Firemouths - Terrible Parents

[Lynnecw]

I'm so upset. I have 2 firemouths that had fry in July in my 55g tank. I got nervous with other fish in there so I removed all others and left the parents and fry alone in the 55. All were great for that day and the next and then I noticed the mother attacking the father and she and babies were on other side of tank. I noticed that there were about half as many as the day before so I removed him. Mother still had 50 to 100 babies. Couple hours later, she ate them all too. Fish expert at our local store said I disrupted the tank by removing the other fish and I should have left them alone.

At the fish expert's advice, I move the parents into their own 30g tank and they breed again. Last night we saw the fry swimming around and parents protecting them when we looked at them. This morning - all the fry are gone!

Why is this happening?

I've been all over the net and haven't read anything like this about firemouths. Everyone says they are wonderful parents. Mine are cannibals and I feel like throwing the male into the disposal. Has anyone heard of this? It's not like I don't feed them. They get frozen brime shrimp daily.

Next time should I remove the parents right away as soon as I see Fry? Should I remove only the male? Any help is greatly appreciated. I'm sick about this happening again.

Thanks,
Lynne

[emc7]

Try leaving the light on and adding more hiding places to make them feel secure. Some people think "dither fish" help by giving the parents a target for their aggression other than each other. Some parents will get it right after enough tries, others never will. In the wild the urge to guard fry is selected for strongly, in the hobby with so many artifical ways of raising fry, we get a lot of cichlids that don't have all the instincts, though some say that fry learn from how they themselves are raised. Also you can get an individual fish that developes a taste for eggs or fry.
Once the fry are free swimming, you can raise them yourself, but without the parent to herd them to the food, you are better off in a smaller tank. Siphon out fry or wigglers and put them into a 2 or a 5 gallon tank. You can move them to progressively bigger tanks as they grow. If you raise a few fry yourself, than maybe you will feel secure enough to let the parents keep trying. It amazing to see a pair of egglayers raise their fry, unfortunately it gets more and more rare in fish that have been in the hobby a while. If you do decide to start over, get some F! or F2 fry and raise them up. There are some new purple varieties of firemouths entering the hobby.

[craftyflalady]

Ditto....everything emc7 said. Can't think of anything to add! Good post!

[blcknwitecuban]

like emc said dither fish can help... that might be why the mother attacked the father your first try...

[Lynnecw]

Thank you so much, emc7, and the others who agree.

You confirmed some of the things I suspected: not knowing how to parent, liking those tasty babies, and the need for target fish. I had raised numerous fry Kribensis from the same pair and they were wonderful parents. I would remove the babies after a few days and feed them egg yolk and water and they thrived. So I was confident that the firemouths would behave in a similar way after learning about their great parenting skills.

I'm going to get some fast tetras or zebras tomorrow as target fish. I have fish in my 45g and 55g that would work but they are doing so well that I don't want to disrupt the tanks. I'm going to get small tank for the new fry if they mate again and remove them right away.

Thanks, again, and any other advice is welcome. You've been a big help and I'll let you know how I make out.