malajulinka
New Member
Hi everyone. I'm new to the forum, having just inherited my dad's 10-gallon tank after his 9-year-old angelfish died. I've got it all set up, with a male marble and a female golden molly, and five neon tetras.
About a week ago I was having some problems with high nitrite levels, and popeye, and general bad cycle-y-ness but after water changes, antibacterials, and bacterial supplement additions, that seems to have evened out. HOWEVER....
After doing a 50% water change about 4 days ago, the next morning I noticed that the tank was "full" of what looked for all the world like spawn. Now the tetras are the only fish in there that lay eggs, and I've heard that they're notoriously difficult to breed, but could it be that mine did? I *do* have a few pond snails starting to multiply in the tank as well, but the "spawn" is everywhere, especially in between and along the bottoms of all the fake plants, and I don't have that many snails yet. I don't see how they could have gotten around quickly enough to lay that many eggs in so many different places literally overnight. My feeling is it must have been the tetras.
My main question is, just exactly how uncommon is this?
I'm not particularly worried about keeping the babies, as I really don't have the space, but if a few survive I won't be disappointed. If I do get any to the "free swimming" stage, I've read they can be fed strained egg yolk. Is that okay or do I really need to buy a commercial fry food? I expect mom, dad, and the mollies will get most if not all of them, but oh well.
I've attached two photos of the "mystery spawn" in case someone can figure it out and tell me if I'm right or wrong. Sorry the pictures are kind of crappy but I can't find my camera manual and can't remember how to use the manual focus funtion. But you can see some "spawn sacs" around the diver's legs and the bottom of the plastic plant. If you look in the backgrounds you can make out even more in the "grassy" plant and the "cave". It's everywhere, really. (And, you can see one of the snails in the foreground one of them. Blasted stowaways!)
Thanks!
Julia
About a week ago I was having some problems with high nitrite levels, and popeye, and general bad cycle-y-ness but after water changes, antibacterials, and bacterial supplement additions, that seems to have evened out. HOWEVER....
After doing a 50% water change about 4 days ago, the next morning I noticed that the tank was "full" of what looked for all the world like spawn. Now the tetras are the only fish in there that lay eggs, and I've heard that they're notoriously difficult to breed, but could it be that mine did? I *do* have a few pond snails starting to multiply in the tank as well, but the "spawn" is everywhere, especially in between and along the bottoms of all the fake plants, and I don't have that many snails yet. I don't see how they could have gotten around quickly enough to lay that many eggs in so many different places literally overnight. My feeling is it must have been the tetras.
My main question is, just exactly how uncommon is this?
I'm not particularly worried about keeping the babies, as I really don't have the space, but if a few survive I won't be disappointed. If I do get any to the "free swimming" stage, I've read they can be fed strained egg yolk. Is that okay or do I really need to buy a commercial fry food? I expect mom, dad, and the mollies will get most if not all of them, but oh well.
I've attached two photos of the "mystery spawn" in case someone can figure it out and tell me if I'm right or wrong. Sorry the pictures are kind of crappy but I can't find my camera manual and can't remember how to use the manual focus funtion. But you can see some "spawn sacs" around the diver's legs and the bottom of the plastic plant. If you look in the backgrounds you can make out even more in the "grassy" plant and the "cave". It's everywhere, really. (And, you can see one of the snails in the foreground one of them. Blasted stowaways!)
Thanks!
Julia
