Hatching eggs with out the Mom {Apisto fry being used}

We've all had one a female that eats her eggs every fry. I have a [img]female Apistogramma Cockato Orange Flash. Whos going on her 6th fry in 2 months { YES 6TH FRY } The frist two frys she ate within 2 days of laying the eggs. So I got tried of it and started looking around for away to doit without her. Well I found a couple and it took a rocket scintest to figure it out. So I done some posting and asking around. This is away a guy showed me { Mematrix } I know alot of you have either done this or at least seen it. So for those of you who havn't and want to know how. I'm going to do a day by day or step by step of my hatching of a fry of O.F..

First off you see the eggs. {like I had to say that HUH? }

Then once you see them get you a bucket that you have room to move your hand around in it. I use a 3gal cat food bucket.

Then i get everything I'm going to need and have it ready to go { you can use a heater for a 2gal tank also } I use a 10ga tank heater so the temp is more likly to stay where it's suppost to be.

I then add water from the tank the eggs are coming from

then I take a cup or bowl I got one of my Bettas in and put it in the tank

I then place the cave or rock what ever the eggs are on or in and place it in the cup. Make sure you don't let the eggs. Get air to them { now with some type of eggs this ain't a problum but Apisto's it is }

This is a great time to get a egg count { as this will be used later or at least I use it later}. Once the egg are safe to pull them from the tank. you can get your egg count and place it in the hatching bucket. I then place the whole cup and cave in the bottom of it with a rock to hold it in place. Once there in you need to check the water temp. { this will be the temp you want to keep the water at the whole time{ or at least try}
once the eggs are in the hatchery you'll need to place the air stone as close to the egg as you can. Without hitting them
Now you can turn it on and start the water moving around them so as not to let fungus grow on them.

Yea the picture of the stuff you'll need went to the wrong spot. Ok once the waters moving around the eggs. You can now add Hydrogen Peroxide 3ml of it to the hatchery. { add it every 12hrs } the HP 3% can be bought at any dollor store ,wal-mart, for $1.00
I use a suranges used for giving meds to childern and it's marked clearly
Hp 3% will brake down to water with in 10 hrs after adding it to the hatchery and leavs no cimacals behind. It's harmless to the eggs as the eggs coating is to hard to and by the time the Hp 3% could get throw it. It would have broke down by then.

Once the Hp 3% is added you can how add the heater to the hatchery Now your set and ready for the long haul. Be sure you add the Hp 3% every 12hrs as to fight off the fungus and keep the eggs going in the right way.
I write eveything down to stay on track of them and also to keep like a time line of ading the Hp 3% and even add it to my calunder so I'll have a day i started the day they become wigglers and free swimming. This also helps with keeping track of there age.

Now I hope this helps someone out if not you just read throw a boring post. HUH LOL thanks and updates will be coming soon. Be sure and whatch for them. LOL

[Rondory]

I don't have the fish you mentioned, but still found your post interesting. I'm sure this will help others.

Best of luck with your little fish!

Thanks this is my3rd go around at this so far. I've had a 90% hatch rate on one ,a 75% on the other. This is so simple to do. I'm going to try it on some Latetacara Curviceps next. So far it's been only on Apisto's. Again thanks

Picture of the wigglers coming up tomorrow. It's the end of day 3 and out of the 57 eggs i started with. I've lost 5 maybe 8 { 3 are looking darker in color then normal } The eggs are starting to hatch.
I had a female Latetacara Curviceps lay eggs 02/02/06 and they were added to the hatchery. The egg count on those is 350+ As of this evening. There is 5 of those eggs turning white. Pictures of the wigglers and Flag Acarua tonight.

Ok here's a picture of the tails starting to foum. it's now day 5 and I'm thanking at least a 70% hatching

Ok we are going on day 11 of the hatch I had a85%hatch out of the Apisto orange flash and a 90% hatch out of the Laetacara curviceps. more then frist thought. Now at day 11 of the nonparent hatching. The frys are free swimming and eating BBS.

Here's a few pics of both the Ap. O.F.,flag acura frys.







The larger fry in there are 23 day old Apisto orange flash I hatch myself using the same metiod as these. If your wanting to have fry but the mom fish eats them. I'd say go this way everytime. It works and it's easy to do. I'm going to get a larger count and % rate this weekend so updates a coming soon. Any thoughts or question?

Man I wish i could go back up to 400 gb with the pics then you could see them. LOL

[Billsgate]

Very nice! I used the same method with my keyhole cichlids (Laetacara Maroni) and had around 70-80% of the eggs hatching. Eventually I got to raise 50 of the fry and after a couple of months sold them to my lfs!

Next on my list: Laetacara Dorsigera 8)

Keep us updated!

[maxwell1295]

My rams spawned last night when i got home. Totally unexpected...

I managed to save pretty much all of the eggs. I let the parents do their thing until I saw the male have an egg for a light snack. It looks like all of the eggs are fertilized. This is the 2nd spawn for the male and the first for the female.

