A very nice XMAS gift!!!

[jerms55555]

I had 3 spawns back in July and after taking the eggs from the male 3 times, he stopped mating with the female So i just stopped and started to get really busy at work and just left the tank alone and did my regular water changes! Today i was cleaning some of the algae out of the tank and to my surprise i found roughly around 10-15 fry but different sizes!!! So I take it they have been producing this whole time and i have not even taken out the eggs!! So my question is, is it better to let nature take its course and to leave them alone or to take the eggs out???

[McEve]

This has been discussed several times, but I don't think we ever get to agree on this subject

In my opinion: definately let the male take care of eggs and fry, he does it ever so much better than an airstone ever could I also believe the fry feels a lot safer in the cave being taken care of by dad.

I have also noticed that they seem to grow a lot better when raised by dad, but opinions differ here too.

The exeption being if the male is eating batch after batch. The male needs some practize before getting it right, but if he never gets his act together, then I agree one should take the fry about 5 days after the spawn. Otherwise, definately let dad do the job - in my opinion

Sounds to me the male figured it wasn't a safe place to spawn where he used to be, so found another place a bit more hidden away from human busy fingers?

Congrats on new fry

[Caesars]

Congrats from me too!!! Have to agree with McEve, particularly as I recently lost a good number of my BN fry having taken the dad away from them shortly after they started hoping around. This is one of the things I did for the first time and could be the reason for the high mortality rate. I have always left dads with fry and I have never ever had any problems.