Preventing mould from egg

[snowball]

My 2nd pair just spawned after 2wks from their 1st, but male kicked out eggs again. I managed to siphoned out all the eggs and kept them in a breeder box. There were approx more than 40+ wrigglers out of 80+ eggs yesterday, however, this morning, checked on them, they were all covered in mould. Had to remove many and now only left with less than 20 wrigglers.

How do you guys keep eggs and wrigglers from turning mouldy?

[chilicrabz]

Is the eggs turning mouldy or the wrigglers???

I dunno if u have put an airstone inside, but definitely they need plenty of aeration or current.

[snowball]

I suppose its the egg. The wrigglers are in between some unhatched eggs, when eggs turned mouldy, the mould covered the wrigglers. Now I only left with 1 wriggler, the one and only one that wasn't covered by mould, the rest that are covered, died. Do you mean if there is sufficient aeration, eggs won't turn mouldy?

What I did was, I didn't have a separate air hose in the breeder box, I left the box hanging in the main tank with the main tank's canister filter's outlet directing into the box, to give it aeration. Sorry, do you understand what I mean?

[canopy]

Imagine what the father do in the cave, you need to replicate similar action. Most important is the fanning process. There is no way to hold a fan in the water. The only easiest way is to use water current to simulate the motion and water movement. I had a batch of 35 pcs of L66 eggs just 5 days ago. I took out the eggs on the very first day and now really regret cause it is really hard work to prevent mould and fungus.
I lost 9 eggs in the process and now the wrigglers are out of the shell after 5 days :p. Increase aireation is not a 100% method as the eggs in the middle do not get fanned, this is where usually the fungus will start developing.

[snowball]

(sigh) The 1st time I saw so many pleco wrigglers, I was so excited, but only to realise the next morning, all but 1 have died. I'm sure you are right about water current not a 100% method to fanning the eggs. But at least you were able to still have 30 wrigglers, just lost 9, just by using this method.

This is the 2nd time this male pleco kick out eggs, he may kick out eggs again the next time round, so I must find a remedy.

I ever read somewhere that mention the use of methylene blue to prevent fungus on eggs, but I also read somewhere that says methylene blue can cause harm to wrigglers and fries. I have been searching for that link again, but just no luck. Any of you have tried using methylene blue before? if yes, how to use?

[barmby]

I am back...

Discus keeper..The older fish keeper like my uncle used blue solution from Traditional Chinese Medication hall. This will prevent fungus. Of cos, it takes alot of experience to know how much to dose. These people don't calculate PPM, nonsence and etc.

Formalin cause cancer. FYI..

[snowball]

Oh... you mean "蓝药水"? I have that in my medical kit, but too bad you do not have the dosage, I wouldn't do trial and error :D Maybe you can ask your uncle to roughly guess how much teaspoon to use? haha, if he doesn't mind.

[SoToNgMaN]

Oh... you mean "蓝药水"? I have that in my medical kit, but too bad you do not have the dosage, I wouldn't do trial and error :D Maybe you can ask your uncle to roughly guess how much teaspoon to use? haha, if he doesn't mind.
half dose methyl blue will help ...

[snowball]

half dose methyl blue will help ...

ok, but keep methyl blue in water until they free swim? (no water change?) because I read somewhere (dont remember where) that methyl blue can harm even wrigglers if still left in water, something like that. I wanted to get back to that infor to be sure, but don't remember where I saw it.

[barmby]

Hi,

"chit chat" aside.

So far - I have let the father care for the eggs. He does it much better than anyone else. I will shake out the fries 5 days after hatch or after the female leaves the cave. From there, I will care for the fries, feed them once I see that the egg sac is used.

Whatever that has been kicked out. You just have to keep them somewhere highly oxygenated and hope that it hatch.

[snowball]

I'm sure the father does a better job. How I wish my male is more responsible, but he kicked out eggs the 2nd time :mad: Lets see how he perform the 3rd time round after the move. If still kick out, then will add another air hose, if he doesn't, then I will also knock out the wrigglers on day 5. I believe after they turned wrigglers, the mold is never a problem anymore. Thanks for all the tips.

[snowball]

Anyone heard of or have used 'egg tumbler' before? apparently it can prevent egg from fungus. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTyj-pGVUlY&feature=related and we can also DIY. Do a search of 'cichid tumbler' in youtube.

Any comments?

[chilicrabz]

Provided the eggs count are not so much, i believe.

Furthermore, for my case, fresh eggs comes in a cluster that are tightly "gel" together. The eggs tumbler certainly do keeps them moving, but any bad eggs in the core of the cluster can drive u nuts.

