Need Advice First Spawn

Asago · Post by **Asago** » Fri Oct 09, 2009 11:57 pm

My F1 spawned a couple weeks ago, I have four that I raised from 1 inch size for 22 months. To my surprise two have paired up and spawned. The male has been in the cave and I have at least one fry in the cave with him. Should I continue regular water changes (about 40% every two weeks)? The male seems to be doing a very good job watching over the fry(s)....should I remove the fry and place in hatchery or leave them be with father? Thanks for the advice.
They are in a 20 gallon long @ 84.4 degrees F, rocks and driftwood, I feed them Kens brine shrimp sticks, earthworm sticks, green sticks, and occasional sera vipachips, there is a colony of snails (which I am sure are occasionally eaten by the zebs) and a small colony of blackworms poking out from under some rocks (which I am sure are feasted on as well).

Joby · Post by **Joby** » Sat Oct 10, 2009 1:24 pm

Congrats on the spawn

Post by **TwoTankAmin** » Sat Oct 10, 2009 3:38 pm

Nice work and I would leave the fry with the parents if possible.

Asago · Post by **Asago** » Sat Oct 10, 2009 11:09 pm

Should I keep up with the regular water changes or let them go a little longer?

jerry58 · Post by **jerry58** » Sat Oct 10, 2009 11:31 pm

Hi Asago

Well done on the spawn

I would keep up regular water changes but make sure if you use cold water or warm the temp of the tank does not change dramatically as small fry are not able to tolerate big changes water temp.
I use 2 air line tubes taped together side by side to siphon out of bucket slowly this works well.
Or just heat water to tank temp then mix in tank.

Hope this helps

Jerry

Asago · Post by **Asago** » Sun Oct 11, 2009 11:05 pm

The male has come out of the cave and I can verify that there are two fry.
Will he continue to protect them or is it a good time to move them to a fry trap? The fry are remaining towards the back of the cave.

Post by **TwoTankAmin** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 1:40 am

I would not use a trap. Let the fry do their own thing.

Asago · Post by **Asago** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 2:00 am

TTA and Jerry thanks for the advice. Now that I can clearly see in the cave, there appears to be 3 fry. I am still in shock that they have spawned so soon, these fish are only a little over two years old. I believe the trigger was a water change just prior to a low pressure system that came through. I am going to leave the fry with the group of adults and let nature take its course.