First ever breeding pair SPAWNED!!

[Mmamnstr]

Got 3 Red Jewels from Ishkabod a while back and 2 seemed to pair off and beat the odd man out.

After getting rid of the spare wheel to a good home, they colored even more and were inseperable. As some of you know last Saturday (wow only a week) I got a new tank (55gl) and they all went in. Had a ammonia spike and lost 7 fish, and yet this morning, I get up and see the reds acting funny, thinking what the heck is she doing???

upon futher inspection I find TONS of eggs under the side she is hovering (Vertically I may add) over!!

Not very clear but tried to enhance so you could see the eggs.. Rock is fasirly smooth, so texture is eggs!

Threr are a few fish in the 55 as you can see from my sig, thinking of submurging a 5.5 into the 55 and removing the rock to the smaller tank (and then removing the 5.5 from the 55 of course) so eggs are safe and not exposed to air in transfer etc, any hints ideas for me??? should mom and dad go too??

Jenn

[jvision]

If you're going to hatch the eggs artificially (on their own in your 5.5), then you'll need an airstone bubbling right beside the eggs to keep them oxygenated. Normally the parents do this. Jewels are great parents and will protect the young in the 55... maybe at the expense of some of your other fish. I've seen a friend raise about 20 of the jewel kids to adulthood in a community tank, so you may be fine just to leave them. Otherwise, you'll end up with over 100 jewel kids and nowhere to put them.

[Mmamnstr]

lol, gotcha, I intervene I may have more than I can handle... Yeah stopped and seen Henry, got some brine eggs, and advice also (THANK YOU!!) going to look for some eggcrate to help mom and dad to keep nosey neighbours out, but thinking I will leave the rock in the main tank.

[Ishkabod]

If you can get an egg crate barrier to keep the other fish from the parents and babies. The parents really are good parents. Sometimes if something goes wrong the mother instead of Mouthbrooding(sp?) she will eat the eggs instead of spiting them out. Keep the conditions like they were when she spawned the eggs and everything should be fine. I found that even with a tonne of hiding places and even No predators in the tank a large number of the babies died off for no apparent reason so don't be suprised. I'm glad the fish are happy with you and that they survived the disaster. (tough little buggers)

Good luck

Merry Christmas

Lisa

[Frank]

I may be wrong here but I have never seen them Mouthbrood. I always just left mine alone. they are good parents. I have seen them take over half of a 180 gal tank and raise their

fry. Once they are free swimming I would remove them. Good luck with them.

[firestorm]

Congrats on your spawn I artificially raised a batch I got from my red jewels, only because my auratus female was going in and eating the eggs. I had to act fast and remove as many as I could. Having them hit the air for a few seconds won't harm them either. All I did was put them in a large bucket with a heater and airstone next to the eggs, and I literally still had over 100 eggs hatch. I ended up with tons of babies and not knowing what to do with them, thanks to Northranger for taking many of them off my hands . But they are great parents, and unless you want to end up with tons that no one wants I would also leave them in the main tank. Eventually some of them will get eaten or die off, but it's probably less than if you raised them yourself.

[Mmamnstr]

Well first shot may be blown, not sure. I bought some egg crate and moved everyone else from the rock area.. since I have some that are able to slide through the 1" grating, it sort of worked, at least the ones I was more worried about. Mom and Dad moved the eggs off the rock to the gravel. some turned whitish and they removed them but there were quite a few that I could see a black dot in the center they moved also. Waited for a bit and mom and dad started squabeling so I removed dad. Mom then chose not to hover over eggs/babies whatever in gravle, little 1" guys started taking over the partitioned side of the tank and Mom did not care.. I have removed partition and figure, I only have to wait how long before I have another batch of eggs??? Still watching to see if theres any wee wiggle movement from the area though..maybe 1?? will net it out and throw it into a breeder if I see any! Maybe my idea of artificial hatching in the 5.5 would work better until I shuffle fish and get them set up as breeding pairs in one and solo's in another.