[cbennett]

i have some BN's (and about a bajillion babies) and they're not too hard to care for. The first several days the babies will have their yolk sack and dad will be watching out for them. Then your biggest worry will be keeping them fed enough. It's easy if you put them into a smallish tank by themselves where you can give them plenty of food, but if you keep them in the main tank you have to get a little creative. The babies tend to congregate at the surface by the glass, especially by the nest, so I put chunks of sweet potato in a suction-cup clippy so the food stays by the surface. I just freeze raw sweet potato with the skin on and put it in the clip. You either want to blanch the sweet potato and immediately feed the babies or put the sweet potato in a day or two before they're going to need it - otherwise it will be too hard for the babies (older BNs will eat it fine though). I use sweet potato rather than zucchini for two reasons; SP has more nutrients and it won't foul the water even if it stays in the tank for several days. The skin helps to keep it together too. Usually I'll put a couple chunks in parts of the tank and babies will just cluster all over it, constantly eating. As they get older, I'll also add some algae wafers to the tank for some protein.

To keep the water clean, don't overfeed the rest of the fish and skim the surface of the water every day (about 1 quart minimum). It will be small waterchanges that won't disturb the babies too much.