Will ember tetra eat their fry.

[seangee]

Found a site that says yes, then it went on to say keep the pregnant females separate from the males and put them in a breeder box until they drop their fry

Its a serious question though, I know they eat their eggs. This morning I discovered 3 eggs they had missed hiding in a curled up leaf close to the front of their tank. Closer inspection showed (even my aging eyes) more eggs on the substrate. I have been keeping an eye on the leaf all day and the eggs are still there. There is nothing I can do about it as I have nowhere to put them. But on the off chance they survive the night will the wrigglers have any chance? In the meant time I have been fed several times today to ensure the adults aren't hungry. Tank has plenty of plants and covered in frogbit so the fry would be on their own and I will never know what happened to the eggs unless one day I count the fish and realise I have more than I should. No other fish in the tank - but I'm afraid there are MTS.

They are dancing around ATM - not sure if that means another night of spawning is on the way.

 

[sharkweek178]

To answer that question; will the fry fit in their mouths?

 

[GaryE]

MTS are monsters from the deep for eggs. They strike the defenceless late at night, when the world is sleeping.

The more I breed egglayers, the more I realize many adults of species will eat the fry of other species, but not their own. Juveniles will scarf down their younger siblings quite happily. Every fish I've kept that doesn't have broodcare eats its eggs, and I'd expect amandae to eat wrigglers and fry. In the wild they'd move along after spawning, and in the currents and habitat size, not go back. The fry would go into extreme shallows. Very few tanks are scaped that way.

I get the feeling that with the right set ups, they wouldn't eat fry. I have a friend who loves aquascaping and only puts single shoals of tetras in his sculpted jungles. He has soft tapwater, and it's remarkable how many tetra fry show up in his tanks.

It's debatable whether doing a version of the chicken dance while singing Bohemian Rhapsody as loud as you can, then slaughtering and eating a broccoli will transform Embers into guppies for that breeder trap idea. I'm a little skeptical, but if you try it, videotape it, for the scientific record. And for us.