Rotpukt fry questions, and tank water movement

["Alan Whitten" <caw18@bak.rr.com>]

I have a pair of Rotpukts in a 10 gallon tank, that are on their third set of fry in 4 months.  
The first two sets of fry fell victim to my dithering fish, the second female in the tank, and my 
lack of husbandry.

In order to improve the odds for my current fry, I have removed all the other fish but the male and female.
I have noticed the female 'nudging' the male, but she is not aggresivly trying to chase him off.  After a week
of being free swimming fry, I have over 20 fry.  Is it a good idea to remove the male?  or will he ignore the fry
until they get large enough to be a threat to him.  This male gets stressed out every time I move him, and I
am afraid one of these days he is going to hurt himself when I try to net him.  I don't want to move him if I don't
have to.

On the husbandry side, I have switched from vinigar eels to baby brine shrimp.  I keep two brine shrimp hatheries
going so I always have fresh shrimp.  I think this has made the most difference in my survival rate.

I have noticed that my fry almost exclusivly stay on the bottom of the tank, rarely swimming up more than 2 inches
off the sandbed.  The only other fry I have to compare them to are Cacatoide fry, which pretty much swam all over
the place.

On the subject of tank water movement.  I have three 25 gallon tanks that are all on one filter, with a return pump.
The water movement can be quite brisk in the tanks if I open the return valves all the way.  Do apistrogramma's
generaly not like a lot of water movement in their tanks?  Could water movement discourage breeding?

--C. Alan

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