"J & E" wrote in message
...
I asked this question in the cichlids group, but got no responses, so
I'm asking here.

I have a 120-gallon community tank that includes 3 red-hump eartheaters
(2F, 1M). At least one of the females has had babies, but they all
disappeared (no surprise) within a day of when I first saw them
swimming
around her mouth.

I now have a 20-gallon breeding tank set up so I can isolate the
females
next time they start brooding. I want to keep the tank up and running
with fish that won't eat the eartheater fry that someday should be
there. Is there any such fish? My LFS suggested cory cats.

Right now, I have a one-inch albino bristlenose ancistrus, 7 cardinal
tetras, and 4 juvenile platies that I removed from a 7-gallon tank that
I'm turning into a hospital tank. Can they safely be left in when the
female eartheater moves in, or do I need to move them somewhere else?

I like to give parents (mouthbrooders and especially any substrate
spawners) their own tank. This eliminates any chance of the fry being
attacked (or possibly damaged) or from any middle of the night strays (or
snacks) which the parents cannot defend against. Mouthbrooding parents
might also find the dither to be distracting, upsetting the way things
should go. Sometimes the parent's perception of the potential danger of
dither fish is highly magnified in their little fish brains ;~)

Corys might work, but they would be shooed from the spawning zone, and
would still blunder back in (especially at night), so ymmv. I'd try to
keep the earth movers (Geophagus steindachneri ?) in the 120g. Moving
to a smaller tank can upset their willingness to continue spawning. ymmv

http://www.cichlidae.com/articles/a034.html also recommends keeping them
in a large tank or separating the females (for other reasons).

My advice is not specific to the species of your fish, and just my
general opinion. hth
NetMax