YIPEEEE! EGGS!

[elliott_001]

Hi everyone, i havn't been online much recently, but just thought i'd let you all know that my GBRs have are breeding, just found loads of eggs on an anubias leaf!!!
They are both guarding them well! It's impressive to see that the rams between even managed to scare away my rainbow shark! The one fish that tends to scare the rams!
I think the female may have not finished laying? Is this normal? It seems she has layed most, but occasionally goes back to lay more, it also looks like she has eggs coming out still?

Correct me if im wrong, chances are none of the eggs will survive? They will be eaten by other fish in the tank, and possibly even the rams? What could i do to increase the little guys chances? I'd love to see a couple of lill rams grow into the tank!!

TIA.
David

[Lonewolfblue]

Best thing to do is to move the eggs to another tank. If there's more leaves, you could clip off the one leaf, keep it under water, and put it in a container. make sure none of the eggs are exposed to the air. Then put some of the tank water into another small tank, and place the eggs there. To keep the eggs from fungus, add Hydrogen Peroxide 3%, at a rate of 5ml per 10G water in the tank. Do this approx every 8-10 hours a day, or like I did, once in the morning, and once in the evening after dinner. This will help minimize any fungus. If you see any eggs turning white, remove them, they are bad. Also remove any eggs that have fungus on them, they are bad as well. They will hatch in 3-5 days. Then they will be wigglers for approx 6-8 days, and then will become free swimming, and will need to feed them dissolved egg yolk from a hard boiled egg. Just squish some egg yolk in a cup of water til dissolved, then use an eye dropper and feed just a little bit. Don't want to overfeed. After about a week and a half, they should be getting big enough to eat fry food like Hikari First Bites. That's what I'm feeding now, and they are growing fast.

[rich311k]

Congrats Elliot. I hope it works out well for you.

[Musket]

Congrats elliott_001!
I know how exciting it is when you find eggs!
I just found some tonight too. I was removing something from the tank, and went to replant a cabomba and my gold severums kept kissing my knuckles. I thought, "oh, you're hungry". But as I watched, they were chasing everyone - not like them... I looked closer, and I see a mess of little black eggs. Their first *that I know of* hope taking pictures didn't "T" them off enough for them to eat the eggs....

Best of luck with your eggs!

[elliott_001]

Hi all,
Thanks for the response! Unfortunately i went to check them first thing this morning and they were all gone! Would this most likely be the rams eating them? Or other fish?
I suppose the pair have to learn how to defend their eggs properly, this was their first time.

So can i expect regular spawns from this pair now? How regular is normal?
Another thing, it still looks as though the female has one or some eggs half out (if you know what i mean! lol)?

I will have to get better prepared for next time.

One more thing, it didn't look like there were as many eggs as most people see, i'd say about 100 maybe.

Here is a picture i managed to get early on, please excuse the dirty glass and algae


The female is just out of shot.

[Lonewolfblue]

When I had my original GBR, she was spawning every 2-3 weeks, 4 at the most.

[elliott_001]

I just wonder why its taken them so long to reach the first spawn? It was about 4months ago that i first added them to the tank.

If anything has brought the spawn on, then i would say the only thing i have done differently is actually miss a water change! I normally carry out pwc every week, without fail, but recently i have actually done it once every 2 weeks, twice! I think i'll do a change tomorrow.
Normally i thought that frequent water changes would induce spawning?

Jeff "Very good grasshopper" your lessons are done. LMAO ROFL LOL J/k you learn well grasshopper. OK OK I'm done now maybe --------------------- yea I'm done. LOL elliott You can use a pitcher, a tuffer ware bowl of even a clear 5g container from wal-mart $2.75 with lid. If your really wantting to grow them out. I hatch my eggs. While as a matter of fact I got some Ap. agssizii red tail egg in a 3pd cat food container I use to change the water in my lower tanks. Just add a air stone with low presure close as you can to the eggs in the container without hitting them. Add the HP3% like LWB said every 8 to 10 hrs. remove bad eggs and wait 248 to 72 hrs foor wiggler.
It's simple simple project and is so much fun to know you help bring them to live.

[elliott_001]

LOL thanks weasel F. Good advice, it's a bit of pain though! You guys telling me how great it is, and how simple it can be to hatch the eggs...when all mine have just been eaten!!! LOL!

Cant wait for them to spawn again!

[Lonewolfblue]

Originally Posted by elliott_001

LOL thanks weasel F. Good advice, it's a bit of pain though! You guys telling me how great it is, and how simple it can be to hatch the eggs...when all mine have just been eaten!!! LOL!

Cant wait for them to spawn again!

Oh, don't worry about them eating the eggs, I had that happen my first time as well. They will spawn again in short order.