should i protect jack dempsey eggs

[roka64]

From your advice Dave, could willy put the plastic covering over the eggs at night?

[Skyrmir]

The other problem is that covering the eggs stops the water flow around them. Making them prime fungus targets. You could try a tank divider, but I don't know where or how the eggs are situated in your tank. Moving things around isn't going to help either.

[willy1094]

After the last batch (this would be the second batch and I posted about the first) I don't think I have a lot to worry about. These JD's don't seem typical according to what I'm reading about them. They are not aggressive twrd eachother or the catfish. I just introduced a pleco about 4" long and though for sure the larger 8" to 9" Dempseys would pester or flat out attack it but nothing so far. They came with four small 2" fish (not sure what kind) that also lived well with these guys. As I said in the last post, when there are eggs out all of the others stay to their side of the tank with the cat being the only problem. The entire batch always makes it for at least 4 days until totally covered with fungus. I think if I can get the meds in when I see the next batch they will be ok. Not sure about after they hatch but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I am going to pull swimmers out if I can get them to that point. I have a generous friend that has offered a 30 gallon tank for this purpose. I'll end up giving them to friends and family. These fish are really growning on me. At first I wanted to get rid of them. Sold some of them but still have about 16 left. I would like to thin them out just a little bit more but now I find myself worried about who gets them. I didn't really care before. Anyway, that's where I'm at now and will update as soon as I can. Please, if you have any tips or just comments, send them this way!
Thanks

[Dave66]

Originally Posted by roka64

From your advice Dave, could willy put the plastic covering over the eggs at night?

Yep, roka, willy could, but when the eggs hatch, which they will soon, the point would be moot, since the fry would start disappearing night after night, even though the Dempsey parents will move the fry from pit to pit. The catfish will be the culprit.
It's a little late now, but the poster should have removed the eggs first and put them in a cycled tank with water stained by Methylene Blue to discourage fungus. A bubbling air stone near the eggs so a current washes over them and a cycled sponge filter is the standard method of hatching Cichlid eggs. Soon as the fry are free swimming - BBS. I've hatched out and raised several thousand fry using that method.
Poster has very little hope of getting any fry from that spawn, unfortunately.

Dave

[willy1094]

Dave,
Thanks for the extra info. You think I'd be ok just taking the cat out of the tank? I don't need all of them to make it but would like at least half since they lay quite a few eggs. I also have a pleco. Would he try to get at them also. These fish just seem to stress a lot when removed from their tank so I was trying to avoid that. I could get a devider but have not seen one that looked large enough (I really can't say I've looked really hard since this is my first time dealing with this). I've thought of making one with a roll of screen (plastic screen not metal) and pvc pipe. Or is there another diy method that might be better. Is the ani-fungal something that will work it's way out of the water after a while?
Thanks again and sorry for all the newb questions.

[Dave66]

Originally Posted by willy1094

Dave,
Thanks for the extra info. You think I'd be ok just taking the cat out of the tank? I don't need all of them to make it but would like at least half since they lay quite a few eggs. I also have a pleco. Would he try to get at them also. These fish just seem to stress a lot when removed from their tank so I was trying to avoid that. I could get a devider but have not seen one that looked large enough (I really can't say I've looked really hard since this is my first time dealing with this). I've thought of making one with a roll of screen (plastic screen not metal) and pvc pipe. Or is there another diy method that might be better. Is the ani-fungal something that will work it's way out of the water after a while?
Thanks again and sorry for all the newb questions.

Willy,
No problem. Removing the catfish would help, but still there are other Dempsey's in the tank, and when the fry are free swimming, as staunch defenders as their parents are, their tankmates will attempt to make quick skirmishes towards the cloud of fry around the parents for a quick snack, so you might want to net out as many fry as you can as soon as they are free swimming and raise them in another tank, feeding them live baby brine shrimp for a week or until they show disinterest in the shrimp. Then you can feed regular prepared and frozen foods geared to their size.
You'll need to keep their tank scrupulously clean. Fry tanks are usually bare bottom so its easy to remove debris. Do 50 percent water changes a day and feed them, no more than they can eat in a minute or so, every two hours. Keep their bellies full. That's the only way to get big, healthy fry - clean conditions, frequent feeding, and daily water changes. That, plus space and warmth (use a heater, set it at 77 degrees) will push their growth so they'll be a salable size within 6 weeks.
The pleco won't go after the sleeping fry on purpose, but in their night time roamings it won't say no to tiny fry as a snack. It's very rare for the herbivorous plecos to get rich food like baby fish, so if they run across them, they will eat them.
It'd be tough to have a PVC frame tight enough to the side of the tank that a Dempsey couldn't push through, but you can try it. Use aquarium epoxy to secure the plastic screen to the frame. Make sure the frame is set into the bottom, side to side and above the top of the water.
Buy a 20 or better a 40 breeder and set it up like I described. I use danios to keep the fry tanks cycled and remove them when I have a spawn and start using the Methylene Blue. Larger tank is better because more space gives you better and larger fry. Dempsey fry aren't difficult to raise; there just are a bunch of them from a spawn.

Dave