# What happened to my Dempsey’s babies? Eaten?



## saeeeed (Sep 30, 2009)

Hi there
First of all sorry for my English
I have 5 jack Dempsey in my main tank living with other cichlids – last week I saw 2 of them had spawned for the time in the main tank (Male: 12cm – Female: 7cm) – After 3 days they hatched - after 3 more days they started to swim freely and there was the danger of being eaten by other fishes so I decided to separate them and move them to new tank with no other fish – I took the babies and put them in the new tank and 1 hour later I took the mother also too help me in taking care of the babies and put her in the new tank as well.
She remembered the babies and started to take care of them – feed them – move them and …
But after 2 days (last night) when I went to feed them I felt that the number of babies are reduced!! And today morning when I when to feed them again there was no baby in tank!!!!!!!!!!!!
I could find some dead bodies but it was just one fifth of all the babies!!!! Did the mother ate them all??!!??
Why? There was nothing making her Stress!!! If she had got stress she should ate them all the first day I separate them!!??
Any Idea?


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

This happens. They just freak out and eat the babies for reasons we humans may never understand.
The good news is that they usually spawn again very soon after this, and usually do a much better job of raising the fry.


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## Erotik (Jul 11, 2010)

Aw, I'm sorry to hear that. 

But don't worry, like TheOldSalt said, they will spawn again. You did the right thing to moving them to a separate tank.


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## Peeps (May 24, 2010)

Sorry about that but they will spawn again for sure. They will get it right. The first time they usually don't really know what their doing.


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