Egg care tips

-Always use tank water in the egg container, so the water parameters and temperature are identical when transitioning.

-Get the proper tools to help you maintain the eggs, a plastic pair of tweezers are great, and various size medicine droppers to move the eggs around.

-Keep the egg container clean. There is a lot of debris that is picked up when transferring eggs, so keep it clean and take a few minutes to get anything out that doesn't resemble an egg.

-Heat is good, but too much heat makes hard boiled eggs. If your egg container/tank setup allows it, you can fasten the container in the tank to maintain a nice temperature. Another option to this is to rest it above a tank light to give off some warmth. I forgo both of these options and put my egg containers on the very top of my tank rack, since heat rises it's the warmest up there. Whatever you do, do not put the egg container in direct sunlight, or any other unregulated heat source. For what it's worth, I don't heat any eggs except for my rams, I do however heat the fry tank.

-Air flow is great, so put a bubbler in there if you are concerned about fungus. Don't worry about messing the eggs up with the bubbles, the benefits outweigh the negatives IMO. This really applies to sticky eggs as opposed to nonstick eggs, since it's harder to separate the good from the bad. I don't use air on the eggs I collect from the egg scatterer types.

-Use a fungus inhibitor. I strictly use h2o2 (hydrogen peroxide), not only because I'm a cheapskate, but also because it works well at keeping fungus away. I dose 1ml/gallon and stop after there are wigglers. The other ncie thing about h2o2 is that it dissipates on it's own, so you don't have to WC to get it out.

-However, even with these efforts, fungus will still happen, and when it does, pull the fungused eggs immediately.

-In general, the eggs that turn white are not viable, and should be removed before they fungus.

Which brings me to my next tip.

-DONT THROW THEM AWAY unless they are fungused over.

My cory eggs are all very similarly colored, and while pulling white eggs I put them into another container of water since I wasn't near the kitchen sink. I left the container out for a few hours while I was sleeping, and as I go to toss it out, lo and behold, there's 4 or 5 wigglers in there.

So the moral of the story is to separate the good eggs from the bad, because fungus is a killer, but don't toss the 'bad' eggs out so quickly because they might not be as bad as you think.

jetajockey wrote:

-Always use tank water in the egg container, so the water parameters and temperature are identical when transitioning.

-Get the proper tools to help you maintain the eggs, a plastic pair of tweezers are great, and various size medicine droppers to move the eggs around.

-Keep the egg container clean. There is a lot of debris that is picked up when transferring eggs, so keep it clean and take a few minutes to get anything out that doesn't resemble an egg.

-Heat is good, but too much heat makes hard boiled eggs. If your egg container/tank setup allows it, you can fasten the container in the tank to maintain a nice temperature. Another option to this is to rest it above a tank light to give off some warmth. I forgo both of these options and put my egg containers on the very top of my tank rack, since heat rises it's the warmest up there. Whatever you do, do not put the egg container in direct sunlight, or any other unregulated heat source. For what it's worth, I don't heat any eggs except for my rams, I do however heat the fry tank.

-Air flow is great, so put a bubbler in there if you are concerned about fungus. Don't worry about messing the eggs up with the bubbles, the benefits outweigh the negatives IMO. This really applies to sticky eggs as opposed to nonstick eggs, since it's harder to separate the good from the bad. I don't use air on the eggs I collect from the egg scatterer types.

-Use a fungus inhibitor. I strictly use h2o2 (hydrogen peroxide), not only because I'm a cheapskate, but also because it works well at keeping fungus away. I dose 1ml/gallon and stop after there are wigglers. The other ncie thing about h2o2 is that it dissipates on it's own, so you don't have to WC to get it out.

-However, even with these efforts, fungus will still happen, and when it does, pull the fungused eggs immediately.

-In general, the eggs that turn white are not viable, and should be removed before they fungus.

Which brings me to my next tip.

-DONT THROW THEM AWAY unless they are fungused over.

My cory eggs are all very similarly colored, and while pulling white eggs I put them into another container of water since I wasn't near the kitchen sink. I left the container out for a few hours while I was sleeping, and as I go to toss it out, lo and behold, there's 4 or 5 wigglers in there.

So the moral of the story is to separate the good eggs from the bad, because fungus is a killer, but don't toss the 'bad' eggs out so quickly because they might not be as bad as you think.

All very true! Great use of info here.

:) thanks

Very good jeta!, im sure there's a lot of members that will need this info!..

Great info!! I'll have to keep this in mind as I get my breeding program under way!

Very good info!
One thing to add, some eggs are white like leleupi eggs. Those if left with the parents will be cared for and the bad ones pulled out by the mother.

Very good point Fern. The breeds that care for their own eggs definitely do a better job than we can do.

I am hoping to leave the eggs with the parents of those that will provide care. I think that is always the best route.

For those that do not provide care, this information will be quite helpful in successful hatching.

I guess it's time to get things going with some tetras... The wife has been anxious to get them moved since the tank was set up. Now that it's fully cycled, she's chomping at the bit.

I wish you good luck!!

Those substrate spawners that do care for their eggs and to a point their fry, I find it easiest to siphon them to a fry tank at the wiggler stage. The parents have gotten them hatched but most will at some point turn on the fry. I prefer siphoning a pile of wiggler to trying to catching free swimmers later on. Leleupis in point here.

Some patents never turn on their fry and can be left in the same tank indefinitely, Neo brichardii in point here.

Yeah. With the JDs, I pulled out a bunch of the fry when I spotted them. While there are still fry with the parents, their numbers seem to be dwindling much faster than those I have moved.

Unfortunately, I didn't spot them until they were free swimming as the parents laid in the only spot in the tank I couldn't see, on the back side of a pot I was hoping they would use the inside of. Durned fish!!