Fry! Fry! Fry!

[Orion]

After a morning of moving new molly fry, I was just getting ready to sit down and enjoy my first cup of coffee when I noticed what I thought was an unusuall amount of young MTS on my holy rock. Upon closer inspection however it hit me that MTS dont usualy swim!!

The little Brichardi fry are just barely 1/4 of an inch. They are clear with two big black dots for eyes. I honestly didnt even know they had spawned. Ive been very busy with running to the Dr.s and what not. Then went to Bristol, TN friday for Pole Day, then celebrated my 2 year anaversery yesterday, and of course ducking out of everybodys elses work where I work at so, ya know....

Im really amazed that they already had fry. I figured they were still a little young, but aparently not. Hopefully they will still be good parents even at this young age and I can have some survive.

A few questions to throw out there for ya.

1-should the rest of the Brichardis be removed from the tank?

2- What should the fry be feed? Im pretty sure some one mentioned before that they can eat fine flake food.

3-Any additional comments and/or sugestions on rearing them?

 

[Cichlid-Man]

1. Well if i am correct a whole family unit of Brichardi will protect the fry and not just the parents. So i'd say you can leave them in unless you don't want to take a chance.

2. Fine flakes, baby brine shrimp is a food of choice for a lot of cichlid fry, or that stuff you get at the LFS...its like a liquid food. They do have egg sacks that feed them for a little while.

3. Watch your water conditions....i wouldn't let them change a lot, especially during W/Cs. And have fun!

Congrats and keep us updated!

 

[TaffyFish]

Wah-hey! Congrats Orion! So how many brichardi are left from your original 6? You might yet find that they reduce down to a pair before the next spawn, that was my experience. Do you know for sure who the two parents are?

I would feed the fry the same feed as the parents, just crush it down.

You're now 3-4 weeks away from the second spawn...... ;-)

 

[Orion]

Thxs Cman!

TaffyFish- Out of the original 6, 5 are left. One disapeared a while back, never to be heard from agian. One rouge female stays in the top corner quite a bit, a rouge (not real sure if he is a rouge or not) Male on the opposite side of the tank who pretty much stays mid level, another female who stays hidden most of the time in the middle of the main rock formation. I actualy belive that the rouge male and the female in the rock formation are a pair, before the fry, the two pair would constantly spar when one came to far into the others teritory.

I am going out on a limb here Taffy and say that the parents are the two adults who constantly hover around the fry?

 

[TaffyFish]

That wouldn't be going out on a limb at all, likely the parents are close by and rest, especially males, being kept at a distance.

Can you remove those rogues? Life is only going to get tougher and tougher for them.

 

[Orion]

I have been watching them all day long and the mother stays almost on top of them, and the father a little bit further but not by much.

It wouldnt be a problem to remove them as long as I can catch them without tearing everything out. LFS will take them back.

An interesting observation I have made today however and it puzzles me a bit. The female who stays in the rockwork in the middle has been coming around quite a bit right up to the fry and the parents dont really seam to mind. I know that most of the time they will keep the same mate, but would it be possible for the male to have two females? Or is this normal behavior even tho the rouge female is not parent to the fry.

Man, this is one great day!

 

[Orion]

Here's the little guys!