Surrogate Father?

[lilmich]

One of my males has eaten his eggs twice now. I've heard using a different male to hatch eggs has been done, but I was wondering how I'd go about doing this. I do have another male with a currently perfect track record I could use. Has anyone here actually succeeded with this before? Any advice would be a great help.

 

[fish48]

chances are he will continuously do that I would most definitely change the male
at what stage is he eating the eggs

 

[lilmich]

chances are he will continuously do that I would most definitely change the male
at what stage is he eating the eggs

He wraps in the early afternoon, looks after them well until I go to bed, then in the morning they're gone and his fatherly actions are gone. I need this male's genes for what I want to achieve, so I need to figure out how to get the short-fin to care for this male's eggs.

 

[fish48]

you are removing the female straight after spawning aren't you ?

 

[lilmich]

you are removing the female straight after spawning aren't you ?

Yep, I leave them to it and check on them frequently. As soon as I see shes over the other side of the tank hiding I remove her, being careful not to stir the water too much with the net.

Maybe they aren't fertile, but the wraps looked good to my eye.

 

[fish48]

this maybe a silly question but have you actually seen the eggs it may be that they've gone through the motions and not producing

 

[lilmich]

this maybe a silly question but have you actually seen the eggs it may be that they've gone through the motions and not producing

Yeah, i saw numerous wraps with her releasing 8-12 eggs per wrap, with him positioned as per the picture throughout - no early break away to collect the first few eggs

 

[fish48]

I would separate them for a week or too feed them up well and try one more time if unsuccessful then change the male or maybe see how he reacts with another female ,

 

[MVines]

A side question - I wonder if eating the eggs is genetic? Is that a negative trait that could be accidentally bred in by using surrogate fathers?

 

[lilmich]

A side question - I wonder if eating the eggs is genetic? Is that a negative trait that could be accidentally bred in by using surrogate fathers?

I asked his breeder. Apparently the father hatched eggs successfully first time.