Houston, we have eggs!

[tpl*co]

Well, my Mandarin Passion (now a confirmed girl) and San Merah had a small clutch of eggs on the glass of my community tank. She looks like she'll be a good mom, but my san merah is still a clutz. I got these fish about 3 weeks ago and the San Merah is the one that had a tough time acclimating, he's not as bold as my other fish but he's learning. She's guarding OK, but it looks like he still needs a little more of a clue ;) . I will be surprised if these eggs hatch, but I am interested in seeing any future batches from this pair. OK, in setting up a breeding tank, do I need to lower my pH from around 7.6-7.8 or does the hardness matter more?

[Carol_Roberts]

Hardness is the key - you want the GH between 3 - 6. Let the pH fall where it may.

[tpl*co]

Great! I'm there then. I have a whole house water softener that I use potasium chloride instead of sodium chloride in and my hardness is around 4. Still need to get the breeding tank ready though. Going on a trip for a week in May though. Do I want to let them breed in a new tank before then and risk DH messing things up? (he hasn't cared for my fish before, and threatens sushi for my spending so much time with them). Maybe I should just keep them in the community tank as is until after the trip?

[Carol_Roberts]

I'm not sure how they will do in water run through a whole house water softener. Many have experienced problems . . . . .

It may take weeks or months for them to breed after moving to a new tank - I'd put them in now.

[tpl*co]

What type of problems? I could age and soften water bypassing the softener, but the hardness is around 8 unsoftened and I'd need RI or some other type of water.

My co-worker is jealous that my discus spawned before his :cool: (he's the one that encouraged me to get back into keeping fish in the first place)

[tpl*co]

The one thing that worries me about starting up a breeder tank now though is having my DH keeping up another (or potentially messing up another) tank. It won't (*gasp*) have a water change in a week. I don't know how well he'll feed it. I'd think the big planted community tank would be more forgiving than a smaller bare breeder, even if I sacrifice a few broods (better than losing the fish!). This tank is big and bright and I know he'll at least throw in some food (I'll show him how to feed frozen only to make sure that they have clean type foods premeasured for the week). Boy, I'm torn, but this is a field trip with my son for a week!