Move parents or fry out of the tank?

[Volker]

Hi,

I moved one week ago a couple of P. sp. Sungai Bertam into a 25l tank. After two days
they bred successful but a bit quicker than I expected.
Now the fry should be ready to swim out on thursday I guess, but I´m a bit unsure what to do.

I could move the parents back into the group tank which I´m a bit doubting about. Cause I just moved them into their new tank and it would also mean to disturb the hierarchy again. In the group tank another male took the alpharole now and coloured up nicely. Maybe they would also breed again.
The other solution would be moving the fry but I have only some 6 Liter plastic boxes which I use
normally to raise my killifry.
It´s my first Parofry and I don´t know how sensitive they are, so raising them in a running tank
with a lot of microorganisms would be easier and the saver method I guess.

My plan is to build a new shelf with more tanks and the renovation work started already in the room but I guess it will take me at least 3-4 weeks from now on. If I can raise the fry so long in the little plastic boxes it would be fine.

Would be nice to get some advice from the experts.

[URL=http://s1111.photobucket.com/albums/h464/dukeofhamburg/?action=view&current=DSC_6075.jpg][IMG]http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h464/dukeofhamburg/th_DSC_6075.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[Peter Finke]

There are several possibilities. You did not mention one: simply leave all as it is.

But it depends on the inner structure of your breeding tank whether this is a path to be followed. If it is well structured (by plants, wood, leaves or peat fibres on the bottom) and not put up only a few days ago I should change nothing. The backgroud is: if licorice gouramis find suitable conditions they will breed many times in short series. What you tell us could indicate that. Then probably young fish (not necessarily all) will survive (first in the bottom structures, later more below the surface). I needs time to find them (mostly about a fortnight). I you give some small portions of rotifiers or Paramecia or small Artemia they will find some food. The risk is that the old may take their young as food, but often this is not the case. The risk is low because they will breed next time within a few days (give good food as Culex or Moina or even fresh Artemia especially for the female). Then, at the second or third occasion – if you have seen them feeding on their larvae before – you could prefer a different method.
But this (leave the young with the parent-fish) surely works only if it is a well-structured tank. If it is a rather “naked” tank then you should catch the young out.
At any rate you should wait until the young are blackish and swim short distances within the cave. Then you could take a small tube and suck the content in a small tank. If your breeding tank is big enough you could place the small tank in it. A good method is to take a round glass of about two liters, placed separately, stir the water once a day, suck the debris from the middle of the bottom and replace with fresh water.
I should not catch the parents out of the breeding tank, for the reasons you described yourself.
But note: If you try to raise the young separately, you have to put full attention on feeding and hygienic conditions. This is much easier if you try raising some young within the breeding tank. Probably, you will loose some fry by this “natural” method, but for a beginner it’s easier. And with a later clutch you can use a different method, if necessary or in order to learn.

[Volker]

Thanks for your reply Peter.

I noticed after my post that I forgot to mention the option with just let it run like it is
but with a reason.
For the tanksetup I got inspired by the “Methodical alternatives” thread. So I stripped
down the interior on only peat fibres on the ground, one root with Java fern on it,some Ceratopteris drifting on the surface, spongefilter and a broken flowerpot as cave.
It´s far away from a heavy planted tank but with adding some leaves I could offer some hiding space for the fry.
After I noticed the nest in the tank I did some research and read often that it´s possible that
parents eat the fry or that it`s often not very successfull to leave them together, especially with such a setup. That was the reason for my concern and leaded to the idea of moving one party.

But I guess I´ll go for adding the leaves and let it run. Maybe try to put a small amount of fry into a seperate box to get a feeling for raising them intensive. Assuming all goes well with the fry of course.

[Author]

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