I have small fry!?!?

So.... My pair of BN (ALB male & Comm female) have been going gang busters. They are recently back together after a 8wk hiatus because the body condition of both of them was not so plump....

The last spawn were smaller in body size than usual, but the qty of fry was massive 120+ they survived happily in dads cave but as soon as he freed them, they died 1 by 1 over 3-4 days.

Now we have had another spawn easily 120+ and they are tiny..... My Albino BN fry were 2x the size.... and there was only about 25 of them (first time parents)

My question is... What is going on, does mum need more of a break????

Parametres are
PH6.8-7
AM 0
NI 0
Ni 0

Temp is 26

Filtration is Internal & 1500lph
3 FT Bubble wall


Foods - Algae discs, cucumber, peas, pumpkin, sweet potato.

They have plenty of wood in the tank, also a UVC filter.

interesting. My first thoughts would be that she is producing too many eggs and not giving them enough nutrients each to survive. But then the question is, how do you change that...

That was my thoughts also, When i had her separated, she ballooned out massively with eggs I only put her back in with my boy hoping she was hugely gravid & didnt have bloat. She is laying eggs spot on every 4 weeks now.

ARGH...

I honestly dont know what else to do, If i keep her separated from him I am afraid she will literally pop!

Hmmm I could put the size down to too many at once as well. When an animal has a large birthing, or more than what the creature would normally have, these offspring tend to be smaller in size due to cramped quarters and the distribution of the nutrients. For example, I used to breed rats a few years ago and my females would often have a give-or-take 10ish in each litter. The occasional time a female would pop out about 20 babies and these would be tiny in comparison (they would be the size of a newborn mouse which is about 1/3 the size of a newborn rat). However, when a female gave birth to only 3 or 4, these babies would be huge, near double the size of the standard newborn.
So my guess is the same thing is happening to your female. Hormones-a-raging.
If these little guys are having a hard time keeping alive once they leave the cave, I might suggest that you put them in a large breeding box within the tank or put them in their own tank once they are a few days old and see if that helps.
As for your female, it's hard to say either way. I would keep her in the tank with the male, but if he's the only male I'd suggest getting another male so you're current one can have a breather every now and then :P

I just realised i never updated this thread!

The pair in question had another spawn after this where i put them into the smaller 2ft Quarantine tank before they did the doody...
The spawn was the same 100+ eggs & babies with tiny tiny fry. 90% of them survived. I could not work out why until my genius of a hubby walked past & said

"derrrrrrrrrrrrrr less competition for food... "

I was giving the pair & their fry the same amount I would usually put in with the 4ft for everyone & they mostly survived! They did grow a little slowly but did really really well