P. taeniatus Moliwe parental care behavior

[notropis]

These are my first Moliwe pair and my first cichlids ever. I really was not expecting them to spawn but for awhile there I had one fry I named Jr. (I say "had" because after a couple of days he went AWOL and has been absent ever since.)

So the first time I saw Jr I thought the male parent ate him. Jr was out with both parents but then the male sucked him in...and spit him out. So this seemed to be common behavior and I saw both parents do it multiple times. My question...is this common behavior for Moliwe or is my pair just inexperienced as this was their first fry?

[Trallen44]

My kribs do this when the fry are wigglers to move them back where they want them to be. I haven't seen it once they are free swimming for a day or two.

[Pooky125]

My moliwe's did it with each of their few spawns. They were also a pretty inexperienced pair, and never managed to raise their fry to more then 5 or 6 days old before they ate them, but they were fun to watch. I wouldn't worry to much about it just yet. If they've spawned for you once, they're likely to do it for you again, and soon!

[notropis]

Thanks Trallen and Pooky,

I am hoping that if the pair spawned once they will do it again. Now I won't be so surprised when they eat Jr and spit him back out again. Thanks for the advice.

Pooky, you're somewhat in my neighborhood although I am farther south in the wasteland of aquarium stores. I got my Moliwe at Liquid Sunshine in Eugene which I consider to be my LFS even though in reality it is my not-so-LFS.

[notropis]

Oh goodness, there are about a dozen new juniors and I can still see the yolk sacs on some!! I'm not observing the eating and spitting behavior with these but I imagine it would be difficult to get a dozen sucked in all at once.

It is really cool to see mom and pop (aka Fem-bot and Valentino) sheperding the juniors around the tank.