Remove the eggs/fry, or not?

[zzyzx]

I’ve seen this question asked, but really taken up by the members on this forum, so wanted to ask this basic question… (Also, I should point out this is my very first attempt at breeding fish, so I’m a complete noob in this area…)

– I’ve got a planted tank, with a river sand substrate, and an internal filter running. There’s lots of java moss, and other plants for the fish to hide in, and if they ever did lay eggs, it would be very difficult for me to know (if not impossible).

What are the chances that some of the eggs will survive if they’re laid in the java moss? (I’ve read that other males will eat eggs if they find them, but if they’re laid in the moss, will some be protected?).

When the fry hatch, will they initially stay in the java moss so as not to be eaten, and does that strategy work?

I read that after they become free-swimming, they go to the top of the tank where the adults seem to not notice them/bother with them. That’s consistent with a few other things I’ve found, because when I feed them Hikari micro-pellets, (which float around on the top of the tank), my fish either don’t notice it, or can’t be bothered with it until it sinks lower down the tank. (This might also be just that they’re very well fed…?)

If I adopt this method of leaving them in the same tank as the adults, I know I’ll get fewer survivors than the other methods, so could some of you outline the other ways of doing this that wouldn’t involve buying another tank? (I have another, larger, community tank that I could move the adults to if I knew there’d been eggs laid, but again, how would I know that?)

Finally, what’s the strategy with regards to how many adults to have in the breeding tank? Right now I have 6 adults (mixture of males & females). Would I be more successful if I had ONLY 1 male and 1 female?

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