Removal of eggs and fry

[plasticolor@guate.net]

Although I`ve only recently started keeping Apistogramma, I have kept and
bred Cichlids in the past.  With barely a few weeks on the mailing list, I
have noticed a lot of traffic that mentions or questions aspects relevant
to removing/raising eggs and fry.  
My interest in Cichlids started precisely because of their fascinating
parental care.  My tanks are designed to keep and breed fish, providing
cover, breeding cavities/surfaces and feeding grounds for the fry.  Heavily
planted, "oversized" tanks always did the trick and it also seems to work
with my first Apistos.  
I have seen a few messages referring to poor parental behaviour, probably
causing the keeper to move eggs/fry from the tank and causing all sorts of
difficulties or, at least, additional work to raise the juveniles.
All wild-caught cichlids I`ve kept always showed great parental behaviour,
but that might have been luck.  Most of the aberrant behaviour I have seen
came from captive-bred species, which leads me to believe that parental
care must be, at least partially, learned behaviour.  I suppose that
removing eggs and/or fry will produce adults with an "incomplete
education."  I have seen this in "Cichlasoma" salvini, meeki and pasione.
I read several very interesting - and emphatic - comments regarding the
possible release of hybrid Apistos into the hobby and I wonder about the
release of breeding stock with poor parental behaviour.  Are there any
references that document this in Apistos ?

Peter Rockstroh
plasticolor@guate.net