hey GBR breeders....

My GBR eggs keep turning into giant piles of clear, yellowish, gelatinous mush with little tiny fuzzies growing out of it.

I treat with peroxide and then pimafix after 3-4 days... but still end up with non hatching mushballs.

any idears?

[Lonewolfblue]

Should be removing bad eggs as soon as you notice them. If they are white or fuzzy, remove them immediately. And as for Pimafix, don't add until all eggs have hatched, then dose Pimafix when they are wigglers. Also, what kind of current do you have? I placed a powerhead on the opposite end of the 10G tank and directed it at the eggs. When the eggs hatched, I immediately removed the powerhead and started using a bubbler for some circulation.

For dosing HP, it's 5ml per 10G, dosed 2-3 times a day. Some, like me, do it morning and evening. Others that are home more do it every 8 hours, 3 times a day. Whatever works best for you.

for the second batch, i had an airstone right next to them. they never turned white, just huge, gelationous messes. no eyes or fishies in the eggs, just a big blob.

I never saw any white ones, just clear, yellowish, blobs of jello. they grew exponentially, but had no fishies in them that i could see, and had hairs.

[Lonewolfblue]

The hairs is fungus. Sounds like a fungus problem. The tank needs to be a pretty clean tank, fungus free.. If you suspect a new batch of eggs coming, and the breeder tank is empty, give it a large dose of HP to wipe everything out, then do a PWC. This should wipe out any fungus in the tank before introducing the eggs. But make sure you don't add the eggs in a high solution of HP. Wait a day for it to turn to water. Are you using a separate tank for this, or keeping them with the fish?

the first ones i kept in a breeder net with the same fish in the same tank.

the second in a QT on their own. same results both times, but the first, they ate teh eggs once they turned to jelly balls.

[Lonewolfblue]

Mine never turned to jelly balls. They hatched in 3-5 days, and a few still hatched as late as 8 days. Sounds like you might need a little more circulation. It's the best preventer of fungus, other than HP, and that's why the fish fan their eggs. How long did you leave them in before removing them? Did you leave them long enough to ensure they were properly fertalized? When mine layed the eggs, I didn't remove them til the next day.

the first time, i left them indefinately. the fish eventually ate them.

the second, about 12 hours.


i have a power head coming from good old drs foster and smith in a day or two. i'll hook it up to the breeder tank as i expect female #1 will want to breed again in the next few weeks.

[Lonewolfblue]

Yup, and in a small tank, you want it to be a small powerhead, nothing that will blow the eggs out of the tank, lol. I just use the small Aquaclear myself....

http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS...arpowerhead201

yeah, my breeder tank is only 5 gal. Big Boi is in there right now, fighting something fierce that is hurting him (he has made it 5 days of ich then antibiotic treatment and is still alive, though not looking great yet).


I'll clean it out before mama lays more eggs.


difficult at best to keep so many fish and tanks. with this many (55+ as of today's inacurate count) fish, i almost always have fry or a sickly.

[Lonewolfblue]

For me, at 6 tanks and 120+ fish, I rarely have any problems, other than ick when I get new fish at the LFS. I keep telling myself I'll QT them, but when I get home, I go, they look great, will just add them to the tank, lol. Guess what? ICK, LOL. But once I treat for ick and get everything taken care of, all's fine and haven't had any real other problems.

I have some mystery, no symptom illness killing my fish slowly, one by one lately.

No idea what it is or how to treat it. Big Boi, unfortunately, is the guinea pig.

[Lonewolfblue]

I hate those mysteries as well, when you reallly don't know, and done all your tests and everything is in check. My only other thing I would do if it happened to me is a 90% PWC to get rid of as much of whatever it is and hope for the best, hoping the increased water quality will overcome whatever's in the water and give the fish a better chance at fighting whatever it is. And the other option, most parasites, etc, are bigger and will get trapped in a diatom filter. I'd probably run a diatom filter a couple hours a day for a few days and see how things go as well. Other than that, I hate mysteries too.