babies for Christmas

Looks like my fish are giving me babies for Christmas!
So i need your help.
They have barely been in there a week and i wasnt expecting this. How long till they hatch? what will the fry eat? will the other fish eat them or will the parents successfully defend the fry as they are defending the eggs at this moment? the other fish seem to be staying pretty far away for the most part. I will be out of town till monday, will any survive? Its a 55 gal tank with (6) 2"-3" jewels in there. no idea what the sexes are except the one laying and her mate obviously. lol

Congrats this is a really cool picture.

yeah i agree. its really cool how they can lay eggs on vertical surfaces!

Ok one thing you need to do is prefilters over intakes on filters(sponges). They should be wigglers in 3 days and once they finish consuming the eggsac they should be free swimming in 7-10 days. Just crush up pellets or flake food in a cup and use a turkey baster to Target feed. Feed them small amounts as many times as you can in a day. Keep in mind the amount should be small.

good advice.

The jewels should protect the brood very well. I say you have 2 weeks after they go free swimming before they eat the fry and spawn again.

yeah, so i'd be seting up a 5 or 10 gal fry tank or buy a breeder box at the pet store that stays in your main aquarium.. they work good, i had baby black balloon belly mollies in there to keep them from geting eaten by my oscars

bossman wrote:

yeah, so i'd be seting up a 5 or 10 gal fry tank or buy a breeder box at the pet store that stays in your main aquarium.. they work good, i had baby black balloon belly mollies in there to keep them from geting eaten by my oscars

Black ballon mollies and Oscars? how did u get the Oscar from eating them..Oscars ill find a way to get to them.

i bought one of those breeeder boxes from petsmart, i think it was a top fin if i remember correctly. but it had suction cups that stuck prety close to the top of the water level, make sure you dont just get the ones that float. anyways they lived happily in the same tank for about a month til i sold the oscars

So I'm sorry to say I woke the next morning after these eggs were laid and not a single egg was left and the parents were swimming with the others.

So much for stellar parenting! Lol

They are first timers. Give them a couple of tries. Feed them plenty of protien and they will do it again.

Well, honestly they are pretty dull and only temporary, I'm not looking to breed them but it is interesting to see. Also, I have never intervened in order to let eggs hatch so it's kind of exciting to enter new territory. Part of my hesitation is not knowing what the heck I would do with all the fry other than feed them to my Colombian tetras! Lol
It would be like throwing fluffy bunnies at starving timber wolves!