Blood parrot eggs cause feeding frenzy

[FishInMaryland]

I have what must be a male and female pair of BPs who nest and lay eggs regularly. I recently put a clay pot in the tank for them, since the pot is easier to defend from inside than it was when the mating pair just dug a hole in the gravel. However, whenever the female lays eggs, somehow all of the other BPs in the tank know it, and the others force their way into the nest and eat up all of the eggs. It's quite a crazy looking 5 minutes in the tank before all eggs are gone and everybody settles down. Last night, all 8 BPs squeezed into the 8" clay pot.

I know it's unlikely to ever get fry from the eggs, but I wonder whether this feeding frenzy creates a lot of stress for Mom and Pop, or if it's no big deal. I have a 6" channel catfish who has started getting into the act, too.

I'm thinking of getting rid of the cat anyway, since he's going to get too big and too aggressive, but I am also considering separating out Mom and Pop into another tank that I don't have set up yet.

Any thoughts?

[fish_breeder_05]

8 bloods...how big is that tank and how big are the parrots. Are you sure they are bps. if they are really profolic then they could be jelly beans wich are half bps and half convicts. a few fertile males have leaked into the public and maybe you should use adivider to give them there own space and see what happens. :huh:

[FishInMaryland]

Tank is 125g - my tank specs have all the details. I'm 99.9% certain that they're true BPs. Laying eggs doesn't mean much, since that's the female's reproductive system. From what I've read, it's the males who are sterile, so none of the eggs will ever hatch. The problem with trying some sort of divider is that the tank is acrylic, most of the top is covered, but has two lift-off covers that sit in "hatches" on the top. I don't think a conventional divider will work.