Detailed info on my lil buddies

[BigCountry]

I am new here and so I feel that is only right for you all to know just a little bit about the operation i have set up. I have four tanks set up in my living room. my girlfriend and I find that instead of watching cable we spend most of our time relaxing in front of the glass.

I started with two tanks, a 55 and a 75. The inhabitants were a pair of spiney nosed soft shells from the turtle man, a red-eyed puffer, a chocolate pleco; all in the 55. in the 75 i had nine or ten cichlids(4 chocolates, and five Texan's), a clown knife, an albino bristle nose, and various feeder fish.

I recently purchased a pair of Snapping turtles from http://www.turtleman.com/. When they arrived i noticed immediately that i need a new aquarium. i purchased one from Craig's list. i purched a 100 gallon setup. and released my snappers into it. Then i released or transferred all the fish from the 75 in as well. so i could rebuild the 75. It wasnt a month before i noticed the advanced aggressiveness of the Texan Cichlids, aka Rio Grande Perch. so i removed the knife and the chocolates and returned them to the seventy five.

the Texans continued to become more agressive and paired off. They became completely territorial. i have a large holey rock in the center of the tank with two large native limestones leaning against it. when the chocolate pleck would wonder in or the turtles would swim through the makeshift cave, the cichlids would physically remove them from the area. That's when i decided to have a closer look. i found eggs on one side of the tank.

i sold the puffer, moved the turtles to the 55 and left the tank alone. the eggs hatched, or i assumed they did because they up and disappeared. I have read up on what poor parents the Texans are and now i am wondering if i was right to leave the eggs in the tank. When the eggs were discovered we rushed out to get a fry tank. it is set up with a powerhead, undergravel filter. Not real sure this is appropriate for a fry tank. suggestions would be appreciated. figuring the fry had been devoured , i found out that they would continue to lay monthly with the right conditions.

a week later i came home to find that the other pair had laid 2-3 times the number of eggs. and after two days they turned cloudy white like the first batch. left to their own environment, the eggs hatched. and i assumed the same outcome as the first batch.

yesterday my girlfriend came home and was looking in the 75, (she really loves those soft shells) andway she sees wigglers. the resemble small worms. and they wiggle. she asked me what they were, and i didnt know. but i had read about wigglers somewhere. i thought those two chocolate cichlids were both male. but that is another topic. upon closer examination of the texan tank i discovered free swimming wigglers as well.

So the questions have surfaced. should i separate the two pair of texan cichlids? are the parents required for anything after the male fertilizes the eggs and the turn milky white in color? should i extract the eggs at this point?

I'll get pics up as soon i find a decent cam.

Big Country