When do you remove fry

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Candiru
MFK Member
Feb 26, 2013
410
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South Africa
i have always taken fry away from parents after about 3 weeks of being free swimming. my midas pair has left me wondering thou, i took out most of the fry at 3 weeks like normal but was unable to catch about a 100 of the lil buggers. these 100 have been with the pair with out food for 2 weeks now and are growing twice as fast, why is that. Even when female laid a new batch male kept just guarding remaining fry.
have is been taking fry to early, would love so imput.
do not want to wait for female to lay before i remove worried this will result in male going mad and killing her.
 
I have found fry always seem to grow stronger and faster, if left with the parents, up to a point.
It may be because they are feeding off the parents slime coat, which may have vitamins, immunity factors and extras not found elsewhere. I usually leave he fry for over a month, perhaps 2 (depending on the species) or until the grazing starts actually cannibalizing the parents bodies.
 
I have notices the same thing, but in my experience there is a trade off either remove early (few weeks) and get more fry or leave (2 months) and get bigger fish but fewer of them. How much fewer depends on the fish. Example with my Dovii they were young and had about 500 wigglers I removed about 3/4 (no I did not count them!!!). I had about a 75% survival rate with the removed fish at the 3 month mark and they were about 1 1/2 inches some smaller a couple pushing 2 inches. The fish left in the tank were all at least 2.5 inches and there were 2 that were over 3 inches but there were only 30 fish and I figure I left 100 in the tank. Bigger fish but only 30% survival rate.

However when you start with 500 fry and have 30% survival rate that is not the end of the world and many times if they breed again while I still have 300 1" fish I leave the fry alone, I find that I only get 50 fish per spawn with no intervention at 3 months

One last side note the parents are much meaner with fry in the tank (I have the bites to prove it)
 
A lot depends on species and the tank itself, but I usually go as long as I can. 5-6 weeks on average.

I cull heavy as well though. I'd rather have fewer great looking fish then a bunch that might be questionable down the road. If I sell or trade fry, it's always 2" and up.


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agreed on the meanness
female midas lays every 5 weeks like clock work
wonder if i leave fry in if it will stop her laying witch at this point will be a good thing
alot easier to sell 50 2" fish every 3 months than 500 1" fish every 5 weeks i guess
 
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