Lamprologus Ocellatus: Fry in refugium?

[Victorhadin]

Hi guys,

Mini-monster problem here. My Ocellated shelldwellers are in constant breeding mode and seem to synchronize: The last three spawns merged into a single super-group of fry protected by one parent, but just as with the last three spawns, after a couple of months every fry was cannibalised overnight. Very frustrating!

Anyway, I run a 180L Reefsys aquarium with a sump, and I was wondering if I could transfer the next batch of fry to the refugium to grow them out, or would that not likely work? It's about 15cm X 25cm X 25cm so pretty small but I only want to grow them out enough to be too big to eat!

Pics below because pics are nice. ?

 

[Milingu]

The last three spawns merged into a single super-group of fry protected by one parent, but just as with the last three spawns, after a couple of months every fry was cannibalised overnight. Very frustrating!

Totally nomal and expected behaviour. They don't form bredding colonies and the siblings don't help with raising fry. As soon as there are too many fry near the nest or they start becoming a threat to the next batch the parents chase them away. In the limited space of an aquarium this normaly ends with dead or canibalized fry.

 

[fishguy1978]

I ran a CPR sump with a protien skimmer section that I modified as a fry chamber. The only difficulty will be reintroducing to the colony. But would also make it possible to sell/trade to hobbyists/lfs.

 

[Victorhadin]

Thanks guys! There's a new small spawn at the far corner that I might transfer to the refugium in that case. Let's see how this goes. ?

 

[twentyleagues]

I don't see it being a problem, as long as you can stop them from being sucked up in the return pump.

My meelii are terrible parents. I have a day at most to get the babies out or they are gone. I've saved most of 3 batches now interesting fish but it's time to get something more shellie then this "shellie". They need huge shells or better yet caves but the females want shells, problem finding shells big enough for a 5" male to get into.

Anyway I moved the batches I saved to a separate 10g with a sponge filter and some rocks, no substrate. This was very cheap and easy to set up and works well.