laying dead eggs

[Rick_May]

I've got a female that is producing a large amount of dead eggs. I’ve watched over the past 10 spawns and as she lays them between 10% and 70% come out white. The rest are clear, pink eggs like I'd expect. Any idea on the white eggs is it a nutrition problem or is she just not producing good eggs? She’s one that I’d like to eventually get some fry from, as soon as I have the tank space.

[daninthesand]

Could be a lot of reasons. The male is infertile, water parameters etc. I'm no expert. I'm sure a few members will help you out..

Daniel

[Carol_Roberts]

No, Rick means the eggs are coming out of the female's tube white and dead. I've seen my SS female lay a few white eggs. Never 10% - 70% I don't know the cause.

[daninthesand]

Really? See! I said I was no expert....I did not know that could happen. Learn something new every day...err.. make that every few minutes..

;D

[brewmaster15]

Rick ,

How long have you had her, and do you trust the source? Maybe she was hormone fed when younger? I have never heard of hormones causing this but I would guess if it could make a male sterile, it could do similar to a female.

How old is she, and how long does she go between spawns?

-al

Hi Rick,

i breed angels and it is common to see few white eggs in a spawn. However, the rest hatch ok.

I find that this is not consistent-some spawns will not have any white eggs.

hth

alex

[Rick_May]

Al
I've had he almost a year and the source, well I can't say I "Trust" but when I got them none of them had unnatural coloring. One thing I have noticed is the larger the amount of white eggs, the longer between spawns it's been. Normaly she'll lay eggs every week, rather small spawns of about 75-150 eggs about 10% are white. if she misses a few weeks then the spawns are larger with more dead eggs.

[jeep]

I have a similar stiuation with one of my females. I posted on it several months ago but nothing was determined.

She always lays a few white eggs, but the male use to harrass her constantly. When this happened, the spawning cycle would get delayed and she would lay a larger amount of white eggs.

I just had my first wigglers the other day so I know the rest of the eggs are fine...

Kind of strange...Ive had females that lay a small pecentage of dead eggs...not really uncommon. But 70% thats a pretty serious amount!
I assume she's kept in the same water as other females..fed the same diet?
Do you supplement the diet with anything? Vitamins maybe? Or something else?
Im thinking its environmental or dietary if the percentage is so variable....

Tony

[brewmaster15]

Hey Rick,

maybe Tony is onto something here. I was just in the lab and noticed we have a jar of folic Acid... want some? :)

-al

[jeep]

In my case the I have 2 different females in the exact same environment. One lays white eggs and the other does not ???

The total amount of white eggs directly relates to how long in between spawns...

[Rick_May]

I've got several females in the same water, same diet, one other known female in the same tank and none of the others lay dead eggs.

Al, have you tried using folic acid? For a while I was adding weat germ into my BH mix but didn't see any change.

[brewmaster15]

Hi Rick,
I haven't tried it. And haven't looked into its effects on fish... maybe i should try it on a few culls! ;) Maybe this fish of yours just needs a boost in vitamens?

-al

[Rick_May]

vitamins may be the answer, I guess I should do some experimenting and see if I can find a solution.

[dred]

Hey, rank newbie here. Don't even have Discus yet - just working on long term plans.

But, what strikes my attention is the correlation suggesting that the greater the length of time between spawns, the greater the number of dead eggs.

I've read somewhere that if the female doesn't lay she reabsorbs the eggs. Seems to me you have a female that doesn't.

So, when she skips a spawn, does she still show? Does she continue showing until the finally spawns? And, do you notice anything that correlates with her skipped spawnings?

Sorry for the WAG, but can't pass up a mystery <smiles>.