Red Head Tapajos Breeding

[Roberto Carlos]

Hi All,

I raised 6 tapajo's from aorund 1" in a 75g. They had the tank to themselves. They were laying eggs and I had seen some fry but the others would just eat the fry. Recently I decided to seperate 3 tapajo's (1 male and 2 female) in a 50g. After just a few days, I saw the two tapajos pair off and lay eggs. I removed the other female as it was only on one side of the tank and placed it back in the 75g with the other 3. After a week, the other male and other female in the 75g laid eggs. So i transfered the other two females to another tank. As of now, I have 2 pairs with fry.
1. When is the right time to seperate the fry from their parents?
2. Can I exchange the female from 1 of the pairs to the other females i have? This female has 1 eye blind i think (due to infection because i forgot to change their water for a few weeks due to workload).

 

[chanathon]

I have separated tapajos fry as soon as they were free swimming and had great success. The only thing I noticed is if the parents are spooked with you bothering them, they may end up eating their fry before you can siphon everybody out. Just a thought. I've had pairs raise their fry all the way through as well. There's no guarantee the male will take the new female as a mate but there's no harm trying.

 

[Roberto Carlos]

thank's for the quick reply. as you said, you siphon out the fry as soon as they are free swimming, ordinary hose siphon would do? maybe i can experiment and siphon the fry on one pair and let the other pair take care of tis fry.

 

[chanathon]

yup just a regular hose. there's really no other way of getting them out since they're so tiny. Once your fry are situated, I had good success with feeding crushed flake food then slowly moving onto minced market shrimp as they got older. Hm all this talk makes me want to get back into red heads one day

 

[Roberto Carlos]

try feeding them Hikari first bites. That's what i try to feed them now. it's fine powder form. making it easier to feed, just soak in water for a few seconds then feed. Thanks for the tips. I'll try to seperate 1 batch by this weekend. Good luck if you ever come back. I'll also try to update with some pictures.