Hello, Michael,
the issue “Do paros eat their fry” is something which interests me, too. I started a thread on this topic a few weeks ago.
I would not agree in general with Peter’s advice to observe each pair and then know which pair does and which pair doesn’t eat their fry – because some suddenly do it even if they haven’t done it before.
My quindecim left their fry of their first clutches totally undisturbed – and then – without any obvious reason – the female (not the male!) began to hunt and eat her own fry. In the thread mentioned above we suspected this behaviour to support the survival of the fittest (in this case the quickest and most watchful of fry) while the silly ones which moved absolutely carelessly in front of their mother’s mouth were eaten.
I decided to leave the parents with their fry even if a part of the offspring do not survive. Be it as assumed – then the surviving fry are the most viable. There is another assumed advantage: Fry which grow up with their parents might learn certain things which they don’t when separated early. And for the numbers of fry ………… yes, we should attempt to breed the paros to distribute them to other paro friends ………. but let’s be honest: you always have too many offspring which do not find a new home – and then you get a problem with available space. So for me the advantage lies in only few but well grown young fish, raised in a situation as natural as possible. To prevent being eaten is one of the first things a young fish has to learn in captivity as well as in the wild – if not by the own parents, then by other fish in the environment. To artificially raise all fry – even the weakest ones – by preventing them from all possible dangers to me is not the way to obtain a healthy population, even in captivity.