We've got eggs!!

stevef10

Ok, so last Friday we found eggs our Salvini had laid. It was interesting because we don't have a male Salvini. Our Texas cichlid fertilized the eggs and four days later only a couple have turned white. The rest have darkened a little with tiny black specks, which we assume means they were fertilized.

Here's the mom guarding her eggs:


And here's the dad:


We've been reading about hybrids and understand that they shouldn't be sold or distributed. We would like to keep a couple just for ourselves and the rest would be released into our 125 gallon as snacks for our other fish.

Right now we have the tank separated so just the salvini is with her eggs. Should we move the salvini away from the eggs? Will she eat the eggs/fry? What should we do with the fry when they hatch? We were thinking of getting one of those plastic things that hang on the inside of the tank to separate the fry from the rest of the fish. Will that work??

This is our first time with eggs/fry so any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

stevef10

My wife saw a couple eggs hatch and the salvini push them inside the coliseum decoration we have. So we can't see them but pretty sure a couple have hatched!!

Twistersmom

Good luck with them!
Sounds like she is taking good care of them.

stevef10

Well, all the eggs are gone. Hopefully they're inside the coliseum but we can't see any of the fry. We're afraid to move anything around to see if they're there because we don't want to stress them out. Is it normal for the fry to hide out the first couple days?

stevef10

Well, the babies are gone. We moved the decorations around and no babies She must have eaten them after they hatched, my wife saw the first couple hatch.

So for next time, should we take the mother away from the eggs and leave them by themselves? Or should we try to move the eggs into a floating breeder box? I've heard that the eggs are really sticky and if you touch them very lightly with your finger they should stick and you can put them in a breeder box like that. Does that work or is there a better way to isolate them?

dramaqueen

I'm sorry about the babies. :(

stevef10

I guess we learn by doing right? :) Now we'll know a little better about what to do next time.

Twistersmom

Yea, I would have thought she would take care of the fry. Sorry I was not able to offer any help. I have not had any experience with fry yet, My bolivian rams are trying to get it together, but no eggs yet, at least not that I have seen.