing to do, what you decide to do is really based on your male zebra's parental skills or your own personal preference.
Some members here prefer to let nature take it's course and let the male take care of things. This is only really productive if the male displays good parental care for the eggs/fry. Some males do not and are prone to eating eggs/fry in which case it is best to remove the fry as soon as possible.
Other members prefer to remove the fry from the male, regardless of his parental skills, at the newly hatched "wriggler" stage so as to increase the chances of survival and maximise the brood size.
If you decide to take the fry from the male it really is best done at the newly hatched "wriggler" stage. Up until then it is very difficult to artificially provide the same parental care for the eggs as the male would. It will be extremely difficult to remove fungused eggs from the tightly packed egg mass without damaging the other eggs, as I found out when I lost an entire clutch to fungus that I was trying to artificially hatch. Also the male appears to assist in the hatching process by eating through the shell of eggs where the fry are having difficulty hatching.
At the end of the day it really is down to what you feel most comfortable with or what provides the best results for you.
Regards.
Adam
This topic has been discussed previously in passing in a few threads, but I agree it is worthy of further discussion.
There really isn't a right and wrong thing to do, what you decide to do is really based on your male zebra's parental skills or your own personal preference.
Some members here prefer to let nature take it's course and let the male take care of things. This is only really productive if the male displays good parental care for the eggs/fry. Some males do not and are prone to eating eggs/fry in which case it is best to remove the fry as soon as possible.
Other members prefer to remove the fry from the male, regardless of his parental skills, at the newly hatched "wriggler" stage so as to increase the chances of survival and maximise the brood size.
If you decide to take the fry from the male it really is best done at the newly hatched "wriggler" stage. Up until then it is very difficult to artificially provide the same parental care for the eggs as the male would. It will be extremely difficult to remove fungused eggs from the tightly packed egg mass without damaging the other eggs, as I found out when I lost an entire clutch to fungus that I was trying to artificially hatch. Also the male appears to assist in the hatching process by eating through the shell of eggs where the fry are having difficulty hatching.
At the end of the day it really is down to what you feel most comfortable with or what provides the best results for you.
Regards.
Adam
Last edited by Adam on Tue Jul 26, 2005 2:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
Thanks Adam... That was a really clear explination. My first batch of babies I didn't even know about untill I saw them sucking on the glass. I think they were already 3-4 weeks old by the time I found them and I've counted 5. I guess it's just trial and error, hopefully they'll start spawning on a regular basis so I can try the different methods out 
