These fish are freaking me out

I've got this s/s pair. They've had a few successful spawns. I had to remove the male a couple of times as he got ticked off at the fry and would start attacking them. At least that's what it looked like. The last time he did that I removed him after 1 day of free-swimming. That put the burden on the female. A week later she'd had enough and ate all the fry that night. Now they've got a new spawn going. I tried artificial feeding with the last spawn with no success on my part so I'm trying it with the pair this time, but I'm prepared to remove the fry at any time. I'm hoping to get through 5 days of side-feeding. I noticed when the fry began free-swimming that there were a good 50 left on the cone. Then an hour later the cone was clean. I assumed the male got tired of waiting and ate what was left. That night there were barely any fry. There should have been about 100-150 so I assumed they'd eaten them again. It turns out the fry were hiding God knows where. And based on the numbers I'd say the remaining free-swimmers either went off the cone on their own or the pair removed them and spat them out. This morning I noticed the bulk of fry were sitting at the bottom of the tank in the corner. As I was cleaning other tanks I saw the male go down into the corner and started eating as many fry as he could catch. He wasn't attacking, just sucking them up. I immediately got out a siphon, prepared to fill a 10g tank for artificial rearing. Before I could start moving water I saw the male go to the cone and breathe out a ton of fry. The fry swam to his sides and started feeding. You learn something every day with these guys. I'm still wary and ready to remove fry at any time, I've got bbs going and I'm supplementing their feeding with Mike Reed's food as the fry are not on the pair for much time. Hopefully they will get the job done and I will allow them to do it. It's tough to watch sometimes though.

Dave

[Carol_Roberts]

I know how you feel Dave. I keep trying to do all the right things and they just ignore me and go about their business. I just pulled the two fry my PBxSS raised for three weeks. Maybe now he will fertilize eggs again ??? (she laid every week - he ignored her)

[brewmaster15]

A day in the life a discus Hobbyist! Been there too ...

Good luck to both of you!!!

-al
ps...
Dave sorry The artificial didn't work out for you.

It worked in the sense that I got to see how long fry can live without eating. That takes some of the stress off when you see fry not attaching. And since I have the artificial rearing setup I feel more confident removing the fry early. It's all good knowledge, odds are I'll try it again.

Dave