Frank, this makes the 5th sucessful batch with this set of parents. There were several aborted batches before the first sucessful batch - then 3 in a row and then an abort and then a month off then 2 more in a row so far. I think one of the keys to them continuing to breed is that they seem to wait longer between batches than many that I've heard off. Several times they have waited for a couple weeks in between batches instead of a couple days like many I've heard off. I think the shortest time between batches has been 7 or 8 days.
I've had pretty good sucess overall - most of my mistakes have been due to physical housing mistakes (like the hang on refugium falling into the main tank and releasing the entire batch of babies into the 415 gallon tank!)
My first batch was 14, second was 12 then 19 again (all numbers are fry that were raised to maturity and sold) - the last batch of 19 had a 100% survival rate and were released into the main tank and retrieved with a net. I've never understood my poor sucess with the 2nd batch - they were released prematurely but only by a couple days and I started with over 50 but they slowly dwindled down to the 12. I'm leaning toward starvation - I now think I just wasn't feeding enough for all the babies to get enough to eat. The more aggressive ones got all the food and the ones on the fringe just starved.
The 4th batch was only 9 (caught out of the main tank again - not much sucess in finding them this time) and then those were dumped into the main tank in the accident mentioned about and I only have 3 of those left right now right at saleable age (2 months for me).
My last batch I caught the male again and he released into the net when I caught him and I ended up picking babies off the floor! (just 3 or 4, but they were still alive when I put them in the breeder box!) This batch is at 2 weeks and there are around 25 of them left. (I lost 2 to unkown causes). I've had the best sucess feeding baby brine shrimp for the first week and a half then switching to frozen prawn eggs for 2 or 3 weeks and then weaning them onto other readily available frozen and flake foods at about 1 1/2 months. By the time I sell them to the LFS at 2 months they are eating anything that hits the top of the water and will fit in their mouths!
They are pretty small still at 2 months (a good sized aggressive fish could eat one I think) but the LFS likes them at that size and pays me $5 each and sells them for $10 and most people are putting them in pretty small tanks with few other fish. I know a few of the people who have bought them and have even checked up on some of them and they seem to be doing pretty well in most of their tanks.
Oh well, FWIW, Nathan
