Remove/strip/ or leave

[Ukdans1k]

Ok recently discovered one of my Burundi frontosa females is holding. It's been about 5 days but could be 6.

Everything is good she seems to know what she needs to do and is doing a great job.
My problem is this, my male won't stop following her around , to the point were its stressing me out!!! So I hate to think what it's doing to her. I have other females in there but he only seems interested in the one that's holding.

I really don't want to strip her as its good to let them hold full term. And if you strip they never learn.!!!
I can move her to a holding tank but it's only 24" x12"x15" the other tanks I have my wife is using for so niguaguas that have breed and do labs that are being quarantined .

I don't want to move her and stress her and I don't want he'd getting stressed in the tank being harassed!

What have or would you do????

 

[kay-bee19]

It may all boil down to: what is your intent with the fry.

To 'harvest' the maximum number of fry (=intent to sell them) you may want to strip the same or next day of the spawning. You will require the accommodations to rear a large number of fry (which will eventually become large fish). If I were intentionally breeding them, I'd strip them.

You could also strip the mother of her brood days before she's bound to release them. Inexperienced moms may consume some of their eggs at first, resulting in smaller broods. Relocating the mother is probably equivalent of stripping the mother near the end of the mouthbrooding session.

Leaving the mother in the main tank means the fry will have to fend for themselves. Most/all will not survive depending on the predatory disposition of the tank's occupants (and new fry may be viewed as irresistable morsels to the larger fish).

My frontosa's mouthbrood all the time but I don't have the facilities or desire to rear a bunch of frontosa's so I leave the mouthbrooders in the main display tank.

I did have a friend who was interested in baby frontosa's, in that instance I relocated the mother to a 44gal maternity tank after she had been mouthbrooding for what seemed to be a month. She only had 6 fry, I imagine she must have eaten a lot of the eggs.

I recently rescued two frontosa fry from my frontosa tank (the sole survivors of the latest brood). I was suprised to find them still in there (nearly two weeks after she spat them), so I rescued them.

 

[Edwards36]

With my acei recenlty held eggs i put her in a tank of her own with some hiding spots for the fry, fed her like a flake or two a day "wasnt sure if she ever ate" but as soon as i noticed she wasnt holding any more i took her out then carefully removed all but on of the hiding spots. My fry stay in that hiding spot when they sleep but are out most of the day unless spooked. I crunch up a couple flakes in my hand and feed them that twice a day. Hope this helps