Geophagus Tapajos Orange Head breeding behavior?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
its been 5 days since they picked up their eggs, should i be worried?

Also the male is beating the crap out of the female, is it safe to seperate them or should i just leave them?
 
What other fish are in the tank? Usually male aggression is more of a problem when there is only the pair, or (maybe in this case) the pair is having a disagreement about some aspect of the brood care.

I wouldn't be concerned about the 5 days, but I think the reason she hasn't released them is because of the males aggression. In contrast, his aggression may be because she hasn't released them, so sometimes this kind of thing really builds and if she is becoming weak or damaged I would remove one or the other. If you have a suitable tank where she can be by herself, I would remove her, if you have a suitable tank but they won't be alone, I would just remove the male. BUT if their are more Geophagus in the tank, removing the male would open her up to aggression from them, in that case I would just remove her.

If you have a large net you can herd her into a bucket for the transfer and she will likely spit the fry but if you set the bucket down for a moment, she should re-accept them rather quickly. They will certainly be free-swimming so if she doesn't gather them back up after a few minutes, you could always transfer her back into the main tank. In this case, the male would probably continue to be hard on her, but at least she could feed and defend herself. I attempted this once, she spit the fry and quickly collected herself and gathered them back up, then was fine in the new tank for 24 hours, but then the fry were gone. I highly doubt she ate them, so I believe they didn't survive the transfer. The only reason I would ever do it again is if it was a question of her health. IME the fry are sensitive for about a week but then are rather tough. Hope that helps,

Ed
 
edburress;2712980; said:
What other fish are in the tank? Usually male aggression is more of a problem when there is only the pair, or (maybe in this case) the pair is having a disagreement about some aspect of the brood care.

I wouldn't be concerned about the 5 days, but I think the reason she hasn't released them is because of the males aggression. In contrast, his aggression may be because she hasn't released them, so sometimes this kind of thing really builds and if she is becoming weak or damaged I would remove one or the other. If you have a suitable tank where she can be by herself, I would remove her, if you have a suitable tank but they won't be alone, I would just remove the male. BUT if their are more Geophagus in the tank, removing the male would open her up to aggression from them, in that case I would just remove her.

If you have a large net you can herd her into a bucket for the transfer and she will likely spit the fry but if you set the bucket down for a moment, she should re-accept them rather quickly. They will certainly be free-swimming so if she doesn't gather them back up after a few minutes, you could always transfer her back into the main tank. In this case, the male would probably continue to be hard on her, but at least she could feed and defend herself. I attempted this once, she spit the fry and quickly collected herself and gathered them back up, then was fine in the new tank for 24 hours, but then the fry were gone. I highly doubt she ate them, so I believe they didn't survive the transfer. The only reason I would ever do it again is if it was a question of her health. IME the fry are sensitive for about a week but then are rather tough. Hope that helps,

Ed
Click to expand...

Thanks Ed, They are in a tank by themselves as of now. But yeah she is taking a real beating. Her tail is damaged pretty bad. I'm going to move the male back to the main tank and see what happens.
 
edburress, you are the man!!

Thanks a bunch for your help bro.

Anyways.. minutes after removing the male i noticed a couple of free swimming wigglers in my tank!

As of now there are about 5-7 of them i cannot tell though since they are real small. This is the best picture i could get of one of them. I am hoping she still has more in her mouth. :naughty::naughty:

fry.jpg
 
Updates in a few minutes guys. Looks like she spat all of them out, the fry's are everywhere in my tank! I'm guessing 100+ of them.

I noticed her mouth not clamped and back to normal so i threw some bloodworms in there and she ate :)

I shot a video since I can't really take a good picture of the fry. Its currently uploading right now.
 
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