Pair eating babies

[JeffreyRichard]

I have a pair of Leopard Snakeskins regularly spawning every two weeks. I have raised several spawns artifically ... but I been leaving the eggs with the parents lately. Up until recently, I have not been having much of a hatch from these spawns.

Two weeks ago, I got a nice hatch ... between 60 -80 fry. They went on the mother's back right away.

After 2 days, most of the babies were gone. I noticed that the female had the male cowarded in the corner, and they were fighting some. After 5 days I had no babies left.

I'm pretty sure one of the fish eat the babies.

Looking for thoughts/suggestions.

I'm currently raising this next spawn (yesterday) artifically.

jeff

[DarkDiscus]

Jeff,

Not an expert opinion, but I'd consider pulling just one fish and see how the other does with the fry. You should be able to figure out the culprit by trial and error.

John

PS. Unless it's both...

[shamsoo]

I always pull out females after laying, to avoid laying again
males usually taking care of brood

[Carol_Roberts]

Yes, try pulling the female first

[limige]

when they reach the point they are starting to fight it's time to seperate. i choose to switch females between the two males i have but if you don't have another pair to swap partners with then just pull the female after the eggs hatch.

[shamsoo]

limige I have a female who is mating with two males without any problem ;D

I prefer both parents raise the babies together for better growth and maintain good health for the parents. Try separate them with an egg crate partition. This will avoid fighting and allow both parents raising them together.
Jimmy.

[jeep]

Jimmy, what is your solution if there's no fighting going on but the babies still get eaten? Do you have any other methods than to remove the one doing the eating?

Brian

Jeep: I don't have a solution for parents eating fry for no apparent reason. You can try the method at the end of the message. I've found egg and baby eating is a learned bad habit usually taught by other discus in a community tank environment where all eggs are eaten by any potential suitors of the spawning pair. Apart from the suggestions of letting them spawn in the community tank several times to make them a better parents and bond much better. I have tried and observed spawning behaviour in different enviroments. IMHO It's a very bad habit to break once they have a taste of the caviar and sometimes need a very aggressive partner to control the egg eater. Precaution is better than repair the damage. I separate all spawning females in their own breeding tank as soon as they show signs of spawning and never let them spawn in the community tank. I've found all first time spawner do not eat eggs. Most will let fungus take over control of the eggs until I siphon them off the site. Most of my fish will guard their eggs until fugus take over and turn them into a white hariy mess. Also keeping the light on 24hr a day makes a big different in the comfort zone of the breeing parents. You can try this method see if it helps.
Jimmy.

[CliffsDiscus]

Jeff,
I have the same problem with my Fireworks (leopardSnakeSkin) pair. Finally I had to pull the eggs out and raise them artifically. Depending on your percentage
you should at least have some frys left instead of none.

Cliff