Good morning, My male pink convict and female firemouth have had a loose pair bond for a couple of weeks. Her female papilla was out all day and I observed them looking for a place to lay. They were taking all day , when I woke up she was guarding the clutch. I did not see him fertilize the clutch. I was going to wait after the hatched, before posting but my last batch, I didn't pull from a different breeding pair first time mommy, ate her wigglers by the time my coffee kicked in. So far all of my breeding attempts have failed either from catfish eating , parents eating or completely unfertilized across all my breeding types. I pulled the eggs and they turned whitish very quickly. I put an air bubble in the pot with air flowing directly on the eggs in the pot. I used a flashlight to view the eggs. I am concerned that either the air directly on the eggs is not good (saw a ram breeder do it), the bombardment of light from strong flashlight ect. is all wrong. I have a much larger hybridization goal of crossing several different central American cichlids , ranging from Green Texas , Parrot, Leucistic Convict, Jack Dempsey, Rainbows. I will not be distributing to anyone who does not want explicit hybrid CA fish. What am I doing wrong? here is a picture of the bubbler. I did back to back 50% water changes they have been on Hikari sinking cichlid Gold pellets, frozen shrimp and blood worms. 80 degree temp with a few fluctuations to 82 then back down. Am I on the right track?anything I should be doing completely different? I am new. Your experience is appreciated.
