Microgeophagus ramirezi

[Carlos Eduardo Alves Ribeiro <fish@montreal.com.br>]

I`ve noticed in my tanks what I`ve just read in some books: the tank-bred
M. ramirezi normally eats the eggs or the fry. I`ve tried more than 15
times to left the parents with the eggs unsuccessfully, the eggs or the fry
were eaten. Later I tried with 3 tank-bred pairs from different sources and
had the same bad results ... Last year I tried to breed a wild-caught pair
of M. ramirezi and noticed that they were excellent parents.Can this
deffective behavior of tank-bred M. ramirezi be caused by large scale
production, where the eggs are removed from the parents, letting fish with
this deffective behavior survive in large numbers (in the nature, the bad
parents wouldn't let the offspring live) ?

                        \\\\|////
                        / _   _ \
                       ( (o) (o) )                   
          __________oOOO___(_)___OOOo_________
	        Carlos Eduardo Alves Ribeiro    
        http://www.Montreal.com.br/~carlos.ideiafix
		       fish@montreal.com.br                       
                  Rio de Janeiro - Brazil