Acara spawned, ammonia 0.25...should I worry

PlantedRich said:

When first starting is always a good time to get caught short!
Yes, it is part of the game to have surprises like this. So things may/may not work out totally good as you want. But they will likely do it again soon if the tank is good.
Meantime to make it work as well as practical, I would increase water changes. I would "hover /sweep" the vac over the sub to pick any loose stuff that will come but I would not do a really good job of vaccing. Not to stir nor work too hard?
Part of the trauma of fish in cycle is that you will be walking a fine line between having enough ammonia for the bacteria to begin to grow while at the same time not having enough to harm the fish. Fry? They are a special problem!
I might guess the success rate for first spawns with first time fish keepers is somewhere down about 5% but take heart in it happening soon enough again and next time will go better.
This is the time to look and learn what to do for next time.

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5%? Wow! Well, I wasn't really planning on raising fry. I just purchased 2 acara because my levels were consistent and the nitrates seemed to be rising...though not dark enough to warrant a real reading. I should have waited and just kept 2 fry if they survive haha And the 2 I bought? Small...smaller than the current parents...but already all chummy and in love. I wouldn't be surprised if those go next. I'd read that acara are male heavy...wondered if I'd luck out and have one female. Looks as though I got 2! Anyway, we do have a tank I'm still planning to set up to raise the fry. And now that this tank appears cycled, I'm wondering if it would hurt to pull some of the media out of the cannister filter to get the grow out tank cycled stat. Since I need to do a PWC anyway, I could deposit the water removed from the spawning tank into the grow out tank and top off both with fresh, primed, water. Any advice on how to keep the grow out tank BB bacteria alive? Should I just add a little food daily until I move the fry over? My fish guy isn't really local but he said he'd sell any fry that survive so if that offsets my food costs and such, I'm happy enough. Maybe he'll throw in the gourami and some fish for my son's tank for free. I haven't had that conversation yet but he's a decent enough guy and seems to take care of loyal customers. Time will tell. Fry are swimming around now in an area the parents designated as safe. They're so stinkin' cute! I'm attached already. Thinking I'll keep one out of the bunch if they survive <3

GrampsGrunge said:

Funny that this perception of them being horrible parents persists. William T. Inness's book Exotic Aquarium Fish called Blue Acaras one of the easier, small , ( not dwarf ) ciclids for the beginner to try.

I'm reminded about my experience with Apisto Borelii, being informed that they are tough to condition and breed. I had 3 different generations of parents: fully adult, nearly grown and half grown of these raising fry concurrently in my 55. It was hard to get them to stop, and I had run out of LFS and aquarium club members and friends that wanted more Dwarf Umbrella Ciclids.

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LOL Perhaps mine will be as prolific as yours. I have another pair I believe are starting to court. Way too young but they've definitely singled each other out and are spending a lot of time together. My poor 5th wheel needs a buddy My kids are really excited about the babies so I'm invested in this batch surviving though in the future, I'll probably just allow nature to take it's course. The tank I plan to use as a grow out tank was promised to my daughter for her guppies and other livebearers so if this batch of fry survive, the tank will be my daughter's once they're out. Was hoping to complete my stocking with a handful of lyretail swords that I'm waiting on but if the acaras keep reproducing and fry manage to survive, I might just have to keep it as a predominantly acara tank. Which I don't mind. I fell in love with them the moment I saw them and they are one of my favorite fish. The dad ate out of my hand pretty much from day one. He's quite aggressive with any fish that enters the no-fly zone but I find it endearing that when the syno cats get too close, he nudges them out by pushing under their bellies really gently the way dolphins push objects to land. I wonder how he'll treat the cats when they start eating the fry! I'm not as worried about the .25 ammonia reading as I was because I've since read that's a common reading with the API test kits. Though it's read 0 to date. Haven't done the PWC yet...will do so in a bit. But appreciate your input. Got that impression about the acara after all the posts I read from other hobbyists who commented that their acara ate their offspring. But I also know that in nature, animals will cull their progeny if conditions aren't right...so their experiences might not be an 'acara thing' but rather unique to their situation. All I know is that right now, I have about 100+ fry swimming around under my driftwood and I am happy

Nature is not all about nuture but often more about the long term gain/loss. So when things are too bad, the female might as well go ahead and eat the fry. Cruel, maybe? but on the other hand if the fry are going to be eaten, it makes fine sense for the female to get the benefit of the food so that she is ready sooner than if not well fed. Nobody ever said life was meant to be simple!
On keeping the bacteria levels ready, there are several things going on that we can miss but they can ease the strain quite a lot. One is that new fry need very little bacteria to clear their ammonia if we don't overfeed. Two is that the bacteria in a tank comes back up much quicker the second /third/ etc. time than it does the first time.
Put in human and factory terms, that makes the first go somewhat like opening a factory with ten trained guys to train the other 90 before getting up to full steam. Production may drop off and you only have 10-20 folks working but there are still a bunch out there in the area who can get up to speed much quicker the second time. not really the same and open to definite critical comment but works the same?
So when I want to breed a group, I don't always keep a tank running and filled but just have it handy and put the filter over on a larger tank with fish to keep the "employees" happy and in the area! When the fry show up, I siphon out the portion I want and swing the filter back to the small tank. From there the filter is able to match the increase in fry size easy as they grow. One thing that I also do that keeps me out of trouble is changing more water on fry growout tanks. I find nothing better/easier/cheaper than clean water for keeping fry going as well as possible.
I prefer cichlids of all types and acara are a definite favorite. None on hand at the moment but just more fish than room to keep all those I like.
Tip on fry?
When you want to move small fry, don't use a net as they become lost and die in the net. A siphon will catch them and shoot them into a bowl real easy. It's then easy to move them to the new tank without ever actually touching them with hard stuff that may crush them.