SammieJo
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Hi, so in one of my 55g tanks I have 2 adult Jack Dempeys. I bought the first one several months ago because, well, he was just beautiful! Full of color. Then, I guess it was about a month ago at this point, I got another one, not as colorful but it was a good price and I really like JDs. After the first couple days I got to thinking...I might have a male and female. About 2 weeks after I got her....I find little eggs! At the time I had a couple other fish in the tank. So I panic of course and rush to the interwebbings to see what I do now. Figured I need to take the other fish out. Apparently JDs are great parents. So, I take the other fish out, test the water, everything tested ok, but the nitrates I think were a bit high. The tank was a bit over crowded. Didn't want to play with the water too much with eggs in it. Needless to say the first batch didn't work. Well, I was told they can lay eggs again in as little as 10 days. Mine didn't waste any time trying again. This time I made sure the water was right, clean, and at a good temp. They started round 8/22 in the evening time. If they hatch in about 3 days I'm thinking tonight should be the night for them to hatch! But....not really sure where to go from there. I have a little 10g breeder tank set up and ready for them if need be. I read that you can leave them with the parents for 4-6 weeks or until the lay more eggs. Is this true? That would save me a lot of hassel. I have another 55g set up and established if I need to move them into more space. What is there typical growing rate? And, one last thing I was pondering...are my JD's going to breed forever?? Depending on how this goes, I don't know that I want them breeding forever, would this mean I need to separate them in the future to stop this? Long story short...have JD eggs hopefully hatching in the next 24 hours...what now???