Hi all,
My blue acaras spawned recently and successfully got to the stage of free swimming fry (approx 150!) and were doing well herding them around and gaurding them, digging pits and putting them in them for the night ect. They lasted for 2 weeks from the time they were free swimming. Half way through the second week I noticed a massive drop in numbers, like 50% out of no where. I checked for problems, we had a heat wave here which had raised the tanks temp to 86. It is usually maintained at 78. Is it possible the heat influx is to blame? The next day the fry were down to like 30 or so, however now the male would not let the female anywhere near them, she hid down the other end of the tank while the male continued caring for the fry. The following day the fry were down to 10, the next day there were none...well so I thought, but I did a gravel vacuum and looked in the bucket before I tipped it out to see if I could see any dead fry, no dead ones but 1 little survivor who is now safe in a breeding net and hopefully makes it. Anyway I'm at a lost as to what went wrong. I never once saw the male or female eat the fry. I have fine nets over all filter intakes etc. And I found zero bodies, even under ornaments etc. Sorry for the long winded post.
Thanks for any input.
My blue acaras spawned recently and successfully got to the stage of free swimming fry (approx 150!) and were doing well herding them around and gaurding them, digging pits and putting them in them for the night ect. They lasted for 2 weeks from the time they were free swimming. Half way through the second week I noticed a massive drop in numbers, like 50% out of no where. I checked for problems, we had a heat wave here which had raised the tanks temp to 86. It is usually maintained at 78. Is it possible the heat influx is to blame? The next day the fry were down to like 30 or so, however now the male would not let the female anywhere near them, she hid down the other end of the tank while the male continued caring for the fry. The following day the fry were down to 10, the next day there were none...well so I thought, but I did a gravel vacuum and looked in the bucket before I tipped it out to see if I could see any dead fry, no dead ones but 1 little survivor who is now safe in a breeding net and hopefully makes it. Anyway I'm at a lost as to what went wrong. I never once saw the male or female eat the fry. I have fine nets over all filter intakes etc. And I found zero bodies, even under ornaments etc. Sorry for the long winded post.
Thanks for any input.