Moreover, mine comes in hundreds. The quantity would be too huge to be able to DIY something of that size to contain all of them. The tube that contains the air lift might pose a threat once the wrigglers are hatched and become free swimming. I do certain consider this option of using an egg tumbler in the future.

It would be beneficial for us here, if you have tried it and show us here like how others have did it on their cichlids.

[snowball]

I was also wondering about the eggs in between and the number of eggs this tumbler can contain and as I have not succeeded in breeding pleco before, information from folks like you is important. I just discovered this egg tumbler thing on Friday, I have also never used this egg tumbler before, was hoping to buy one, but looks like its not easily available, esp in singapore. I just DIY 1 this morning, hopefully I can try it out the next time my male pleco kick out eggs again. I can only share if I ever get a chance to use mine, heheh.... and if it is a success.

Check this out, I just found it yesterday, its quite easy to DIY 1 http://canadafishtank.com/wp_marcel/2008/05/09/diy-egg-tumbler/ though I did mine quite differently because I cant find a suitable acrylic tube to fit the couplings. Anyway, I just did something like that with what is available, an undergravel siphone. :D

[snowball]

Just found this. Anyone know where I can buy them in spore? Its a natural fungus prevention stuff, no need to use any chemical for fungus prevention. http://www.karmafarmaquatics.net/aldercones.html

Pretty excited about this. Want to get my hands on them.

[chilicrabz]

Just found this. Anyone know where I can buy them in spore? Its a natural fungus prevention stuff, no need to use any chemical for fungus prevention. http://www.karmafarmaquatics.net/aldercones.html

Pretty excited about this. Want to get my hands on them.

i think such stuff, u can only ordered from overseas. Maybe u can tried it on first. It sound interesting...;)

[snowball]

This thing sure sound interesting, but too bad, maybe not available in Sg. I'll try look around in sg 1st before I decide if I want to buy from USA (too much of a trouble for just 1 small item).

By the way, I tried using my DIY Egg tumbler, because that buggle kicked out eggs yet again. But...I only used it for 2 over days, because on Day3, I saw 4 bad eggs, didn't want to take any chances, so I took out the whole cluster of eggs and picked out the bad ones. Since the bad eggs were removed, there was no need to use the tumbler, I just moved the whole cluster into a box and use strong aeration instead.

Today, most of the wrigglers are out, no fungus problem this time round. Hope they all can survive.

One question, how do you all move them to a new grow out tank after the egg sac is used up. Can use how many % of new water? or must use aged water?

[barmby]

One question, how do you all move them to a new grow out tank after the egg sac is used up.

Use a spoon and happy scooping

Can use how many % of new water?

No idea. I have not tried.

or must use aged water?

Rain water also can. Thats how fish farm do it.

[snowball]

Hahaha, how to collect rain water in hdb flats. Anyway, thanks for your respond, so the way to go is to scoop them into tank. They are so fragile, was just wondering how to go about it. I had just fill up the new tank with water from the main tank last nite, waiting to move these new fry into them in 5 days time.

[900801]

I know this has been a really old thread. Was trying to find some more info about egg tumbler last time and have been wanting to reply. So here it is. I have made a egg tumbler it's not perfect. Just for sharing purpose. For mine it isn’t a solution because it’s a 50/50 thing. I might work one occasion and another the eggs might just fungus. It's not perfect.
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs594.ash2/154657_466414134155_741959155_5922155_2748686_n.jp g
This is the Xl version. It has worked before but i cant remember where i've placed the picture. I guess if the egg is about to hatch i will whether using the tumbler or not.
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs414.snc4/47672_434622819155_741959155_5366224_3306040_n.jpg
This is a smaller version i use it to tumble wild betta fries and once in a while pleco eggs.
Just a side note, i have stopped using it the reason, as mention in one of the reply by chilicrabz, if the bundle of eggs has fungusted and you take a lot of effort to take that fungusted egg out only to realise that the rest will fungus, you'll just feel that your hard work has been wasted. So there isn't any point. I also cant stop one of my hypan pair fries with egg sac stage to just die off. It has been for a few batches already. Used the tumbler and left it with the parents only had 2 survived. I might use methyl blue when the time comes and I really want the fry. Also if your male is really hard working there isn't any point to disturb the male even more. I've done this last time when i was just trying to test some theory. This should not be done you might just stop the male from breeding like mine, it stopped breeding for 2 months after the little episode.

[barmby]

What male is that? interested to know

[900801]

Which male meaning? The one in the picture with the eggs is the L333 male. The fungus one should be L129 if im nt wrong