Free swimmer question

[Melissa]

I have a new RT and spotted leopard pair with a couple hundred babies that are breaking away from the cone today... This is their first spawn. The male, the RT, seems agitated trying to collect all of the babies to put back on the cone, and he swims away quickly when a few begin to gather on him. The female leopard is a little calmer.. But still trying to put them back on the cone too lol. anyway, my question is concerning the males behavior. From any of you experienced breeders... Do you think his behavior is indicating he'll probably eat them and he's not ready? He's really not tolerating them pecking at him. I know there's no way to predict what will happen, I'm just curious about other peoples experience with new parents and if there is any way to tell if the parent is just not ready..... ?

[deepflyball]

Well i havent had the male do this, but the female yes. They have all settled down in a few days with no problems. The problem i some tines get is one of the 2 want then all. I have new fry right now on my LSSs and the male fights her off of the fry. Hes put her up in a corner of the tank and will not let her near the fry. Its always something LOL Jerry

[Melissa]

Lol no kidding huh? When this pair had wrigglers I saw them fighting over who guarded them... I came back a little later to find the group of wrigglers separated into two different spots on the cone... Each parent had their group to guard and seemed much happier. Made me laugh! They can be so funny sometimes.

I couldn't stop looking into the tank and bugging them over this... I keep wondering if they're going to turn on the fry... So I just put up a white piece of paper on the front to stop myself... I'll look in on them tomorrow morning I think. It's so hard sometimes to just step back and let them sort things out themselves!

[alan j t]

one of my discus parents do the same thing, always buggin out for nothing

[nc0gnet0]

It's not unusual behaviour, nor do I think it's indicative of wether or not he may eat them later. Once the free swimmers start to laeave in mass they will give up placing them back onto the cone. The fact that they are not eating them yet is a good sign, but if it's a young pair there is no telling what may happen later.

[Melissa]

That makes sense, thanks nc0gnet0.

They originally had 100+ wrigglers, and before they became free swimming I moved about 60 wrigglers from my other pair of white butterfly / white scorpion throwbacks To this group because it was their first spawn too, and I wanted to avoid attachment issues if they were going to have any because they are so light. I figured the RT x leopard pair had a better chance of success. So this is a mixed group! I hope they succeed!

Almost a month ago I had another pair care for their first spawn... These two new ones are siblings of that first pair... Maybe good parenting skills will run in the family! Lol

Here's to hoping.