fry not interested

[bbyw]

hi everyone, i have a breeding pair of red melons that have no trouble spawning but once the fry become freeswimming they show no interest in the parents.the parents constantly swim around gathering them up & spitting them back on the substrate only to watch them swim away again.some stay on the pipe,some just lay on the bottom & others just swim away. the parents do this until the fry look dead, gobble them up & start the whole process again, usually the next day. i have tried lowering the water on two occasions with no success & other times ive let them go. :? :? :cry: :cry: ANY INFORMATION PLEASE. ps. besides artificially raising :wink: :wink:

[Mattzilla]

try lowering the water level to just above the parents hight and also cover half the top of the tank with a towl so that harf of the dank is darker. fry instincively are attracted to dark colour so this will help gather them to one side of the tank. maybe add a little salt to increase the amount of slim coating on the parents.

hth

note: this is not frome personal experience just things i have read

matt

[chrissyoscar]

Yeah I've read the same thing about lowering the water level and also reducing water flow from filters etc so that the fry can grab onto the parents easier. Also if you have dark sponge filters or other dark objects in the tank then remove them if you can or cover them up somehow. As Mattzilla said the fry are attracted to dark objects which is why the parents go very dark. I do know that fry have trouble attaching to pigeon Bloods because of there color and that could also be the problem with your Red Melons.


Hope this helps and keep us posted.. Oscar

[bbyw]

thanks guys, ive tried lowering the water on two occasions with no success following proceedures from penang discus book & ive taken everything out of the tank except the heater & even put a white air stone in. they are on the verge of spawning again so with any luck they,ll get it right by themselves. pigeon blood do have this problem & so do blu diamonds. may be i,ll have to take holidays from work to give artificial raising a go.