Electric Blue Acara breeding questions

[CosmicRae]

Hi there- I am new to the forum, and new to fish breeding, which is why I am looking for some guidance and insight on my fish.
I have a community tank with 2 electric blue acara, a few tiger barbs, and some algae eaters. I never sought out to breed the EBA, however nature took its course and we have had eggs and fry a few times. I purchased a separate tank to make a transfer should we ever get fry again. I have a few questions that maybe some of you can offer insight and expertise:

1) If an Electric Blue Acara female has her eggs eaten (presumably by the ruthless tiger barbs in the tank), will she be ready to spawn again soon? Or will she take 2-3 weeks before being ready

2) Will nerite or mystery snails eat the eggs?

3) Has anyone had experience with the Male "dropping the ball" on protecting the eggs? Every time the Dad takes over and chases mom away from the eggs, he ultimately fails at protecting them. Seems he is always so fixated on chasing her away- and then going to find her again to be buddies (he seems a bit lost as a fish), that he could care less about the fish that actually pose a threat to the eggs and ultimately eat them. I guess this could happen with either parent. I would love to learn from any experience you have with this.

Overall, I understand it would be best to transfer out of the community tank when spawning. Ultimately, I am not looking to be a professional breeder- I just would like to transfer some fry over to the separate tank after they hatch. The two EBA have only laid eggs a few times, so they are fairly new. I just ran into some questions each time they have spawned, and found I could not find any answers for them. Just looking to learn and hear more about your experiences - thanks in advance for your insight!

 

[Colin_T]

1) Under good conditions, females can lay another batch of eggs in 1 to 2 weeks.

2) All snails, shrimp, fish and even the parents will eat the eggs. In newly formed pairs of cichlids, it is usually the parents that eat the eggs a few times. Then they stop eating the eggs and eat the babies when they hatch. A few more attempts and they work out not to eat the eggs or babies and look after them.

This problem is very common in captive bred cichlids from Asia where the eggs are taken from the parents and hatched artificially. The baby cichlids are reared up without parents and don't have any parental skills they would have learnt from their parents. This is why cichlid fry should always be reared by their parents.

3) It takes time for young fish to learn how to become good parents. These fish don't have books or videos telling them what to do. They probably didn't even see their own parents. Give them time and let them learn from their mistakes. If they still eat their eggs or young after 6 or 7 batches, then separate them and try them with different partners.

If you have lots of hiding places (plants, rocks, etc) in the tank, some of the babies will survive and grow up. You can remove these when they are an inch or more in length.

 

[CosmicRae]

1) Under good conditions, females can lay another batch of eggs in 1 to 2 weeks.

2) All snails, shrimp, fish and even the parents will eat the eggs. In newly formed pairs of cichlids, it is usually the parents that eat the eggs a few times. Then they stop eating the eggs and eat the babies when they hatch. A few more attempts and they work out not to eat the eggs or babies and look after them.

This problem is very common in captive bred cichlids from Asia where the eggs are taken from the parents and hatched artificially. The baby cichlids are reared up without parents and don't have any parental skills they would have learnt from their parents. This is why cichlid fry should always be reared by their parents.

3) It takes time for young fish to learn how to become good parents. These fish don't have books or videos telling them what to do. They probably didn't even see their own parents. Give them time and let them learn from their mistakes. If they still eat their eggs or young after 6 or 7 batches, then separate them and try them with different partners.

If you have lots of hiding places (plants, rocks, etc) in the tank, some of the babies will survive and grow up. You can remove these when they are an inch or more in length.

Thanks Colin_T! This is helpful. It is tough to learn about these specific issues just by reading guidance articles, so your in depth response is very informational. Our latest batch of eggs were eaten (Dad's mistakes). Hopefully I can provide an update in the future with a more positive outcome.