Can a female be too protective of her young?

[pmtuneman13]

My female fh has been an excellent mom. She is extremely protective. She has about a 12" diameter attack circle. She keeps her 6 day old fry within this circle. She is constantly moving her fry and I am afraid that cannot be good for the little fish. So can a mom be too controlling and actually start to maim the little fry? Should I remove the mom and place her back with her mate? He is about two inches smaller than her and not very mean.

I have about 250 - 300 little ZZ Fh X H. Cyanoguttatum.(A pleasant accident)
She tries to keep them in or near the pot.

 

[davo]

It's just parenting. I'd let it be. Probably is worse when you are there.

 

[pmtuneman13]

And one more question... how many fry can I realistically expect to live?


Thanks

 

[Mystix212]

If they had a brood of 1000. 1000 can live. 10 May also live. Dpends. But idealy, perhaps 60%.

 

[MOMO]

i believe they can.before i had a female and she would not let the fry out of the bowl so they could not eat

 

[Fish on Fire]

Well . . . usually parents will crush up food for their fry and sift it through their gills/ mouths for the fry to eat. Don't know how your fry couldn't eat, lol.

 

[Mystix212]

Use a thick end plastic syringe then put the BBS, flakes, daphina etc in the syringe. Then squirt into the bowl.

 

[pmtuneman13]

Thanks everyone... It appears that she has given up on herding the fry. She is now more focused on feeding them. She keeps moving the rocks around and stirring up the little food particles. I only saw her hurt 4 or 5 fry by moving them... not bad considering how many times she moved the little guys. So far, so good with her parenting skills. I'm rather amazed at how good they are actually. I'll keep you posted as the fry mature. I am interested in seeing how these guys color up.

 

[Mystix212]

Flowerhorns colour up late IMO. About 4-5" before you start seeing something to impress you.

 

[pmtuneman13]

My little ZZ was deep red at 1 1/2". Only some Flowerhorns color late. It is mainly diet and water conditions... She was fed New Life Spectrum from the start. But she has definitely gotten fuller and richer in color, developing the blues a little later.