Where've The Babies Gone?

[Rach71]

We have three female Bolivian Rams and one male, as far as I know . One of the females paired up with the male a couple of weeks ago and spawned . We lost those eggs to fungus because we tried to raise them in a nursing tank seperate to the parents . (first time.) Last week they spawned again. We made a tank divider and kept them in our main tank, well, for two days. The other occupants of the tank seemed unhappy with the confinement so we moved the parents and eggladen stone into the nursing tank. All was well, apart from the Mum and Dad lost their colouration and weren't eating , apart from that they were really good at taking turns in fanning the eggs etc . The eggs hatched and we had a good amount of wrigglers Lol. On day three Mummy and Daddy were not looking too good and we became worried that we were going to lose them, they were huddled together in a corner of the tank . The babies were in a pit and left unattended . We decide to move the parents back into the main tank and almost immediately their colours came back . There was one problem, there was no sign of the babies . We couldn't find them anywhere . I can't believe that they'd eat them after looking after them so well. Why would they do this

 

[DanielH]

might be that you moving them around....they hold babies in there mouths to keep them safe, sometimes they eat them to keep them safe but dont realise they eaten them

 

[oscars r ace]

sounds like they ate them, my gold severums do the same, they look after them for so long and then one day they just eat them all. it's quite common with cichlids that have only just started to spawn, as they don't always know what they are doing.

 

[Rach71]

sounds like they ate them, my gold severums do the same, they look after them for so long and then one day they just eat them all. it's quite common with cichlids that have only just started to spawn, as they don't always know what they are doing.

It's such a shame, they were doing a brilliant job.

 

[sswm]

give them a couple tries, the first few times usually go wrong but they will keep getting better as they keep trying, usually...you can leave them with the parents until they are free swimming, the parents will keep them safe in your main tank...then once they are free swimming you can syphon them out for your nursing tank.