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Hi Everyone!
Got a lovely little batch of fry!

Not sure of how many, as they have not been let out yet, but could be up to 8 I estimate.
Really happy cant believe Ive got such a loyal male on my first spawning.

Looking at the fry I would say that they have nearly used up their yolk sac, but no sign of the male letting them out.
Will he let them out to feed?
What do you suggest. Im just concerned about them starting to feed.
Are they ok just to be left in the main tank or do I need to put them in a fry trap?

Will they just eat the same as all the other adults or should I be hatching some brine shrimp and squirting them in the cave.

Would really welcome any suggestions or previous experiences, as I would be sad to loose them at this stage.

Hopefully All I have to do is leave them to it, as I dont want to tamper too much.

Also been shining a torch in the cave far more than I feel is ok, but this has had no negative effects so far.

Can already see the female sizing him up again, ready for another encounter!


Thanks everyone

It depends, there is no one answer that fits all. Let us check PROs and CONs of removing fry and keeping fry in the tank.

Option a) Remove fries from caves
PROs
1) You can count exactly how many fries you have. And I bet it will exceed your estimate of 8
2) If there are more than 1 gravid female, you may get more spawns from different females, instead of the 1 month 1 spawn, you may get 2 spawns in a month.
3) You will learn how to rear fries and improve your hobby interest.
4) You will come home early to take care of your fries and hence lesser social activities, which translate into more saving in this economy crisis.
CONs
1) You will need to resume the role of zebra DAD and this is really a chore, do you have time for it?
2) You are likely to start losing fries, especially if you are not experience in caring for fries
3) You will start counting how many you lost, but this is all learning curve.
4) You will need more tanks
5) You may disturb the male and he will not spawn for at least a few weeks.

Option b) Leave the fries alone
PROs
1) They will probably survive better since they had survive for the past 3 weeks.
2) No need to worry about doing extra works, such as parenting role or add extra tanks
CONs
1) If the male is busy taking care of fries, he may not have the interest to mate. If you are a father yourself taking care of young children, you will understand what i mean.


In both cases, you will lose sleep for sure, cos you will be excited by it

Hope others can chip in to advise more on this.

Hi
I use a custom trap which holds the dads cave eggs and all when they are released from the cave they are all safe and I just pop dad back into the main tank in his cave, I grow the fry on in here for a while until they are bigger then put them back in the tank it works for me.

I have found that fry will always grow bigger and faster when left in the breeder tank and with the dad. I prefer never to use a trap unless it is to rescue eggs accidentally ejected. For me the best thing about spawning plecos is that they do all the work. I am always just pleased as punch to get a spawn and don't care how many there might be

That said, I do have several growout tanks because I never want to risk losing all my fish due to a tank disaster.

However, there are plenty of folks on this forum who use traps regularly with good results. It really is a question of what you find the most effective way to deal with things.

Dads do not raise their offspring to free swimming only to have them starve to death. Usually the fry will leave on their own in order to explore and find food as soon as the dad lets them (because they are ready). However, just like human kids, some fry hate to "leave the nest" and the dad will kick them out. However, you may notice initially that some of them will return to the cave to overnight, but dad wont stand for this for very long.

And a big congrats on the spawn

Thanks very much for the advice.
I have decided that my safest option is to leave them in the main tank.

I squrt the inside of the cave with a syringe with adult brineshrimp which I have mashed up and mixed with tank water hope this will do the trick cos I never have much luck hatching the baby brineshrimp, always end up with about a 20% hatch rate.
Is it essential that they eat baby brine shrimp?

Still can't stop looking in the cave! Cant believe my luck!

Im ready for the next challenge now!
Any one know where I can get some l98, l173 in the UK?

thanks

I bet its a wonderful site to look into the cave and see those precious little stripey babies

Good luck with them

I just feed my fry that are left in the main tank the same as the adults, just crushed smaller.
They do fine on this & grow very quickly.
Some fry I move to a bare bottom tank & feed a variety of crushed food & micro worm, these are ideal as they live in the water for 12 hours & the zebs eat them from the bottom.