Question about fry

[oii]

So my boyfriend is at work (oii) and right before he left he realized that his convict's had babies. So he took all the fish out of the tank besides the parents.
He called his Dad to make sure he should leave the parents in, and he said yes, but we were still unsure.
When he discovered them (by mistake) the parents sucked them up in their mouth, and spit them out again so they were hidden.
We don't know if we should take the parents out or not?

 

[oii]

alright well I'm home from work now.. I didn't even have a clue that I even had eggs but I did notice my convicts digging out a nice spot to mate. I stuck my arm in their earlier looking for my buttikoferi and got mauled by my convicts. I ended up knocking over their whole setup and out came about 30babies. I hurried and tried to put it back as close as I could to how they had it without them attacking me too hard and just left it alone. I watched them go around the tank for a minute or two sucking up the babies and taking them back to spit them in the skull they were keeping them in. I'm not sure if they ate most of them or what. How long should I wait to move things around and look for them again?

All I have done so far is take out all the other fish aside from the parents, turned off the filter (left the sponge filter in) and I'm currently setting up a sea monkey hatchery to feed to the babies.

What else do I need to do? I'd like to just put my hand in there and turn the skull around to see if I can see the babies but I don't want to interfere too much. Should I take out the parents? If so when. The other thing I could do is put the babies in a empty ten gallon with a sponge filter but I don't know how many I'd be able to gather up.

 

[sandtiger]

You unplugged the filter? Plug it back in or you'll kill your bacteria colony. Trust me, if you're going to try and rear all those fry you'll need that bacteria. Just leave the fry and parents be and raise the brine shrimp. You can also feed them finely crushed flakes. Keep the water clean and they should be fine.

 

[oii]

the filters not going to suck up my babies?

 

[Bderick67]

No the filter will not likely suck up the babies. Convicts are very good parents and will take of the fry. If they are new parents, if this is their first batch, there is a chance that they will eat the bablies. Usually this happens if there are other fish in the tank though. If they do eat the fry, you'll have another batch in 3-4 weeks so just leave alone and let the parents learn.

 

[oii]

I've only had the new convict for about a week and he already breed with my old 2+ year old convict.

 

[sandtiger]

the filters not going to suck up my babies?

I have never had a problem with it but if you're concerned rubberband a piece of nylon stocking or fine netting around the intake. You gotta have the filter running though otherwise you're gonna have bigger problems then sucked up fry.

 

[Mystix212]

When the parents suck thier fry up, they are ust cleaning them. I supprised your cons lasted longer than a week before cranking out eggs. Just let them be. Seriously. Of course, moving your hand about in the tank wont bother them. They just bite you. They'll have more fry by the end of the month.

 

[oii]

well when they were sucking them up it was because they were falling out of the side of the skull. They just did it to put them back. Best parents ever.

 

[Druu]

well when they were sucking them up it was because they were falling out of the side of the skull. They just did it to put them back. Best parents ever.

Many cichlids do this. The practice is called "mouthbrooding."