A successful experiment to get a foster dad to take care of abandoned eggs!
Foster Dad (CTDT male) with some of his adopted children!
 The idiot in question... |  Big Mama! |
I set up my first spawn in a long while last Thursday. A brother and sister spawn from Spawn 112512 in an effort to produce intense yellows out of two reds carrying yellow. Although the pair are a little older, they are robust and in very good health. I've always had pretty good luck spawning older fish, even if they are virgins, as long as they are healthy.
Everything went according to plan - female was interested and developed eggs while sequestered in the hurricane glass, and the male displayed ferociously while building a small bubblenest under an IAL. Next, when I released the female, the male gave chase. With minimal fin damage a couple days later, the two wrapped. I was a little worried that the female was a tad large for the male, but he was acrobatic and they had a small ton of fertilized eggs.
This is where the rot starts to set in. The male appeared to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of eggs, and started to panic. His nest dissolved, and he scattered the eggs all over the bottom of the 10 gallon tank while attempting to collect them. Sometimes he wouldn't even spit them in the nest - he seemed to panic and spit them in the middle of the tank!
I decided to take action. Using an eyedropper, I carefully transferred a few eggs into the jars of males I had successfully bred in the past, and that had bubblenests. The first male ate the eggs, but the second male...he seems a bit confused, and then carefully scooped up the eggs and placed them in his nest. Immediately he assumed the guarding posture of the nesting male!
The poor red male seemed to give up and start eating a lot of the eggs. I decided to switch the red male with the foster male, along with his substantial bubblenest, into the spawn tank. The look on his face when he saw all those eggs lying about! He immediately began collecting every single egg, and even checked every corner. He didn't place all of them in the nest, although it seemed like a majority of them were successfully fertilized - I guess that a lot of them had stopped developing and he culled many of them.
This morning there were a few tails, and I hope that there are even more later on. The foster male is diligent in his father duties. I am planning to re-spawn the red pair this weekend and to switch the foster male in as soon as the egg laying and wrapping is done.
Everything went according to plan - female was interested and developed eggs while sequestered in the hurricane glass, and the male displayed ferociously while building a small bubblenest under an IAL. Next, when I released the female, the male gave chase. With minimal fin damage a couple days later, the two wrapped. I was a little worried that the female was a tad large for the male, but he was acrobatic and they had a small ton of fertilized eggs.
This is where the rot starts to set in. The male appeared to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of eggs, and started to panic. His nest dissolved, and he scattered the eggs all over the bottom of the 10 gallon tank while attempting to collect them. Sometimes he wouldn't even spit them in the nest - he seemed to panic and spit them in the middle of the tank!
I decided to take action. Using an eyedropper, I carefully transferred a few eggs into the jars of males I had successfully bred in the past, and that had bubblenests. The first male ate the eggs, but the second male...he seems a bit confused, and then carefully scooped up the eggs and placed them in his nest. Immediately he assumed the guarding posture of the nesting male!
The poor red male seemed to give up and start eating a lot of the eggs. I decided to switch the red male with the foster male, along with his substantial bubblenest, into the spawn tank. The look on his face when he saw all those eggs lying about! He immediately began collecting every single egg, and even checked every corner. He didn't place all of them in the nest, although it seemed like a majority of them were successfully fertilized - I guess that a lot of them had stopped developing and he culled many of them.
This morning there were a few tails, and I hope that there are even more later on. The foster male is diligent in his father duties. I am planning to re-spawn the red pair this weekend and to switch the foster male in as soon as the egg laying and wrapping is done.
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