Keeping Apisto parents with fry

I came home from a 3 week trip to find ~15 Apistrogramma bitaeniata fry in my 20 gallon long. Apparently the key to breeding these guys is to not change the water for three weeks. I've never raised fry before.

The fry seem to be doing fine. I've begun feeding baby brine shrimp. The tank is super 'dirty' with all kinds of biofilms and decaying matter so I think the fry were able to find other food sources within the tank. The other tank inhabitants, 7 Cardinal tetras and 3 Otos, have been corralled to one side of the tank by the female. Luckily, there are a few Amazon Swords that provide enough cover to keep the female from attacking the Cardinals repeatedly.

I would like to keep the parents and other tankmates in the tank with the fry while I raise them. I don't have any other tanks I could move them to right now. I would like to raise the fry until they are large enough sell to a LFS (no idea how large they would need to be, maybe a half inch?). However, I am worried that this won't work. Assuming all the fry I currently have will survive, I think the tank would become overstocked before the juvenile bitaeniata are large enough to sell. Also, I am worried that the parents will breed again and become a threat to the current batch of fry. What should I do? How long before the parents breed again? Should I re-home the cardinals to make room for the juvenile A. bitaeniata? Should I remove the parents?

Don't worry about them breeding again. They will do that once these are big enough. re landscape so there are lots and lots of hiding places for the youngsters and things should be fine.

How big is the tank?

The parents won't breed again while they are caring for these young. And they should continue to care for the young for a month or so. At which time the baby fish will swim off on their own and set up their own little territories.

Shops won't normally take the fish unless they can be sexed. The fry are about 1 inch when they become sexually mature. Under ideal conditions, the fry will reach 1 inch in 2-3 months.

This is how I have my tank set up for my electric yellow fry, there are twenty five in this 100 liter tank. They just vanish when you go near the tank. The algae is there so they can feed all day. These guys are now about 1" and are about 2 months old. There are other photos of them on this forum.

Colin_T said:

How big is the tank?

The parents won't breed again while they are caring for these young. And they should continue to care for the young for a month or so. At which time the baby fish will swim off on their own and set up their own little territories.

Shops won't normally take the fish unless they can be sexed. The fry are about 1 inch when they become sexually mature. Under ideal conditions, the fry will reach 1 inch in 2-3 months.

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It's a 20 gallon long. Thanks for the info on the selling size.

itiwhetu said:

Don't worry about them breeding again. They will do that once these are big enough. re landscape so there are lots and lots of hiding places for the youngsters and things should be fine.

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I'm mostly worried about the parents becoming aggressive with the fry once they are larger. The tank seems like it would be too small for ~15 Apistos even if most of them are juveniles.

Have you got another 20 gallon to move the young to.

itiwhetu said:

Have you got another 20 gallon to move the young to.

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Nope! I have the 20 long and a 10 gallon. The 10 gallon has 7 Pristella tetras in it which used to be in the 20 gallon. I moved them when I decided I wanted to really try getting the Apistos to breed. If I can get my hands on a 20 gallon long. I could convert the 10 gallon to a 20 long. The filter on the 10 gallon is rated to 25 gallons. Petco is running a dollar per gallon sale right now too.

You could move the pristellas over and put the fry in the 10 gallon

As log as the parents are showing the fry care, don't worry. When the fry start to swim off and explore, and the adults don't care, then think about moving the young out.

Sometimes the female will lay another batch of eggs and the male will continue to care for the previous batch of fry. This is fine but the older babies will probably eat the newer fry.

If you need an emergency rearing tank, get a 200 litre plastic storage container and put the older fry in that when they are no longer being cared for.

Colin_T said:

As log as the parents are showing the fry care, don't worry. When the fry start to swim off and explore, and the adults don't care, then think about moving the young out.

Sometimes the female will lay another batch of eggs and the male will continue to care for the previous batch of fry. This is fine but the older babies will probably eat the newer fry.

If you need an emergency rearing tank, get a 200 litre plastic storage container and put the older fry in that when they are no longer being cared for.

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Sounds good. I talked to my LFS and it sounds like they'll take them while they're still pretty small. I bet if I can raise them until they're sexable I would be able to get a better price though.

Also, worth noting that in my experience, parent cared apisto babies don't usually have a 100 % rate of survival. Keep in mind you might not have 15 of them actually get through the natural selection process within the tank. It doesn't mean you're a bad keeper, it is what naturally happens in the wild also !