don't do this!

[peathenster]

She picked up Sunday. One of the fry is still wriggling now, but its tail is missing. All others died on the spot.

This was their second spawning in my tank - I siphoned a few wrigglers out last time when she realeased. I guess I was hoping to "save" more this time.

Learned quite a few things about them, from pre-spawning to the end. Will write it up when I have a chance.

 

[Thedaniokeeper]

yeah man, whatever you call it...the feeling that you did something wrong and can't undo it.

Guilty?

 

[thatcichlidguy]

That's a real bummer, sorry for your loss man. Hopefully they'll spawn again soon .

 

[SusieQ]

Hi Peter... Sorry to hear that... As we all know keeping and raising fish always involves a learning curve of sorts... this is part of it.. You can feel sad but don't feel guilty... They will spawn again and you will have beautiful fry... You are doing a wonderful job with all your very special fish. Sue

 

[balton777]

Mouthbrooding Sevs are really interesting. Can't you leave the fry with the parents for a little while longer?

 

[peathenster]

Mouthbrooding Sevs are really interesting. Can't you leave the fry with the parents for a little while longer?

So this is what happened the first time - I put a divider in there, with both parents on the same side. After 4-5 days the female never released. The male beat up the female real bad overnight. I'm guessing the male wanted some actions too and was getting impatient - these guys should be bi-parental mouth brooders. So I moved the male to the other side (b/c he almost killed the female). The female released immediately and I had a lot of fun watching her and the fry. The problem was that I guess she felt too safe, and let the fry out longer and longer. So much so that some swam through the divider and got eaten immediately. I was able to save a couple by siphoning them out but that was it.

So this time around I left the male on the other side to begin with. After 4-5 days the female started to release but I didn't want to take chances again. And you know the rest...

I guess the perfect solution is to have them spawn in a separate tank (don't want to move them again when she's holding), and take the male out after the female picks up. I'm freeing up a 55 today....not sure what will go wrong next time

 

[balton777]

A 55 sounds like it would be perfect. Maybe remove the male afterwards and just leave the momma and babies. Good luck.

Hey next time could you possibly post a little video footage of them?

 

[peathenster]

Will do, and thanks for the interest.

Posted a couple here http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=232095&page=6

crappy vids but you got the idea

 

[dogofwar]

They'll work it out - great work in getting them to spawn in the first place.

Maybe keeping another fish on the female's side of the divider. Something that's big enough not to get killed and to keep the female vigilant...but doesn't actually represent a threat. Maybe some rainbowfish?

 

[peathenster]

it actually happened once incidentally - a juvie A. heckelii dug a hole under the divider and made it to the other side. The female had her mouth close the whole time, and didn't try to attack. Guess it's hard to bite when she had her mouth full.