Steel/Turq spawn journal, take 2

[shrks1fan]

OK, back a while ago I did a journal on a spawn I was doing with my male steel super delta and a turquoise female with HMx. The father ate most of the eggs from that spawn but I did salvage some eggs and some fry did hatch. At this date I have 4 surviving fry from that spawn.

I've now put the pair back in the spawn tank as they were both healed up nicely and she was plump with eggs again.

I put them in the spawn tank last night and she went bonkers, so I released her almost immediately. She was extremely barred up. They didn't do anything though until 11:40am PST today, when they started spawning. He doesn't have much of a bubblenest although he's working on it frantically, but it doesn't seem to grow, so I think alot of the bubbles are just popping. He seems more interested in working on the nest then actually embracing, but they do embrace occassionally. It took a while before any eggs were produced, but when I got home (from a trip to the LFS where I traded in 10 of my females from my first spawn 5 months ago) they were finally getting some eggs. The father is being good about collecting all the eggs and putting them in the nest, then working on the nest some more. Still not much of a nest though, he just can't seem to get it to grow. She keeps poking him and getting into position for another embrace but he just wants to keep working on the nest. Finally after a while he'll embrace. It's pretty funny to watch.

I imagine they'll be at it a while at this rate. I'll let you know how it goes.

Linda

 

[cutecotton]

woohoo! congrats linda. i'm surprised that the male doens't seem interested in embracing with her doesn't seem to be that way with males very often

hope you get a lovely spawn keep us updated! i'll keep my fingers crossed and hope he deosn't get an appetite this time

 

[cation]

i'm surprised that the male doens't seem interested in embracing with her doesn't seem to be that way with males very often

Too funny.


Congrats and best of luck, linda. I wish you many tiny eyes saying "Feed us!" soon!

 

[shrks1fan]

Update 4:30pm pst:

Well they're continueing to spawn, they've been at it for 5 hours now. However I've been watching her release eggs even when they aren't in an embrace, so some if not many of the eggs won't be fertilized. I think he's taking too long with the embraces and she can't keep the eggs in anymore. There are a bunch of eggs on the floor of the tank that they haven't gotten around to picking up, possibly they are eggs that she just released on her own. Still not much of a bubblenest either, but he keeps trying, I don't know what the problem is, if it's the water or him.

Linda

 

[cutecotton]

you know, with my last spawn (2 weeks old fry), i noticed the female just starting to release eggs as well. They ddint' get a lot of embraces, but i'd say most of the eggs taht were in the nest were released wtihout embracing. I believe someone then mentioned that it's possible that the male would drop sperm while the eggs ewre released?

i'm not sure, but either way i got a decent number of fry out of it, not sure wehther or not those eggs were actually fertilized though anyways just thought i'd mention it if it's hlepful at all lol

 

[shrks1fan]

5:30pm pst:

Well they appear to be done, she's off hiding in the Java Moss (I can't see her, so I assume that's where she is, Lol) and he's off floating above the java which is on the other side of the tank from the nest. There are still alot of eggs on the floor, although I believe those to be the non embrace eggs. But this is what he did last time too, didn't tend the nest once the "fun" was over. He's a madfish during the spawning then couldn't care less about the nest once it's over, except to eat the eggs, grrrr. But we'll see. I'm going to go see if he'll eat some worms, fill his tummy before he eyes the eggs.

Linda

 

[shrks1fan]

5:50pm...actually I posted too soon, I guess he was just taking a breather. He's now over tending to the nest, blowing more bubbles and getting the stray floating eggs into the nest. The nest is actually growing just a tad too, Woo Hoo

Mom is out of the tank and resting back in her own home with some Colloidal Silver to help mend her fins, although she has no major damage done.

Now the waiting to see if he eats the eggs

Linda

 

[shrks1fan]

8:15pm update:

Things are looking good, much better than last time as the Dad is continueing to tend the nest and is still working on the nest. It's considerably larger. The last spawn he spent his time at the other end of the tank, didn't tend it at all and only came over to eat the eggs, Lol. So things looking much better now, maybe he just needed that 1st spawn for practice and now he's really getting to work.

Linda

 

[shrks1fan]

Tuesday morning 8:15am:

Well things looked good when I first got up this morning, but since then he has eaten alot of eggs again! His stomach looks like a females who is ready to spawn, Lol. BUT I knew there would be alot of unfertilized eggs too, so that could be what he's eating. I am starting to wonder if he gets nervous about activity outside his tank, so I'm going to cover his tank with a towel to give him privacy.

He isn't working on keep the nest built either, so many of the eggs are falling out and floating on top of the water. So I don't have a good feeling about this either, although it did start out better than last time. Well see, I won't be removing any eggs this time, they're his to the end. If he eats them all he'll get a 3rd attempt and see how he does then.

Linda

 

[cation]

naughty, hungry boy! I hope you end up with some babies.

 

[shrks1fan]

Tuesday 5:30pm: THEY'RE HATCHING! Well a couple have anyway, unfortunately they are on the bottom and can't get all the way back up and Dad apparently couldn't care less as he's on the other side of the tank burping and holding his big belly from all the eggs he ate

I'm surprised they're hatching already, I wasn't expecting them to start hatching until the middle of the night. But these may be some of the early spawned eggs, they did spawn for many hours.

It'll be interesting to see how many hatch and what dad does then.

Linda

 

[JoKeR]

YAY!

Congrats that they finnaly hatch......

 

[Wisperian]

Keep us totally updated!

 

[maui]

congrats linda - hope all goes well with the hatching. thats so exciting.
best of luck to you and the new fry

 

[shrks1fan]

Wed. morning:

Well no babies this time around. He ended up eating most of the eggs and apparently the few babies that had hatched. There are still a few scattered eggs, but they are fungusing, so time to take him out and clean out the tank for the next pair.

I'll be going to the CBS (Calif Betta Society) meeting/auction Saturday, so I'll problaby come home with some new fish, Woo Hoo

Linda