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Good and bad news, two of my firemouths have bred but killed my male bristlenose in the process. The eggs ha hatched and the fry are in a dip in the gravel swimming like mad. Question, what do i do now? just let nature take its course? Is there any helping hand I can give?

They are in a 400 litre tank 6 firmouths 1 female bristlenose 2 apistogrammas and two large clown loach.

I would leave the fry with the parents for about 4-6 weeks. At this time the parents will be ready to spawn again and will at best leave the fry to fend for themselves, but worst case scenario they would eat the fry.

If you are really serious about raising the fry, then you can remove about 2/3 of the fry when they become free swimming and raise them in a separate tank. There are a number of fry foods you can buy, but I have been feeding my convict fry crushed up cichlid flakes and they seem to be growing very well and appear nice and healthy.

You definitely want to leave at least some of the fry with the parents though. Otherwise, the male may become hostile towards the female for the fry disappearing and he could attack her. This is probably more common with some of the more aggressive species, but is still possible none the less.

Jason

I agree, leaving them is the best option all round. I made the mistake of removing all of my first fire brood to the point that both parents harrassed each other as both were unsure who was to blame. The next batch that spawned, however, I left them all and everything seemed fine until one day (about 4 weeks) I caught both parents devouring the fry before I could remove them.

One 'trick' I use from time to time is to have a small 10litre breeding tank next to the fire's and when they spawn, I remove some of the fry and place them in there next to the tank. Somehow, the parents don't seem to attack each other.... but then I don't remove all of the fry so....