Help - what to do with new fry

[kj2006]

I have a community tank with 7 Discus, I was planning on leaving them in there until they pair up then remove the pairs. Well that was the plan..I have one pair that keeps laying then eating eggs, so i was planning on removing them shortly. In mthe mean time another pair formed and laid eggs. These have now hatched, I didn't think that they would survive long so did nothing..but about 4 days later there are sill going, now free swimming and resting nicely on their parents. Now for the questions.
1) how long until they can be seperated from the parents
2) if I remove both them and the parents to another seperate tank, that is ready to go, what is the likely hood of the fry going back to parents?
3) any other advise.

Thanks in advance
kj

[Merrilyn]

Congratulations on the spawn:P

Moving fry and parents is risky.

You risk damaging delicate fry in the catching process, and you risk the parents rejecting the fry in new surroundings, and worst of all you risk the parents eating the fry to 'protect' them.

I always let my pairs sqawn a few times in the community tank before I move them to breeding tanks. It gives them time to learn how to be good parents, and how to protect their offspring. I find once they go into the breeding tanks, they make wonderful parents.

My suggestion is to just leave things as they are. Very few fry, if any, will survive in the community tank, especially if you turn the lights out at night. But you know you've got a well mated pair who will do a good job of raising their fry in the breeding tank.

With regard to the pair still eating their eggs, they need a lot more practice. Just leave them till they get their act together and have a successful spawn before thinking of moving them into the breeding tank.

[kj2006]

thanks for that, I have just put a divider into the tank so they now have about 1.5foot of the 5foot tank. We will see how they go.