Eggs, HELP!!!

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g11king

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 30, 2010
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Scotland, UK
Ok so my cichlid tank of 5 spot jewles in which I had 6, I now have eggs from the smallest and the largest. They have already beaten one up so badly I had to take it out and into another tank to try recover!!

There are another 2 in the other end of the tank which are building a nest area so turns out I have 2 pairs of breeding Jewels in one tank.

Now in regards to help, will they survive with all fish in the tank or do I have to leave only the parents of the eggs??

What about when the other 2 lay eggs??

And once free swimming what do I feed them??

Main qu is though, what do I do? Leave the tank or not? And if I do leave it will they live?

Also how long do eggs take to hatch from being laid? They were laid last night at some point so only about 12 hours so far!

Thanks for all help!!

Graeme
 
I've never kept or bred spot jewels but I have bred other cichlids. If they are good parents, then you can leave them with the eggs. The female will fan the eggs with her fins to keep them aerated and slow the growth of fungus.

If you want to remove the parents from the eggs, then you will have to use methelyne blue to prevent fungus growth. Otherwise, fungus will grow very quickly and kill the eggs before hatching.

I think was about 5 days for eggs to hatch. I'm not sure if it's different for spot jewels.

I'm not sure how things will turn out with two breeding pairs in one tank. It sounds like trouble brewing. Breeding pairs should be kept alone if you want to breed them. Or you could try putting up a divider to separate the two pairs. You can buy a divider or make one out of plexi glass from your local hardware store. Just have them cut them to size and use a dremel to make holes. However, the fry will likely go through the holes. But I remember someone who had two breeding pairs on either side of a divider with large holes. The fry hatched at the same time and they would swim freely from side to side and both pairs raised the fry together.

No need to feed them when they are wigglies. They'll feed from the sack. But when they are free swimming you can feed them flake food. Brine shrimp is good for pumping them up. Some like to feed beef heart too or blood worms when they are larger. All can be found in the frozen food section.

Anyways, good luck.

What do you plan to do with all the fry?

If you don't want to deal with raising up the fry, you can always just grab a gravel vac and suck all the eggs away.

Oh and how big is this tank they have laid the eggs in? If you have another tank free, you could move the pair that haven't laid eggs yet so they can have their own space and they won't fight with the other pair.
 
Ok so a bit of an update!

I have had a bit change in the tank. The eggs are down to about 25, they are still gaurding them more so than ever but I cant see any wrigglers from the eggs that have went missing. But I am sure they have not ate any?! I have had a close eye on them all day an have seen some dissapear just not sure where to!?

What should I look for in the tank to see if they have hatched ok?

Also I have set up a 3ft tank for the babies when they are free swimming if they make it that is!!

Graeme
 
Silly question but is the female the larger or smaller of the 2?

Also I cant see anything, although the eggs have almost all disapeared I cannot see any hatchlings. What should I be looking out for?

Thanks in advance,

Graeme
 
If the eggs were fertilized, then after a couple days you should have seen little eyes in the eggs. Then they would fall down and look like eggs with a little tail sticking out and they wiggle.

If they are disappearing and you don't see anything wiggling on the bottom of the tank they probably didn't get fertilized and the parents are eatting the eggs slowly.
 
Mmmm..... I was not to sure about the eggs, read if they were not fertilised then they went white but they were a grey colour. but definately nothing swimming about the bottom of the tank?!

Must have ate them, got up this morning and there are non left!!

When they lay them again what is the best thing to do?
 
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