male eating eggs

[ferrax]

I have a pair that have spawned about five times, they are in their own tank. I have witnessed 4 of the spawns and the male always did his job, or at least he tried. By the fifth spawn I got about 8 wigglers, then the male ate them shortly before the free swimming stage, the last 2 spawns the male has for some reason started to eat the eggs apearently imediately after the female has laid them. Why could he be doing this? Its odd because he has always been the more protective parent. He started to eat the eggs after the sapwn in which they got to free swimmer stage. I´m really frustrated with this situation. Just when i thought he was getting it right................ :'(, any suggestions to why he adopted this behavoir will be much apreciated, thx Nuno

Sometimes it takes them a while to learn. It appears that he is already fertile, however. Cary tells me that 20% of males are egg eaters beyond help and you just get rid of them

[ferrax]

I have read that many males eat the eggs, but what i really find odd is that this happened right after the first successfull spawn in wich resulted in 8 wigglers. he even moved them to another area on the cone. Once i went up to feed them and a while after thet the wigglers had dissapered. I got really pissed off thinking he had eaten them or something......later on I took what i thought to be a futile attempt to find the wigglers and to my surprise there they were back on the cone all snuggled up together. He had them in his mouth. He did this a few more times until finally not saw them anymore. I guess he couldn´t resist the taste of fry and swallowed them

Could this behaviour be the result of over protective male?

[ferrax]

well I woke up this morning and to my surprise there was eggs on the cone, they must have spawned after lights out. This is the first time they have spawned after lights out. What a relief.........woohhooooooo. ;D ;D ;D

good luck and keep us posted

[ferrax]

sfter 48 hrs none hatched, almost all turned white. My guess would be cause they spawned after lights out. oh well just gotta keep wating till they get it right

At least he stopped eating the eggs. :), thx for the encouragement

[saints27]

Ferrax
What temp do you have the tank at?

Jamie

[mench]

just keep trying.I have a pair that sometimes let the fry go into free swimming for over a week before they eat them,other times they eat the eggs,other times they do everything right.Go figure.....Sometime soon I will try Al's method of art.raising.

Mench

[ferrax]

tank stats:

Temp 30ºC
PH 6,2 - 6,4
KH 1
Amonia 0
Nitrates 0

The water is aged with peat and air stone
W/C 40% every other day

I read a post recently that suggested the higher the temp the less fertile the male is, don´t know if this is fact, but I think I´m gonna bring the temp down to 28ºC.

Temp is too high. Keep it at 82-84. 28 is just right. Sperm will die at high temp. What strain is the male?. For barless strain. Ph plays an important role in fertilization. Keep it around 6.0.
JImmy.

[ferrax]

The male is a blue turk ( its from LFS and was sold as a blue diamond)

The female is a red turk

For Turks or SS. Ph is not important. some of them even hatch in tap water if you have a strong male. Just the hatch rate suffer a bit. Keep the conductivity below 150ms and temp btw 82-84. will be fine. Keep it stable for the first 3 days. I usually withhold feeding and no W/C until they hatch. Just to keep the parameter stable. I keep telling everybody to take a 3 days vacation and leave them alone. Don't even look at them. It hard to do. Easy siad than done.
Jimmy.

[ferrax]

How do I measure conductivity?Is it the same as KH

[ferrax]

I´d like to thank everyone for their advice. my tank is now down to 28ºC.

They should lay eggs tomorrow or the next day, they´ve started to clean the cone and they ususally spawn a day or two after they have started to clean. I got my fingers crossed..again ;)

just hope it happens during lights on, I don´t think my male is too bright. ;D