Once again an epic fail. I have 2 male and 1 female RBP in a bare bottom 50 gallon breeder tank. The only filtration I have on it is a single sponge filter. To trigger spawning I will not do a water change for around a month and then for three days do 50% water changes. This has got her to spawn about once a month for the past 4+ months. The problem is she likes to eat the eggs as soon as they become wigglers. I was hoping she would grow out of it and eventually decide not to but this time I ran out of patience and separated the eggs about an hour after the male was done fertilizing. In hindsight this was a bad move as I have no idea really how to take care of the eggs other than using a small aristone to create some current over them. This morning 90%+ of the eggs have now turned white. What should I do for next time to get a higher percentage to make it to the point where they hatch? I am confident once I can get them free swimming I will be fine but getting them to that point seems to be impossible.
RBP spawn issues
- Thread starter Big_Z
- Start date
First I'd say better filtration for the parents tank. All those steps your taking just to spawn rbp isn't necessary. I'd add gravel. After they spawn the eggs will stick to gravel for a day or two, they'll hatch & fall into the gravel.as soon as the hatch & fall in I siphon em out into a small tank with a airstone. When they eat their first bbs meal I add a hob filter with pre-filter on intake. If you siphon before they hatch, I'd use methylene blue to stop fungus from killing them all. Right after they hatch is the best time to siphon them though.
I'd also bet its the male eating the eggs & not the female. Males are the ones that fan the eggs & tends to them. Gravel sub should give you a couple more days before they're eatn. & actually he's probably only eating them because there is no sub to begin with.
I suggest blk sub for ease of seeing the little orange eggs. FYI the caring for eggs & wigglers is the easy part. Its when they start eating is when you'll lose most of your babies.1st two weeks after the first meal is when you'll lose 90% of what your gonna lose.
What would you say in a normal percent to expect to lose? Will larger tanks help with this or will that just create more of a problem with them finding food? Sorry for all the questions I am just used to fish that I dont have to worry with the fry eating each other...
Percentage depends on you. Exspirence is EVERYTHING. I suk eggs & wigglers into 2.5gal tanks. When yoke sak is sukd dry I move them to 5gal-10gal tanks with AC30(pre-cycled media)with sponge over intake.I wait till after their 1st meal before I move them from the 2.5gals. When you feed bbs turn your filter off & clean the pre-filter. Give em 5-10minutes to feed & turn filter back on. Do you have a outlet for these babies? Rbp are everywhere not much market for them. I end up feeding 90% back to my predators.
Thats part of my goal I have other larger tanks of hungry fish. The other part is I have a big tank headed my way after the first of the year and I want to stock it with a small school of rbps that are all the same size and dont feel like paying $20 a piece (cheapest I have found them within and hour or so of me) Thanks again for all your help.
No worries. I try to stop in here once in a while.on couple other forums everyday.I'd wait a week(shovel good foods to em)& try daily cold water changes. They'll spawn again for ya probably couple days into it. One last thing when it rains it pours! Once they really start spawning good luck turning them off! GL