L236 Spawn!

Raul-7 · Post by **Raul-7** » Wed May 17, 2006 11:29 pm

This spawn is rather surprising as I haven't done anything special, I just leave them alone as much as I can. Here are some stats-

Tank: JBJ 24G
Decoration: black sand, one cave for alpha male and driftwood for beta male and female.
Feeding: once every 3 nights, lots of food though.
gH: 9
kH: 2 (from humic acid)
TDS: 400 and above (no water changes since setup)

I got my L236's to spawn after about 4 months (I got them in Feb). The male is gaurding the wrigglers fiercly. I tried tilting the cave and shaking it to get the fry out but he managed to keep them all from falling! I'm worried now that he might eat them? What should I do and how can I kidnap his fry succesfully?

HELP!

Post by **Barbie** » Thu May 18, 2006 6:07 am

Why would he eat them now after he's gone to all that work? Just leave them alone. The females shouldn't hurt them. Depending on what kind of cave you have, you can cut the back loose, if need be. They are very fragile at the wiggler stage. I try to leave them in the cave until they're about ready to venture out on their own and I've actually been seriously considering not taking them at all.

Barbie

Raul-7 · Post by **Raul-7** » Thu May 18, 2006 7:09 am

Barbie wrote:Why would he eat them now after he's gone to all that work? Just leave them alone. The females shouldn't hurt them. Depending on what kind of cave you have, you can cut the back loose, if need be. They are very fragile at the wiggler stage. I try to leave them in the cave until they're about ready to venture out on their own and I've actually been seriously considering not taking them at all.

Barbie

I thought they are like Cichlids, they eat the fry if they feel threatened -by me trying to raid in and kidnap his fry I thought he might do it!

He is very persistent in keeping them in, there probably about 15-20 fry all about 1/2" long, I even tried flipping the cave 90 degrees and turned him upside down (zebra046's suggestion). Not even one wriggler sneaked through after 5 minutes of constant shaking! I guess I'll leave them alone, I'm just worried that a lot of them will die with my periodic feedings. But do they venture out as soon as they loose their sacs or does he still hang onto them?

I guess the general consesus is that the father takes care of them much better than we can ever try to. I'll wait untill I find them out and about before taking them away.

Raul-7 · Post by **Raul-7** » Fri May 26, 2006 6:24 am

Just an update; they are finally starting to come out into the open.

Should I leave them in with the colony or put them in a breeder? They look a little thin, what should I feed them? I feed the whole coloy pellets - will they watch and learn or does everything need to be bite-size?

Here's a picture (almost an inch long)-

Mindy · Post by **Mindy** » Fri May 26, 2006 8:11 am

From my limited experience, I would say to leave the babies in with the colony for now. With my first zebra spawn, I had to put the newly hatched babies (and a couple eggs) into a breeder because the dad had abandoned them in the cave. I raised them just fine, or so I thought, until I saw one a while later that had escaped from the breeder without me realising. It was much bigger and meatier than the babies I was raising myself. With this last spawn, I have just left them alone. I don't get the impression the adults are interested in eating them or causing them any harm at all. And dad is quite protective anyway. My last batch of fry are several weeks old now I have not intervened in any way, and they look gorgeous and healthy. I, personally, would always leave them to be raised the natural way, by their own kind - unless circumstances dictated otherwise.

As far as feeding, now that my fry are starting to go on little adventures in the tank, I am careful not to add bloodworm or big foods they could choke on. But I don't feel worried about catfish pellets/wafers as these are processed and dissolve into soft food that can basically be scraped away. And the babies can learn to live and eat within a colony of their own kind, which I can't help but think is a good thing.

These are just my own opinions.

Raul-7 · Post by **Raul-7** » Sat May 27, 2006 2:50 am

Thanks Mindy! I left them in there with the colony, only one casuality so far (got torn apart in the powerhead

). The rest seem to be out and about all over the glass, they seem to like bathing in the current.

Is this food in their belly?

inia · Post by **inia** » Sat May 27, 2006 9:54 am

Yes, that's food in the belly. Seems very healthy young fish.

Dale90g · Post by **Dale90g** » Sat May 27, 2006 4:54 pm

Good job and congrats!! Sorry about losing the one - not sure how it is set up, but maybe you can put a prefilter sponge or wrap a pad around the intake to keep that from happening again. With the sponge, you might have to clean it often, I've used pads and seem to last a while before the can be rinsed out or replaced. In any case, sounds like you are doing pretty well.