What fish are the Best Fish Parent(s) You have ever seen/had?

[Lennie]

Hello Guys,

 

Today, Ive come to an end of "successfully" raising GBR fry with their parents. It took around 7-8 egg clutches to reach this point, and I thought Im finally there. This morning, after feeding the parents white worms, I saw the female ate the 23 day old fry out of nowhere. Checking the back corner, they have laid another batch of eggs. The fry is black/grayish, so not really mistaken for worms, or spit out later on. It was not even leaving group. Although not guarding the eggs at all, I think we came to another attempt of keeping ram fry with their parents. Ended up seperating them from their parents 😭

 

I wonder what causes this horrible parenting skills. GBRs have a bad reputation in this regard, but they are def not the only ones I see/hear bad parenting of fish. Why do you think fish's parenting skills are this bad? Is it them not being raised by their parents as fry or so? 

 

I keep hearing bad parenting experiences more than I hear good. However, seeing fish raising their own fry is just awesome to watch.

 

So....

What are the best best fish parents you ever had? Let's share experience to find the best parent(s)!

 

Edited November 27, 2023 by Lennie

[Colu]

Think my male bristlenose make good parents till the baby's leave there cave then it survival of the fittest 

[TOtrees]

I think it's important to differentiate between good parenting and indifference. Although as I think about it, it's more of a gradient between extremes than specific stops along the way. 

I keep gold ocellatus and multifasciatus shell dwellers and they are both excellent, in slightly different ways. And I keep bn plecos too. I've raised angels in the past, but they're not for me (too finicky). I've tried with apistos, saw fry once for 1 day, but otherwise never had success. 

The golds are more aggressively parental, ie they guard and care for the babies until they leave the shell/territory they were born in. But they do occasionally eat the babies if there is too much going on around them. Eg another brood nearby, shells get moved around, too many juvies around, etc. 

The multis are pretty bombproof. Not as aggressively parental as the golds, but also I've never known them to eat a clutch. And based on the way that parents interact with nearby juvies, I don't think juvies eat fry (or maybe a bit, rarely). Multis are more likely to just turn off egg laying if the tank is too full or there aren't enough babies. Collect the extras, and you can almost set a clock on when you'll see babies again. Eg net out the extras for sale on day zero (this includes removing all the ornaments and things from the tank, which is a big disturbance), they take a week or so to reset and get eggs laid, then 7-10 days before fry appear, maybe 14 days before they appear and i notice it. So about 3 weeks after collection, I see babies again. And I'll keep seeing new clutches every so often until the tank is stuffed again and I see no more babies and that's how i know i need to collect again. 

[Lennie]

On 11/27/2023 at 3:38 PM, Colu said:

Think my male bristlenose make good parents till the baby's leave there cave then it survival of the fittest 

My male is also great in that regard. That being said, in our fish group, Ive seen many people mentioning having issues with dads pushing the eggs out of the cave and they look healthy, not bad at all. Not sure if that's accidental or not.

 

The sad part is the parenting of a BN dad is quite short termed, and you cant even enjoy seeing it properly. I guess I enjoy it more when fry swim around with their parents hunting bbs together. Also many fish sadly fail the part of resisting to snack on their own babies when they start free swimming too, if the eggs hatch successfully 🫠😭

[Lennie]

On 11/27/2023 at 4:18 PM, TOtrees said:

 gold ocellatus

Thanks for sharing your experience. These guys are already on my list of one day fish. I can imagine their aggression as parents bcoz when I was searching for their care back in the days, I came across a video where they try to clean the glass and the fish bite the owner so hard she asks her partner to keep doing the cleaning. 😄 Please let me know more about them whenever you have time whether here or in dms. Yellow color (my fav on fish!) combined with me never experiencing a shell dweller make me keep them a lot. I saw some at my LFS around two weeks ago, but I was like, Lennie, No! 😄 😝 Besides aggression, not being a community fish also played a role on me quitting the idea of keeping them. Not everyone would be willing to spare a species only tank when you want to rehome, right?

This was the video I watched:

 

 

[ange]

On 11/27/2023 at 7:18 AM, TOtrees said:

I think it's important to differentiate between good parenting and indifference. Although as I think about it, it's more of a gradient between extremes than specific stops along the way.

This definitely seems the way to go. My best pair of parents had similar fry survival rates in the long run to indifferent parents. Even the best pair I've ever had averaged lower survival rates than human intervention, and that's with them as the only fish in the tank. Babies fall and mom/dad might not scoop them up. Babies have a hard time finding food in a big tank. Eggs are more prone to fungus, even with parents picking off the literal bad eggs. I like to let nature take its course because the fun is in observing.

[AllFishNoBrakes]

You already alluded to it in your original post. Kribs. Kribs are almost too good at raising fry. 

[Lennie]

On 11/27/2023 at 6:10 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

You already alluded to it in your original post. Kribs. Kribs are almost too good at raising fry. 

I hope that's valid for all kribs but not only pulchers 😄 

[Tlindsey]

On 11/27/2023 at 4:15 PM, Lennie said:

pulchers

Once had a female that after eggs were fertilized would brutally beat the male. 

She was a great parent. 

Edited November 27, 2023 by Tlindsey

[Tlindsey]

Apistogramma, Electric Blue Acara,  and of course Convict Cichlid from my experience were decent parents. 

 

 

[Lennie]

On 11/28/2023 at 2:40 AM, Tlindsey said:

Once had a female that after eggs were fertilized would brutally beat the male. 

She was a great parent. 

And a horrible wife! 😮

Aren’t they supposed to form monogamous pairs

On 11/28/2023 at 2:45 AM, Tlindsey said:

Apistogramma

Which one specifically? 

[Tlindsey]

On 11/27/2023 at 7:00 PM, Lennie said:

And a horrible wife! 😮

Aren’t they supposed to form monogamous pairs

Which one specifically? 

Double Orange Flash 

On 11/27/2023 at 7:00 PM, Lennie said:

And a horrible wife! 😮

Aren’t they supposed to form monogamous pairs

Which one specifically? 

Double Orange Flash