Festivums Have Spawned, Need Advice

[FreshwaterAfishianado]

So in my 55 gal. Tank I have 4 festivum cichlids, some of you may remember a few posts in the.past in which I was asking about aggression issues I was having. Well I thought I had them pretty well sorted, Clyde had calmed down after cementing his position as alpha and all seemed well. That didn't last long.

I went on a sort of last minute vacation for 8 days to visit my wife's I'll grandmother in MT, my sister house sat and fed our tanks while we were away, all seemed fine and then we noticed that it looked like Bonnie and Clyde were eating something off of a piece of driftwood and I realized that they were caring for fry! They have hatched but aren't swimming on their own yet, and both parents are actively guarding and caring for them, chasing away anything that comes near.

As for the tetra and cories the parents usually just flare their fins and charge a few inches to scare them off, they completely ignore the pleco, but the problem is with the other 2 festivum. Bonnie will only scare them off if they wonder too close to the fry, but Clyde actively hunts them and will chase and corner them whenever he so.much as sees them.

They are still able to get food, but if they spend more than just a few moments in open water Clyde gets nasty. They spend all day hiding and have lost most of their color. My question is should I move them? The only tank I have available atm is a 20 gal. Tall, and it isn't fully cycled yet, I could use some media from the 55 though. Or should I let them wait it out? Will his aggression subside once the fry are fending for themselves?

As for caring for the fry, what should I feed them? Should I cover my filter intake? So much I don't know lol, thanks for any advice.

 

[Wills]

Hi sorry I think I missed this. Its kind of a tough situation, if your  male is not taking to the other fish well and he is a bit of a brute. I would separate mum and babies if you want to raise them. As your plants fill in Clyde will get better as the line of sight will be broken more - you could almost do an island that fills the space to the surface with clear swimming space either side. That way the other two will have a clear zone away from the fry and Clyde.
 
On the plus side congratulations on the breeding - hope things are still going well
 
When you return Bonnie to the main tank just watch Clyde and how he is with her on her return as it can sometimes be a bit rough.
 
How do your other two get on with Bonnie?
 
Wills

 

[FreshwaterAfishianado]

He isn't being aggressive with Bonnie at all, they actually seem to be sharing parental duties very well, I was hoping to allow them to raise the fry as a pair if possible.

As far as renoving fish if needed would it be more beneficial to remove the fish being bullied or remove the bully?

Clyde is only showing this hyper-aggressive behavior towards the other 2 festivum. Bonnie doesn't seem to have a problem with them so long as they don't come within about 6" of her babies.

Here are a few pics of how the tank looks right now, I've tried to arrange the plants to split the tank as you suggested. Here are some pics.

Bonnie patrolling

A few of both parents sharing duties

How the tank looks now

This won't be the final arrangement for the tank but until I can order some of that manzanita wood I'm just trying to block as many lines of sight as possible.

 

[Wills]

They look great!
 
Love that piece of wood its fantastic! How have things been since you move the plants around? I think that could work as the plants start to grow more and more you have some fast growing thick growing plants in there so I think there is a good chance of it working.
 
As to who to remove its upto you - once these two have started spawning it could be quite regular now. So its a little tough to know exactly what to do long term.
 
Wills

 

[FreshwaterAfishianado]

Well this morning I decided to rehome the 2 festivum being picked on. Though it makes me sad to give up fish it was even more sad watching them be bullied so badly.

The fry are free-swimming now and once that happened the aggression from the parent fish increased dramatically. They would corner and attack either of the other festivum on sight, and unlike before they didn't relent when they left the area.

I'm going to let the parent try to raise the fry in the tank, they seem to have no trouble keeping the tetra at bay, if I notice their numbers drop significantly I have a 20 gal. Ready to transfer them to if I feel I need to raise them artificially.

I'm hoping that if I can get a few to grow to adulthood maybe Clyde wont be aggressive toward his own, he certainly is a protective father so far.

I also added some river rock and a little gravel to help the tank look more natural, I stillplan on buying some manzanita wood but it will have to wait until I get paid again, and I think I'm going to go with the a. Hongsloi species that you suggested Wills, there is a shop just a few hours drive from me that has some beautiful fish. Those will wait until the festivum fry get a little bigger though.

 

[Wills]

Sounds like you did the right thing That spare 20g could come in really useful with a breeding pair - at some point the pair will turn on the fry as they will start to be a threat to them (in a way) in the wild they get to a certain size and then the fry start to leave the brood but in a tank its not always possible. You will just have to see how it goes. But equally that 20g could be somewhat of a safehaven for Bonnie should he turn on her again.
 
Wills

 

[FreshwaterAfishianado]

Well, I probably should have taken your advice and separated Bonnie and the fry from the main.tank. Last night we had around 50 fry, this morning there were fewer than 10, and despite the parents' best efforts, the tetra got those too.

I'm sad that I couldn't raise these guys, but I guess it is still a good learning experience. If nothing else it confirmed that I have a male/female pair. My wife wants to set the 20 gal.up as a breeding tank. I'm not sure what triggered them to spawn in the first place though.

 

[Wills]

Dont beat your self up about it - there will be lots more spawnings from here on in. They will try again in a weak or so and learn each time with what went wrong etc. Same as you they are learning Its part of the fun of keeping cichlids its almost being part of a family unit.
 
Wills