Odd....Is this normal..?

[Rod Coleman]

Well, a couple of days ago they spawned yet again and after they had tended the eggs for 24 hours with the 10 babies on the mother's back the male got agitated and ate the babies. The babies survived one batch of eggs laid after they hatched but not the second.

Oh, well - let's see what happens this time-


I think a lot of egg and fry-eating behaviour comes down to reproductive instincts that urge the fish to try to maximise their reproduction. If conditions don't seem so good for hatching or survival of babies or the batch is small they probably gain an overall advantage in nature by eating them and trying again. In the wild, there would surely be a high predation rate so getting a large number of fry to independance would be critical.


Regards
Rod

[Smokey]

They certainly are!
Excallant point rod. In the wild, I'm sure the fry tend to ''drift'' away. And if ma/paw tries to eat them they will scoot away, pretty fast. Plus, there is alot more ''hiding'' stuff. roots,grass,plants,etc.
In a closed unit, just where can a fry hide !!!!

What I have done in the past - is set up two or three egg crate barriers, spaced about 1'' apart. at one end of the tank... This is where I 'feed''. The fry have to go into the eggcrating too feed. A bit of java moss helps, also.

After a bit the fry tend too stay there. safe and secure.

And the parents seem more relaxed. Mind you if the fry come too close to a new batch of eggs/fry the parents will ''charge'' them.
At least the fry have some place to feel secure!!!

Smokey

[Rod Coleman]

That's an interesting idea, Smokey, to create a fry refuge - a nice touch to give a little bit more of natural habitat for the babies. I imagine it would be fun observing how the babies react. At the moment I have some blue turq babies in a pastic tub. They spend most of their time sheltering behind the sponge filter and come out to graze on the bbs.

I had to pull those turq babies a week ago when the parents got really aggressive after 6 days of side-feeding. It's amazing how resilient the babies are when the parents charge each other and spin in circles, attacking the flank of their partner. The babies go flying in the melee but immediately zoom back to the parents instead of hiding in a corner like you might expect. In fact it seemed like the male was making mock attacks on the babies with increasing intensity. Occasionally he actually got one in his mouth but spat it out. The parents got very agitated and couldn't leave each other alone but I was the first to crack and siphoned the babies off. After that they immediately calmed down. Yesterday they hatched a new batch - the honeymoon's not over yet. ;D

Back to the pb x cobalt pair that ate their 10 babies the other day - now they have hatched their new eggs and this time have about 35 wigglers on the spawning site. So discus logic seems to work!

Regards
Rod