Telmatochromis temporalis "shell" spawn

chriscoli

Administrator
I got six of these from the last Dave's Rare Fish buy. They came in pretty good-sized. I put them in a 20L to settle down and pair up. A few weeks ago, I noticed four of the six had become dark-colored and were hanging out at the top of the tank, hiding in the floating watersprite, so I suspected that something was up. About a week ago, I saw fry in the tank. I've since removed the four "extras" to a different tank to give the parents some room. The parents don't seem very protective of the fry, and I've noticed dad hunting them down. So, today I took the parents out of the tank and will try raising the fry on their own in the 20L that they were spawned in. I counted about a dozen fry when I gave them Golden Pearls. It'll be interesting to see how many make it as I've even seen the teeniest of fry showing aggression to each other.
 

chriscoli

Administrator
I've never seen fry go after each other like this....I'm hoping that maybe it was an aberrant behavior or that there's going to be plenty of hiding spots for them!
 

mchambers

Former CCA member
You wouldn't think this behavior would be all that desirable, from the point of view of survival of the species!
 

chriscoli

Administrator
I thought of that, too, but I'm sure there's also a case for encouraging your fry to leave the nest and scatter, too. I wonder if a 20L is too small for these guys....
 
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