Fungus?

[Midnight]

Hi all,

I'm a bit of a amateur so still learning the ropes.

Got a breeding paid, young male, female is a couple of months older, who have had several spawns. They ate the first couple of spawns so i decided to put mesh on the breeding tube.

So they've spawned again and about 50% of the eggs got fertilised, 24 hours later still all good no additional white eggs.

At about 48 hours and just checked them again and 90% of the eggs have gone white and what looks like fungus all over the eggs. I did put meth blue in the tank about 2 hrs after the spawn.

So Im probably going to let it go for another 8 hours but could someone confirm this is fungus and am I better off leaving the breeding tube unmeshed in the future and let nature take its course. Is it possible that the male is not 100% fertile still? And any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance

Pic @ https://www.dropbox.com/s/tn5d7kkfifmambc/2015-10-21%2018.53.08.jpg

[John_Nicholson]

Normally viable eggs do not really fungus much. It is the dead eggs that do. How much water are you changing? What is the temp of the tank?

-john

[Fishquake]

Normally viable eggs do not really fungus much. It is the dead eggs that do. How much water are you changing? What is the temp of the tank?

-john

John, can the fungus on the dead eggs eventually spread to the healthy, viable eggs? If so, is this a function of water chemistry/quality and or water movement around the eggs?

[John_Nicholson]

I have never had that happen in my tanks, but not all fungus is the same. My guess would be that it is unlikely. If the eggs fungused then they were probably already dead.

-john

[Midnight]

Hey John,

So doing 30% water changed daily and temps are around 29/84. By viable eggs do you mean fertilised or....?

extra info: Males about 4.5 inch (may be a little young and a little excited :) and females about 5.5 inch (She seems know know the drill)

Cheers

[John_Nicholson]

Both fish seem small. I would just give it more time and lets hope the male is too young. If he is mature enough to raise fry at 4.5 inches you do not want to breed with him anyway.

-john

[Midnight]

Yea I knew the male was probably to young to start all this but as soon as I put the female in the community tank they were all in he went batty for her and started ww3 in the tank with the other males.

So they paired up and I put them in a separate tank and within a few days they had their first spawn.

[Fishquake]

I have never had that happen in my tanks, but not all fungus is the same. My guess would be that it is unlikely. If the eggs fungused then they were probably already dead.

-john

Thank you John. I'm curious because I had several proven yet "inexperienced" pairs, aside from a few wrigglers, most of the eggs developed fungus. It was explained to me that I needed to lower my TDS and pH in order to reduce the fungus issue. I did this and had significant success. Now, you have me thinking that perhaps I should attribute that success to the pairs becoming more experienced. Maintaining a fairly low consistent pH/TDS is not easy and the possibility of a pH crash concerns me. Perhaps the best route is to not adjust water chemistry so much and see if the next spawns are successful as well.