Re:growth factors

[IDMiamiBob@aol.com]

I currently have a female triple-red A. cucatoides who is tending fry in a 30
gallon community tank.  This is the first time I have left fry in a tank like
this.  Man, is she YELLOW!!
I have left fry with the female in tens with no other fish.  I don't remember
seeing the female like this before.  She is as bright as freshly-painted road
stripes, and the black is super-intense.
It has been eleven days since the fry became free-swimming.  We last a bunch
in the first few days, and have been at eight or nine for almost a week.
 Even though they are competing with all the other fish in the tank for the
brine hatch we have been feeding them, the fry seem to get enough to be
noticeable in their bellies.  Between feedings, though, they continue to have
something in there that swells the bellies just a little.  The tank has not
been set up long.  It utilizes an over-the-back power filter and a
reverse-flow UGF.
    I suspect the fry are fiinding infusoria of some kind.  During the
summer, I collected misquito larvae, water mites, and daphnia, and fed them
to this tank.  THis could have introduced all sorts of stuff into the gravel
bed.  I am not seeing very good growth, however, and contribute this to the
fact that they don't get as much brine as fry raised in isolation from other,
faster fish who compete for the food.
    I mostly started to write this posting because of the color of the
female.  I always thought the yellow faded after a few days of the fry free
swimming.  Is it possible that her continued coloration serves as a beacon to
the fry, so they know where she is?  Could her presence in this coloration
provide a factor in the frys' growth, by providing a marked territory, where
she feels they are safe and able to forage (she has taken over half the tank,
and even the corys have learned to stay away)?
    I dunno.  This is just one more fascinating issue about Apisto behavior.
Bob