First Attempt At Breeding

[karigupi]

Little update for this morning, no wrigglers yet, hopefully by tomorrow, Mr Darcy is looking pretty pooped already bless him, he is resting on the bottom, then an egg will fall & he is straight up & tending to the nest, then bobs down for another nap.

Managed to peek into the nest & there are so many eggs, I hope they are viable.

Could anyone venture a guess at the female's tale type for me please? I am useless at telling the difference, I can try to get a better picture

 

[wilsonnw8]

Id be happy to if you could get a clear pic of her tail, the key is to count how many branches there are in her rays, but as Ive learnt some females can be difficult to work out especially between VT and PK, HM, SD etc are easier to spot!

Also dont worry about the wrigglers they will appear as soon as you've stopped looking, I watched my tank for ours after the spawn then went to get some tea, gave in did some work and then passing the tank I saw tails! little monkeys like to surprise you!

 

[karigupi]

Id be happy to if you could get a clear pic of her tail, the key is to count how many branches there are in her rays, but as Ive learnt some females can be difficult to work out especially between VT and PK, HM, SD etc are easier to spot!

Also dont worry about the wrigglers they will appear as soon as you've stopped looking, I watched my tank for ours after the spawn then went to get some tea, gave in did some work and then passing the tank I saw tails! little monkeys like to surprise you!

Thank you, I will try to get a piccie later

 

[karigupi]

I dont think things are going so well now, dad appears to have gotten bored already, i'm wondering if maybe the eggs arent viable? Quite a few have fallen to the bottom & he has ignored them, others are floating on the top, there are some still in the bubble nest, but about two thirds have bobbed away or fallen down He is off swimming around the plant I put in there.

They are both still very young & it was their first try,so I guess I shouldnt be too disappointed.

Edited to add:

Some of the eggs on the bottom are moving & there are some VERY tiny tails! But, Mr Darcy is not interested at all anymore, he has eaten a few & is ignoring the nest completely.

I've read somewhere that if dad is egg munching you can remove him & slowly take the water down to about 3 inches, do you think I should do this? Is there anything I can do to help avoid fungus if I take him out?

 

[Netty]

What a shame......there's not much you can do to stop dad munching but if there are alot of eggs on the bottom you could syphon them up and put them in a shallow container with about an inch of tank water. Then float that container in the spawning tank to keep warm. You may be lucky and have some hatch in tub. We've had varying degrees of success doing this and 2 spawns we did this with we ended up with a ton of fry and others nothing.

 

[karigupi]

What a shame......there's not much you can do to stop dad munching but if there are alot of eggs on the bottom you could syphon them up and put them in a shallow container with about an inch of tank water. Then float that container in the spawning tank to keep warm. You may be lucky and have some hatch in tub. We've had varying degrees of success doing this and 2 spawns we did this with we ended up with a ton of fry and others nothing.

Thank you Netty, great minds think alike, i've just finished popping some in little tubs in the tank. Dad just gave up on them, i'm sure alot of them arent fertilised & I wondered if he was just eating the 'bad'ones, but then he started darting around & took out the whole nest

He is now back in his tank with some bloodworm, looking pretty happy.

I've put the water level down to about 2.5 inches & I have two tubs with probably about 30 eggs in each bobbing on the surface, i've covered the whole top of the tank in clingfilm to stop any draughts, there are hundreds of eggs scattered all over the floor of the tank & lots are bobbing up & down, poor little things.

Is there anything else I can do for them? Should I get more of the eggs off the floor? Would they have a better chance in floated tubs? Anything I can do to keep fungus away?

 

[Netty]

I think you've probably done all your can. We sometimes put some bubblewrap or something floating in the tubs so that hopefully when they hatch they have something not too far away to swim up and cling onto. I believe that this is the stage that the fry will fill their swimbladders so if on the bottom they may have problems swimming.

You could maybe try to tub some of the ones on the bottom of the tank and see if they do better in a tub.

If this is Dad's first time then he may get better at looking after them the next time. It's quite common for inexperienced males to eat their eggs.

 

[CTlovesKS]

i think the first pic is pretty. And well done of the successe... hope they live and come to some lovely pretty adults

 

[karigupi]

I think you've probably done all your can. We sometimes put some bubblewrap or something floating in the tubs so that hopefully when they hatch they have something not too far away to swim up and cling onto. I believe that this is the stage that the fry will fill their swimbladders so if on the bottom they may have problems swimming.

You could maybe try to tub some of the ones on the bottom of the tank and see if they do better in a tub.

If this is Dad's first time then he may get better at looking after them the next time. It's quite common for inexperienced males to eat their eggs.

Thank you, I really appreciate your help, I used the turkey baster to pick up as many as I could I added to the tubs & have popped a small piece of bubble wrap in each, so I think i've done as much as I can, will see what the next 24hrs brings.

I think they both did really well for the first time & I'm still proud of them, will try them again in a month or two.

 

[emeleeliggett]

As long as you saw some hatching and bobbing that's a good sign! Don't give up yet! My little ones would swim up a full tank of water to the bubblenest or plants at the top by themselves on their first day without their father's help. They're little troopers!! Good luck!!

 

[karigupi]

As long as you saw some hatching and bobbing that's a good sign! Don't give up yet! My little ones would swim up a full tank of water to the bubblenest or plants at the top by themselves on their first day without their father's help. They're little troopers!! Good luck!!

Thank you,i've just seen one teeny little bubs swim from the bottom to the top Even if I get just one then it will be a success!

 

[Netty]

Aww bless......I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that you get some nice healthy babies

 

[karigupi]

I'm absolutely over the moon this afternoon, after looking in the tank several times this morning & seeing no signs of movement I had about given up on the eggs.

But just had a look & I counted at least a dozen little wrigglers at the surface in the tank I took the water down to about 2 & half inches yesterday & it seems to be a swimmable distance for them, I tried to take piccies, even holding the magnifying glass up, but it hasnt picked them up at all. I cannot see into the plastic pots with the bubblewrap in, but have everything crossed there are a few in those as well.

I know there is a long way to go yet, but I have hope that I may save one or two.

Is there anything else I can do at the moment do you think? I should hold off feeding them until they are free swimming still? I have some infusora (sp?) ready & waiting. I dont know whether to throw a couple of bits of java moss in from the other tanks as well?

 

[Netty]

That's great news.....I'm so pleased you've got some wrigglers

You can hold off feeding them until they are all free swimming. They will live off their egg sacks for 2 or 3 days still.

It wouldn't hurt to put some java moss in if you want to. We usually have moss balls in with ours and they love hanging around it and picking off food.

 

[CraigBaines]

I found that alot of people was saying try to disturb the fry's tanks little as possible, as they hate change.

So i just left it as it was for as long as i could, if there ok i personally wouldnt add anything just going off what i found researching. But iv only done it the once so i dont have much exsperiance to give proper advice lol