good time to separate parents from fry???

[nc0gnet0]

Rick - the last batch of fry I had numbered well over 200 and the parents were on the verge of being in trouble at day 12. Yea, it definitely depends on the parents and all that, but this pair had had batches nearing 200 before and I had no problem then to 3 or 4 weeks as you say. It's always something to keep an eye on with big batches of I guess, at least from my recent experience.

Like I said, I am not saying it can't happen, just (knock wood) I haven't had an issue with it yet. Although my largest batch to date is 125, they stayed in with dad until 5-6 weeks, and had stopped feeding from him completely by week three. They did attack Al's FDBW though. I only really had to remove dad as they babies were just out growing the tank. I wonder what it is that make it that some batches are weened of the parents early, while others still try to feed from the parents slime coat? Could it be not enough other food?

I usually feed the young ones 4x a day with BBS, and mix a little golden pearls in there 1x a day (not really a big fan of the pearls though). The parents get FDBW exclusively when with fry, and I can tell when the fry are ready to be taken off the BBS as they slowly lose interest in it and spend more time eating mom and pop's food. They then get slowly introduced to beefheart and anges plus growth flake.

Rick

Rick

[Odette]

Our fry 9 days old and parents flicking them off constantly, they won't eat BBS only off parents. How do I encourage them to eat food rather than off parents?