Tiger Barb Egg Fungus? Products or Remedies?

[StevesPrettyCool]

Hi, my tiger barbs have successfully breeded in a clean 10 gallon tank set up for breeding. Dropped the female in a barren tank with knitting plastic across the bottom yesterday morning and then the male that night. Long story short, this morning there were 100+ eggs easily. Took the fish out and cleaned any debris i could and its looking good.

I did this same set up last week with the same fish with the same results, but the eggs got fungused up throughout the first day, so now that I gave it a second successful try, I was wondering if anyone out there has any cures to the fungus problem I'm having?? I heard H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide) but I'm not gonna go flooding the tank with something stupid just cuz I glanced at it quick in the internet..

thanks all!

 

[StevesPrettyCool]

also, any descriptions of how the eggs should look on a day to day basis? when they dropped them this morning they were very translucent, right now they are still translucent but also forming a dullish brown color i guess? I'm fairly certain in some if not most I able to see a tiny embryo inside when looking at them right now (12+ hours after noticing them).

 

[jetajockey]

If they have an amber tinge to them they are viable. With egg scatterers, it's not uncommon for a bunch of eggs to go unfertilized, since the process is kinda hectic.

As far as fungus goes, some alder cones, almond leaves, oak leaf litter, or anything else with tannins (lol a tea bag even) can help keep fungus at bay. I've also used methylene blue with great success. All of these methods will turn the color of the water and make it harder to observe what is going on in the tank, though.

H2o2 works fairly well, but requires redosing every 12 hours or so, and isn't as effective IME.


However, with my egg scatterers, I've never bothered to treat the eggs with anything. They have a fairly fast hatch rate. One thing I've done with my danios is create an egg trap and just empty it out every few days into a bowl. The bowl has no aeration or anything, it's just a bowl with the water from the egg trap in it. Check it in a few days and there's fry in there. At that point I move them to a nursery tank.

That's the easiest way I've gone about it personally.

DIY Egg Trap


Best of luck
-David

 

[StevesPrettyCool]

thank for you reply, I think I'm going to follow you and try the au natural nothing added way first, this female plumps up fast so theres plenty of eggs to come and I got plenty of males ready for the task...

when your sure the eggs are dead what would they look like? and what are signs of healthy eggs? my angelfish spawned many times and most of the eggs would turn bright white in the first 12 hours. Those are dead, right? I'm fairly sure both my angels were females and one just took on the male role during breeding... regardless that was before the breeder tank and those eggs always got eaten in a day or two anyway so I'm not positive on that theory...

 

[jetajockey]

Dead eggs are bright white, as you mentioned. You'll also see a bit of a fungus "halo" forming around them. They are easily removed with an eye dropper.

The viable eggs will have an amber color and in a few days they'll start vibrating.

 

[StevesPrettyCool]

the egg trap is brilliant also by the way... and then u can take it out of the tank? All I did was put 4 rocks in the tank to raise it off the floor five inches or so, put the canvas cut perfectly into the tank on top of the rocks, and took a rock in each corner on top to hold it down from floating and it worked great but if you can take the trap out thats awesome. got a filter and airstone in there now, the eggs look well off for the night i guess...

 

[StevesPrettyCool]

good to see i'm not the only floridian up talking fish at 1:30 am too hah!

 

[jetajockey]

the egg trap is brilliant also by the way... and then u can take it out of the tank? All I did was put 4 rocks in the tank to raise it off the floor five inches or so, put the canvas cut perfectly into the tank on top of the rocks, and took a rock in each corner on top to hold it down from floating and it worked great but if you can take the trap out thats awesome. got a filter and airstone in there now, the eggs look well off for the night i guess...

Yep it makes it easier since you don't have to transfer the fish from tank to tank, you just remove the trap when ready.

 

[StevesPrettyCool]

well i woke up this morning and i dunno what to think. the eggs look a little fluffy. greyish, still slightly transparent. you said they might get a "halo" around there if they are fungused, they are sticking together pretty well and they fluffed up a bit, but dont have a full halo around.

my phone doesnt have the greatest camera, but i'll sign on the app and send a pic, typing is just a pain on my phone..

 

[StevesPrettyCool]

ok failed on the picture, just too small. but the basic description is grey, slightly transparent, plumped up or fluffy looking but not a halo or "orb" look around them. about 75% of the eggs are bunched up in 5-20 egg grape-like clusters, the other 25% just sittin solo. the bunches if i try breaking them up is very difficult.

i have changed 20-25% water yesterday and also this morning, and the tank is barren and clean besides the eggs

 

[jetajockey]

The eggs shouldn't be bunched up at all, I think that they don't have adhesive eggs, but I'm not totally sure.

Here's a picture of viable eggs (and some fry) in a dish after collecting them from an egg trap.

 

[StevesPrettyCool]

awesome man thanks for the pic. how long ya say it takes to turn that nice amberish color? when the female first drops them, urs come out clear or transparent too at first right?

i think i just had another big ol' fungus attack and thats what was bunching them u together. gonna grab some of that methalene blue or jungle labs stuff this weekend and give it another try, ur pic gave me hope!

 

[jetajockey]

I'm not totally sure because I never collected right after spawning, but I just suck out any that are definitely not viable (i.e. totally white). Since they are tiny, it can be hard to tell, so instead of tossing the ones that you think are bad, you can just transfer them to another container. Check that container every few days also, and if you sucked out any good eggs they'll have hatched by then.

 

[StevesPrettyCool]

nice, thats pretty much what i did... i got two containers and separated the clustered eggs into one container and the solo eggs into the other (didn't want any further fungus contamination, if thats what it was). we'll see what happens about that. already broke down the tank re-cleaned the leftovers and bought two of those glass containers for egg traps, they fit almost perfectly in the tank footprint, so once I get the product I'll try round 3.