I have had Tom and Cherry (mis-named before we knew their sexes) for 2 1/2 years. They are absolutely the most hardy fish I have ever owned. After our Holocaust, which wiped out everything else including blue-legs, we found them in the top corner gasping for breath. They lived through, flood, fire, power-outage and Aiptasia.
Now, they live in a 45 gallon tank with only a turbo snail and a small piling of rocks that they have their nest in. I knew they were mated some months ago after they quit biting each others fins and dancing around and dug out their den.
I have noticed in the last week that they have been spending additional time keeping the gravel out of their burrow. Today, we were making preparations for the Reef to be re-established and took a quick look at them and saw their eggs attached to the underside of a prominent rock in their hole.
We would like to attempt to raise the fry, even if only to say we tried. Going to get Wilkerson's book tomorrow but want as much advice as can be gathered.
The fish take good care of their unborn young, constantly blowing water on them and picking at them with their mouths. When I tried to take a picture of their nest they periodically charged my camera.
Should we move the rock the eggs are on into a new 10g tank now and wait for them to hatch or should we wait and catch the swimming fry?
What should we feed them? How often? Where to get it?
What sort of filtration do we need and what should we get to not suck them up into it?
