bad dad

[MrsE88]

My green terror pair has spawned 4x now. The first 3 never made it more then a few days after hatching. I'm fairly positive it is from fungus overwhelming and killing them off.

The only difference this time around has been that I had added salt to the tank the day they spawned.

Now the fry are a week old and free swimming. They look great, but numbers have dropped down to a little over a dozen. Mostly from the dad eating them whenever he can sneak over.

Is this something he will outgrow? Or do some dads always eat their young?
Only a few have been eaten by other tank mates.

Some pictures
Greenie and the fry

The fry

 

[pops]

male cichlids will eat there young to get them out of there so they can get the female to spawn again and remove the competition. I would use a divider after spawn or pull them out and put in a nursery tank.

 

[robham777]

If you want to raise some of the fry, the best thing you can do is cycle a sponge filter in the main tank and have a 10 or 20 gallon nursery tank on hand. Once the fish are free swimming, siphon some of them out and place them in the fry tank with the sponge filter. Leave a few for the parents to take care of, and always monitor the interactions between the parents after breeding for signs of the male getting overly aggressive. If he starts harassing the female incessantly be ready to divide the tank. From my experiences with it, each time they breed the results can be different. He may continue to eat the fry, or stop for a while, or stop altogether.

 

[MrsE88]

pops That makes sense. I thought it was mostly due to him being young still. He is 4" and she is 6". I've only had him a couple months, but they wasted no time spawning regularly.

robham777 Im not planning on saving any fry at this time. I'm not set up for it.
I was just always see pictures and videos of both green terror parents caring for fry and was wondering if my male will ever help out.
I was hoping this was a behavior he'd grow out of. It would be nice to see them working together instead of him staying on his side of the tank.

 

[RampageRR]

It is entirely possible he changes his behavior with the fry a few more batches in. I've had some pairs (diff cichlids, but same idea) that ate their fry the first 2-3 times then never had an issue again. If your male's only 4", he's still young and learning.

 

[MrsE88]

RampageRR I hope that is the case with him. This is their 4th spawn, but the first time the fry have made it to the free swimming stage. Before this he has only snuck a few eggs while spawning.

 

[aztsm]

My larger pair of GT spawned while I was on vacation. Going on 3 days free swimmers with a cloud of about 300 large. No signs of either eating their young yet. My male is 7" and female around the 4-5 range. The male didn't do much but stay out of the way until they were free swimmers. Now he helps guard the fry but very little.

I'm sure maturity and experience has a role on how soon they start getting picked off, but I'm pretty positive they will get eatin eventually. Just the nature of the beast.

I did put a few into a growout tank. My young pair are about to spawn too. Going to keep a few from both I think, will see.

It would be nice to see some off spring of your two beauties.

 

[MrsE88]

aztsm Thanks. You are likely right that maturity and experience effect how they are as parents.
Their numbers dropped down to only 6 this afternoon so I took them out. I have no fry food so just crushed flakes for now in a planted tank.

Thats awesome that yours are doing so well! Be sure to post pics of any you grow out

 

[DarylMac]

I'd give it time MrsE88. Once you're ready to raise some fry see how it goes - if he's still eating them you won't have to wait long for another spawn - at that point you can pull them.

 

[MrsE88]

DarylMac I do still have five fry in my little tank. I brought my moms pleco down last sat so it freed the tank up just in time.
It's pretty entertaining watching them eat the tinny little things moving on the glass. I can't remember what they are called. But the little ones go nuts over hunting them down.

And you are right, it won't be long before they spawn again. Maybe another week and we will see how he does.
Depending on how these five do I may or may not pull some from the next batch.