Move the fry to their own tank or not?

[klara]

We discovered ~15 ancistrus fry yesterday when cleaning the pump.
One of them went down the bath tub drain but we managed to save it

Where's the best place to keep them?
In the main tank with mum, dad, a botia, an angelfish and a few tetras, or in their own tank (assuming that we can actually catch them..) It's the first time breeding for dad (we think), mum has done it before, that time the babies were kept in the main tank and sold when they got too big.

My somewhat paranoid boyfriend read that they might eat the tank sealant causing a leak ( http://mike-edwardes.members.beeb.net/Ancistrus.html ), any risk of that if we feed them once a day?

[nightowl1350]

How big are the fry? If you have a planted tank with plenty of tiny hidding spaces it may be easier to leave them in the main tank. You can TRY to catch them and put them in a 10g but you should have a cycled sponge filter in the tank.
The next time they spawn (in a month or so) try to remove Dad and the eggs to a tank with a cycled filter (and heater). That way all the fry should survive.
Good luck with them.

[Barbie]

There is no danger they'll eat your tank sealant. It would have to be quite old and loose in the first place for them to be worrying it loose, and that should be obviously noticable. If there was danger from ancistrus, I'd worry about the 1300 gallons of water in my house being imminently set free! ;) Definitely wouldn't worry about that one! I would recommend catching the fry and either moving them to a tank of their own, or putting them in some form of a breeding trap with oxygenated water passing through it, so you can focus food to them and let them get enough size that they aren't bite sized morsels. You'll usually have a few survive, even in a community tank if you have enough cover. Congratulations!

Barbie

[MatsP]

If you have a suitable tank for it, you could also remove the predators (botia and angel), as a more "fry-friendly" way of solving the problem.

The fact that you only found 15 of them, and only in the filter, indicates that some fish in your tank is eating the other ones, as you should get about 50 or more in a brood, and obviously 60% has gone missing somewhere.

--
Mats

[klara]

Thanks for the answers!
The fry are ~1 cm tail included.

I guess the rest of them could be hiding since we have a big root and lots of plants. I could also imagine our botia eating them all just out of curiosity. (The angel is probably too old to do anything to them)
Many of the fry seem to be hiding in the air filter, should be quite safe 'til the next time I clean it..

We don't currently have another tank/filter to put fry or hungry big fish in, might try putting the fry in our 3x3x4" net cage though (just as long as we can put something in their that they can suck hold of)

We weren't really expecting them to spawn, guess we should have been suspicious when we never saw the male out feeding..

[Kana3]

I'm in the exact same boat, about the same size, maybe larger. I'll be moving them to another tank this afternoon.

With Angels, Keyholes, and Tetras, that's a lot of gauntlets to run. I know I've plenty of hiding places, but _Cichlids can be persistant buggers!

How many did you end up with? How are they doing?

[Kana3]

An update on my unexpected Bristlenose population explosion.

I had to scoop up the entire hide (a length of poly pipe), dad and all. Dad certainly wasn't going to come out. I then noticed a clutch of them still on the tank floor, so scooped them up gravel and all.

I got 14 off the tank floor, and counted 10 in the carry container. There were still more in the pipe with dad, and several got away and remain in the big tank. (one has spent a few days hanging off the heater guard, just like his old man when he was first brought home from the shop!)

I placed the hide in the small tank where we have the previous few batches of Cory fry. Most will return to the main tank when I'm happy they won't fit in a _Cichlid mouth.

Dad will go back whenever I get the opportunity to catch him.

Abit of additional info on the side: While all this was going on, we discovered our Keyholes guarding eggs (exactly where the Rams used to brood). This currently makes 4 out of 6 species that we have in the main tank, that are breeding simultaneously!

Now I don't normally do smiley's, but this fella might be appropriate, 'Cool!'

[Jonno]

well i'm in the same boat as well kana, but i'm going to leave the catfish in my main tank because there are loads of drift wood to hide in and the biggest fish in there are tetras, i'm not sure how many are swimming around my tank but sometimes i see 3 or 4 at once. OO and i forget to say that i have had another clutch so it looks like i'm going to be over run with them aswell, lol

How do you think i would go about doing a w/c seeing there is alot of drift wood in my tank. Because i like to take the wood out and vac under it.

[Kana3]

Gidday Jonno, Congratulations,
If you have the standard sort of siphon vacuum (short wide pipe running to long thin pipe), and not a motorised job, there probably won't be too much trouble. The slower current in the wide pipe generally enables most fish, and fry, to dart back down - especially catfish.

I've often had to scoop a Guppy out of my waste bucket, as they're either too curious or stupid, and swim upwards and into the small pipe. I once sucked up a molly that was wider than the pipe! Made it through ok tho'...

Scooping fish from the bucket is easy enough, but catfish hide down in the mulm!

I've never been one for reqular gravel cleaning myself. I reckon you could afford to forego a vacuum under your drift wood, at least until your fry reach a decent size. By all means keep up your normal water changes.

I tend to feel that if there was any real issue with your gravel, your fish probaly wouldn't be breeding.

[Jonno]

Thanks Kana3 i do have a usual vac so i will make sure there are no fry in there before i tip it away!