[Lestango]

I have just had my 3rd spawning of N. leleupi in my Tang community tank. Ad Konings advises to keep the fry as along as possible with the parents as the male becomes beligerant to the female if the fry are removed too soon. My female seems to want to eat more than protect her young. The male sees her doing this and chases her back to the cave. But today after only three days of my seeing fry for the first time I pulled the cave this morning before the lights came on to move them to a rearing tank and they were all gone. In past days the fry would stay in the cave until the lighting was on for a while. Next time I will remove the cave the first day I see fry.

When not feeding she does a good job of protecting the cave.

Is this normal for N. leleupi?

 

[24Tropheus]

I think your pair is doing well by this time my male has usually wandered of to do his own thing (Usually looking for something else to kill or breed with). My experience with this fish is they do not form long term pairs. They get together for breeding and the male goes off soon to pastures new, bless him. Two broods without him wandering off is pretty good going!
All the best James

 

[nodima]

When I had a pair of leleupi, they did not seem to be good parents as compared to some of the other tangs I have bred. Similar to the OP, once the fry were free swimming, the mother was like "hey look, food", and they were on their own. Since I did not care to breed them, I let them be and ended up with a couple that made it.

 

[Wei Fun]

Interesting, this is very much the opposite of my experience. I saw no predation by the female, and the young (when they were very small, anyway) make a point of sticking by her cave for protection (I had calvus in the tank, so they definitely needed protection). I usually would pull them out of the tank shortly before they got large enough to start wandering off too far on their own. Never saw any extra aggression by the male after having done this.

After the first couple of spawns, I did not notice the male taking any interest in defense of the fry (I seem to recall that the first spawn or two he did, but that was so long ago, maybe I misremember).

 

[Lestango]

It would seem nodima's and my fish come from the same gene pool. When I fed, the female left the cave and joined in the feeding frenzy. After a couple of bites though the male would notice her eating and would make a threatening pass at her driving her back to the cave, at which time he left her alone. Now that the fry are gone he is otherwise not aggressive towards her at all. She is back in the cave and he is always near by.

I don't believe she ever ate her own fry.

If they were parents like my N. helianthus I would still have about 50 surviving fry. Frustrating. Next time I am going to pull the cave as soon as I see free swimming fry.

 

[Aura]

Both my male and female do a good job raising their young. Mom spends more time in the cave, but the male is always very nearby. The have been a pair for a year and a half and have raised many broods together. They tolerate the young until they are a good size as well.

They are in a species only tank -- don't know if that has anything to do with it.

 

[noki]

When I had a pair of leleupi, they did not seem to be good parents as compared to some of the other tangs I have bred. Similar to the OP, once the fry were free swimming, the mother was like "hey look, food", and they were on their own. Since I did not care to breed them, I let them be and ended up with a couple that made it.

I had the same experience. The male protected the general territory, but was not obsessive. The female stayed hidden all the time in the cave after the eggs were laid. The female guarded the fry in the cave until they were free swimming. When they became free swimming the female seemed uninterested and used to leave the fry to eat food. I remember I had a Julidochromis who learned it could go hunt for fry when the parents were eating fish food. Those Leleupi were not very good parents, had a "whatever" attitude.

 

[Lestango]

I think a species only tank has a lot to do with the difference in the parents behavior as far as dilegence is concerned. I also found it interesting about the Julie who, at dinner time learned that Leleupi fry were yummier than fish food when ma and pa were dining out. I never noticed any of my fish showing interest in the spawning cave while being fed and I have J. transcriptus "Bemba", C. sp, "n'dobhoi", N. helianthus and A. compressiceps in the tank. (It is my 55g tang community tank of maturing fish. The problem is that when they mature I can't catch them to move them out)

I do find it interesting though that dad seems to try to keep mom in line when he sees her roaming away from the cave with fry in it. This didn't happen just once. They have spawned twice with the same behavior, and when there are no eggs or fry he doesn't chase her to the cave.

I am more interested right now in spawning my Chalinochromis and Altos so I will just do what I can.