Cichlid Eggs, Won't Hatch

[Fatty]

Hi,

I have a couple of pairs of Flier cichlids in a Rio 180 which take it in turn to spawn regularly. The annoying thing is I don't think the eggs are getting fertilised as after a few days they go white and then they clear them up. They are well practised and have had more than 10 batches of eggs each over a year or so!

My question is, is there a correlation between Hardness of water and the male being able to fertilise the eggs??

I did have very high GH of 420 mg/L, so I have dropped it to 320 mg/L for now. Could this be stopping the fertilisation of the eggs??

Does anyone have a GH value from an aquarium that has successful Central American eggs?

All other parameters are ok, ph-7 nitrate- trace, nitrite-0 temp -24 deg C etc.

Thanks

 

[england]

Are you 100% sure there male/female and not female/female?
two females can lay eggs together and go through all the same motions as a breeding pair!!!!!!!!
Otherwise it could be possible that the males shooting blanks
Water parameters: Temperature 22-28°C / 72-82°F; pH 7.0 – 8.2

http/www.fishforums.net/content/Cichlids.../Flyer-Cichlid/
http/www.aquariumlife.net/profiles/centr...hlid/100081.asp

 

[Fatty]

Are you 100% sure there male/female and not female/female?
two females can lay eggs together and go through all the same motions as a breeding pair!!!!!!!!
Otherwise it could be possible that the males shooting blanks
Water parameters: Temperature 22-28°C / 72-82°F; pH 7.0 – 8.2

[URL="http/www.fishforums.net/content/Cichlids.../Flyer-Cichlid/"]http/www.fishforums.net/content/Cichlids.../Flyer-Cichlid/[/URL]
[URL="http/www.aquariumlife.net/profiles/centr...hlid/100081.asp"]http/www.aquariumlife.net/profiles/centr...hlid/100081.asp[/URL]

Thanks for the info, there does seem to be distinct sexual dimorphism between them, so I think they are proper pairs.

I was wondering wether the elevated hardness produces a coating on the eggs that make it harder for the male to fertilize.?

at least I now have a recommended hardness, does anyone know what is 5-10 degrees hardness (from above link) is equivalent to in General Hardness??, I've looked at conversitons but they all state specifically wether you are converting english degrees or german degrees etc..

Thanks

 

[Colin_T]

General hardness doesn't normally affect the viability of fish eggs. Salt can but not calcium, etc.

The next time your fish spawn look at the ovipositors and see if one is short and fat and the other is longer and thinner. The female has a shorted wider ovipositor and the male has a longer thinner one. If both fish have the same size egg laying tube they are both females.

I don't think there is an English scale for degrees hardness. Everything fish related is in German degrees hardness (dGH).
1dGH = 17.9 ppm for hardness, most people use 20ppm as a basic guide.

5dGH = a bit less than 100ppm
10dGH = 179ppm.

 

[Fatty]

General hardness doesn't normally affect the viability of fish eggs. Salt can but not calcium, etc.

The next time your fish spawn look at the ovipositors and see if one is short and fat and the other is longer and thinner. The female has a shorted wider ovipositor and the male has a longer thinner one. If both fish have the same size egg laying tube they are both females.

I don't think there is an English scale for degrees hardness. Everything fish related is in German degrees hardness (dGH).
1dGH = 17.9 ppm for hardness, most people use 20ppm as a basic guide.

5dGH = a bit less than 100ppm
10dGH = 179ppm.

Thanks for that, I just had a look and the one is definately longer than the other one, but they both seem to be a similar width. It seems odd to me that two females would lay and guard eggs at all, especially the possibility of two sets of females doing the same thing.

I think I'll keep trying to decrease the hardness as it's recommended these fish have 5 to 15 dGH and it must be about 20 dGH.

 

[Colin_T]

If they have different length ovipositors then they are male & female.

Try the lower hardness and see what happens. You never know maybe that particular species is affected by hard water. If it does work then post your info on here and give us an update.

I know PH affects the sexes of some species. Apistogrammas and Epiplaty & Aphyosemium killifish all produce more male young when kept in alkaline water. A friend and I found it out yrs ago. He was breeding the Aphyosemiums and Apistogrammas, and I was doing the Epiplatys and Apistogrammas. He was complaing because he always had heaps of female Apistos and killis and I always had heaps of males. It turned out he was using soft acid water for his fish and I used tap water that was alkaline. After he found out about my high PH he experimented on his fish and worked it out.
From then on he would breed all his fish in slightly alkaline water so he got mostly males. The shops preferred the males because they were more colourful. Any females he got he kept for future breeding programs.