change temperature?

[Marywouters]

Hi

I had one of my pairs lay eggs last week and they got to the stage that they were about to become free swimming when all of the young ones were suddenly gone from the cone. I saw some of them fall of the cone onto the bottom of the tank without moving. My temperature was at 28°C, KH 2 GH 4 µS 120, PH 7. I change 10 % of water every day and once a week I change 25%, except when they had the young ones hatched, I only syphoned off the dirt every day.
Yesterday another couple laid eggs. Their eggs always turn white and get fungused. If they would hatch, do I have to change anything? I lowered my µS to 100 and my temperature is still 28°C.
I thought maybe I have to raise my temp. by 1° after they have hatched?
Any other ideas?

Mary

[Chad Hughes]

Mary,

I can't see anything wrong with what you are doing.

Best wishes!

[Marywouters]

Hi,

If I'm not doing anything wrong, then why did the batch just disappear? I think they died for some reason, so I thought it might be the lower temperature. I saw a couple of the last ones that were left over fall of the cone and they didn't move anymore.
I hope to know what to do when the new eggs hatch. This would be tomorrow morning. The others were alive until they were about to become free swimming.

Mary

[Chad Hughes]

Mary,

If the eggs/fry are disappearing it's because the parents are eating them. They don't just disappear.

Once the fry are free swimming they should attach to the parents. How old is your pair and have they carried fry before?

Best wishes!

[Marywouters]

The parents that have eggs now have eaten the eggs before, so I have put something over the eggs so they can't reach them. I am going to leave this on the cone till they become free swimming.
The other couple that had the fry last weekend, has had fry before, not in my tanks, but with the former owner. They had eggs before here, but they got fungused. This couple is 2,5 years old. Last weekend the fry were about to become free swimming when they were either eaten by the parents, or else they disappeared through the overflow pipe. I had put a small net over this pipe, but maybe the holes were still to big. I am going to try with a nylon pair of stockings now.
Should I remove the mother?

Mary

[Chad Hughes]

Mary,

It's likely that the pair that laid eggs in another location is still trying to get comfortable in their new environment and may eat their eggs/wigglers/free swimmers for a while. You can try and cover and guard them to see if that helps as you suggested.

I would recommend a prefilter sponge on your overflow pipe or using a cycled spong filter instead of your normal overflow filtration while you have eggs/fry. You don't want fry, especially free swimmers, getting pulled in to your filter.

It's hard to say which parent to pull. I've heard about success with either the male or the female. What you really need to do is watch them to see who is eating the eggs/wigglers. That's the parent to pull. If you can't observe this, pull out one parent at a time and see what happens. You might get lucky with your first selection. IME males are a bit more agressive, but like I said, I have heard success with either.

Hope this helps!