Couple of spawning questions

[Dave76]

Hi all

When checking and feeding this morning - a pair of my Discus have left a whole lot of what look like eggs all over the floor of their tank - except they are black - not red or clear or white. Is this normal ?

I'll try and get a pic tonight - was in a rush this morning....

Another pair in the tank next door (on the same trickle system) have laid also - nice healthly looking red / orange eggs.

Another pair also laid in my community tank - but didn't fertilise - eggs stayed clear, while another 2 fish in the tank are cleaning up a bit of driftwood and doing their little mating dance as well. If they spawn successfully should I try and remove the eggs and perhaps put them in with one of the other pairs to hopefully hatch out & raise - or see how they go in the community tank for their first time.

Unfortunately my other pair decided to eat their wrigglers when they tried to go free swimming - the parents would catch them and try to place them back on the pipe - the wrigglers would keep trying to swim away - I think the parents got sick of playing this game and decided to just chomp em down :(

Thanks in advance

Dave

[flukes]

I find the color of eggs normally change with different fish and strains, normally if a egg is infertile it will go white and then grow fungus.

As for the pair in the community tank, well ive never heard of it working but then again every spawn is more practice for the pair.. It can only help..

[Merrilyn]

Sounds like you've got quite a little fry farm going there Dave. You must be doing something right.

Eggs can be varying shades of red/orange depending on the food the fish consumes, but I have never seen black eggs. Is it possible that some carbon could have escaped from your filter and landed on the floor of the tank.

The spawn in the community tank is unlikely to escape the hungry mouths in the rest of the tank, but as Flukes says, it is all good practice, and it will make the parents guard their eggs and fry carefully when they are in the spawning tank.

[Dave76]

I have an egg farm going - not a fry farm - yet ;)

The pair in their own breeding tank ate the eggs....

The community pair laid sometime yesterday and are looking after the eggs extremely well - 2 out of about 100 have turned whire - if they get to the wriggler stage I think I will move them out to hopefully increase their chance of survival.

The mystery of the black 'eggs' I solved this morning when I went to look at the temperature - they had broken the bottom where the weight is - lots of little black 'eggs' :) so they are now all removed.

Regards

Dave

[Merrilyn]

Phew - glad about the black eggs. That had me worried. LOL
Dave, you are still doing everything right, and it's just a matter of time now. Fish don't spawn unless they think everything's perfect. So keep doing whatever it is that you are doing.

I think if you remove the wrigglers and the parents from the community tank, they will either eat their babies or ignore them. Either way it's a big chance. Is there any way you can screen off their corner of the tank to keep the fry safe from the others.

[Dave76]

Hi Merrilyn

Not really - the bit of wood is dead smack in the middle of the tank. I wasn't going to remove the parents - just the wrigglers & try to raise artifically, or the other thought I had was to put them into one of the breeding tanks with a different pair.

Here's a couple of pics - my camera is getting a good workout with all these spawnings.....I've also added one of the pair that didn't fertilize properly...

I just can't wait for a pair to finally get it right - should I tape some instructions to the glass for them to read ???? ;)

Regards

Dave

[flukes]

Nice tank and fish, rasing artifically is a task in itself. But if you want too give it a go then why not. I ve been waiting for someone too try it, if you do we would love a progress post with heaps of pics if you could. It would be great to keep in the article section even if it wasnt successful..

[Merrilyn]

Beautiful looking tank Dave. Any wonder you have got such happy fish. Keep us posted on what you decide to do.

[Dave76]

Well unfortunately someone had a caviar snack last night :(

On the flip side tho the pair that spawned last week then ate their wrigglers have spawned again last night - hopefully they'll have a bit better success this time.

Regards

Dave