Taking into account the above way in which these fish breed, you will be well advised to make sure that the water in your tank is not too turbulent as the male just will not do "his business" or if he does his sperm will be well reduced in quantity and quality, that is if it is not washed away completely.

Once the female has released the fry you can return her to the main tank. She would take shelter in the usual places she was used to. It is most important that there is shelter large enough to house her but too small for the male to enter, as he will no doubt be aggressive in his advances towards her. Make sure she gets her fair share of food as she would have gone at least five to six weeks without eating.

As you can see it is beneficial to her that other females are present so as to satisfy the male's need to breed. She should be ready in a couple of months or so to breed again. It says a lot about the breeding pattern of the male as he will readily accept the female back into his domain, but not so a female newcomer.

The fry you now have is going to be any number of ten to thirty depending on the size of the female and how many broods she had before. Indeed a big female that has bred many times before is capable of having fifty or more fry.

If they were her first brood there may be only a few, therefore you may want to feed frozen Cyclops as their first food as this may be more convenient. A brood of greater number makes it viable to feed newly hatched brine shrimp and this is a much better food source and certainly easier on the fry as there will be less pollution of their tank.

Sometimes it is advisable to mix in crushed flake or fine dried fry food of a proprietary brand with the fry's first food to give them an added source of vitamins.

You can sometimes be surprised as to the large size of newly released fry. Do not be afraid to feed frozen adult brine shrimp as their first food, these small fish are more than capable of greedily sucking them in. It will then be apparent of how quickly baby frontosas can grow.

As the fish grow, these food items can be followed with larger fare such as mysis shrimp, krill, finely chopped cockle, small earthworms again finely chopped and small fast-sinking granular food if required. If feeding flake make sure it is thoroughly soaked so it sinks quickly.

It may be that you are fortunate enough to have two or more batches from the same breeding group that have been spat out within a few days of each other. That being the case try and put them together as soon as possible as they will benefit from being a larger number of fish, feeling more secure therefore they will feed with more avarice and gusto.

Do not forget the importance of doing frequent water changes. Every day is advisable especially in the first few weeks, use the water from the parents main tank in the first few days so the fry will not be "shocked" by the new water. This is assuming that the new water being used have a lower amount of nitrate present.

visit Frontosafish | back to part 1 | part 2