Here is a better pic off the eggs (before I removed the rock from the tank):


I went ahead and removed the rock they were on, not exposing them to the air at all. I don't have a bucket like the one you use, so I decided to put it in a rubbermaid container I had. I've never used it so it was perfectly clean. It holds about 2 gals of water. I assume that's sufficient.

So now I have the rock, tank water, a heater, and thermometer in the container. I'm about to make some of the egg mixture so I can feed the fry when they hatch.

Here is a pic of my setup:


Did I move them too soon?

Should I keep the eggs on the rock or can I move them?

Is it okay to keep them in that container? I am able to regulate the temp pretty well.....82*, which is the same as the tank.

No you didn't remove them to soon. If the male was eatting a egg. More then likely it ws a bad egg. Your set up looks great. I see nothing wwrong with it.

2. Leave the eggs on he rock. When they get ready to hatch the eggs will fall off the rock on there own. This will happen with in 3 days.
When they start to fal off the rock. Then You have wigglers. Once they sart becoming wigglers. The air stone will push them all over the tank { the rubber maid tank witch by the way Is what I use now right on the money with it } Te eggs will hide once they are off the stone. The wiggler ae looking for a place where the water flow is slower.
I keep them { the fry } in the container for the frist 3 to 4 week of there life. Works god for a tank. LOL

Be sure when you add them to there new home after the frist 3 to 4 weeks. That you add the water from the tank your moving them to SLOWLY!!!!!!!!! Just like you where putting new fish from the store in this tank. If you don't let them ajust to the new water primes they will dyi on you.

Hey Max. These are the Bolvines you where telling about right????
If there germn blue send some ,y way!!!!!!!!!!!!! Totally not kinding. LOL

[maxwell1295]

GBR's, not Bolivians. I had some realy stssed out GBR's from Walmart a while back. They never really had any color and ended up dying a quick death....probably from internal parasites or just stressed from being shipped. I got them the first day they were in. The GBRs are from PETCO and they have been great. Very colorful with great personalities.

Should I keep the airstone running the entire time, even after they are wigglers?

Yea keep the air stone going at all times. Once they are free swimming also. I keep it mine going til I move them to the fry tnks. In your case right up til you didide to move them. I usaully move them to a fry tank right after they beome free swimming.

How many did you have hatch?
You'll have o ship me some when you older.I need a couple of them badly. So keep me posted.

[maxwell1295]

I'm not sure about the exact n umber because I never counted the eggs. They were too close together to count. I'm going to guess and say that may 30-40 hatched. And that was with my temps all over the place. They got as high as 90F and dropped to like 74F last night. They were still a wigglin' when I left for work this morning. I hope they hang in there until I get home tonight. I want to be there to start feeding them when the time comes.

[maxwell1295]

Ack! Temps dropped big time when I was out. Down to 74F....I must have lost half if not more of the hatchlings. There are still some alive and I fed egg yolk last night. They are stil there now. Fingers crossed that they make it another day...

[maxwell1295]

Ack! Temps dropped big time when I was out. Down to 74F....I must have lost half if not more of the hatchlings. There are still some alive and I fed egg yolk last night. They are stil there now. Fingers crossed that they make it another day...

Thats good and there eating. Why is your temp going up and down so much? do you have a bad heater?

Most fry like warmer waters around 81 to 82. So if your turning the heat down to keep it from being o high then leave it. Also warmer wates will helop with the sexing of the gbr's just like the apisto's.

[maxwell1295]

Thanks, I'll leave it alone. It's a 50W heater that I acquired when I got a 10gal tank. I wasn't using it, so I figured I'd try it for this. I kinda threw everything together at the last minute. What I really need is a 2 - 2.5gal tank I can use strickly for raising fry and a 5 - 10 gal tank to move them into after a few weeks. I just hope they're still kicking when I get home tonight...

I have a 1.5 gal I use. I got it at pet smart as a betta set up then I got the heater at wal mart. It's a 2 to 5 gal heater. Works great for this type of set-up. When I don't have no fry or eggs in it. I keep a betta in it. This way there's a good batria base in the tank.
i remove the betta andjust put him in a 2 quart peanut butter jar. LOL it works great for him. THen there's the tank ready to go. On smaller fry's I just use a masin jar. Like now I have around 12 cockatoo full red in a jar. Free swimming and doing great. So Hopfully this time around you learn some stuff and are ready for the next fry.
Let me know if they maded it throw the work day. How many you have?

[maxwell1295]

I still see a lot of movement.....I'm going to say at least 20 of them made it. A lot more hatched than I thought. They are so small it's hard to count them. Plus I couldn't tell if they were moving or if it was the current from the air stone, so I turned it off long enough to try to get a count. I fed them some more egg yolk. It gets messy so I'm going to do a water change and try to suck out the leftovers using some air hose as a syphon.