# Eggs



## Raytee510 (Dec 1, 2003)

Ok, I have the fry tank set up and running. I have a sponge filter, heater and baby brine shrimp hatchery ready to go. My only question is do I remove the eggs now or wait for them to hatch. I know if I remove the eggs now, I can get most of them with no problem, however will they hatch if I move them. If I wait for them to hatch then I might not be able to catch all of them. They are so small it is hard to see them in the tank.

Any suggestions.


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## piranha_guy_dan (Oct 4, 2004)

well im trying to breed my reds too and from what i understand it might be best to let them hatch in the water they were conceived........ im thinking if they move from water with all the right nitrates and ph and all that fun stuff then it might nterupt the hatching? im not totally sure but it cant hurt because u will have thousands so not catching a few wont be all that bad they might just somehow survive and u can catch them later........ also try and use some water from the tank where the parents are in the fry tank....... just so that u have the bacteria in both tanks and that gives the brine shrimp something to feed on which in turn gives your fry something to feed on. it only takes 48 hours for the eggs to hatch so u better think of something fast lol i would use a python to syhon them into the other tank thats what i hear works best incase u dont know what to use....... i bought my breeding reds from a guy i bought 6 and there is apparently 3 females cause last spawn he had 3 nests and tons and tons of fry he said so im hoping they will spawn again if you can e-mail me back on here and let me know all of the little things u did to get your reds to spawn it would really help me thanks a lot and i hope i returned the favour and have helped you a little or a lot 
good luck


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## Raytee510 (Dec 1, 2003)

That helps alot dan, thanks. This is my second spawn in two weeks. The first was a disaster and I removed the eggs too early. None survived. So I have had a 50gal fry tank cycling with water from the parent tank for the last week. I have a sponge filter running, a heater, and a brine shrimp hatchery kit ready to roll. I also have hikari first bytes and frozend baby brine shrimp to supplement. I think I'm going to wait about 48 hours, and if they havent hatched by then, I will move the eggs to the fry tank. I have seven reds in the tank and I dont want the little ones getting eaten. I also have a fluval 404 and a hang on filter that I dont want them getting sucked into. I will update my progress or failures as they occur.


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## GTR (Nov 15, 2004)

I dont know what happened that is so special, but I had fry the day after I had eggs. At most it only took 29hrs. Taking them from the tank once the fry hatch is a pain in the A$$. Since they stick and hold to anything, its difficult to get them. Something strange though, the male and female were not that responsive while I was moving the fry, but once they were all out it was battle time. The female has been kicking the males ass for the past 18 hrs. He only has half a tail fin left. I covered the tank with a dark cloth and she stopped beating him up. And he is still guarding the would be nest area. 
Back to topic at hand. I managed to pull out about 1500 or so fry from my large tank and moved them to the fry tank at about 1 am this morning. Work today started at 5, so I was draggin all day. Taking into consideration water conditions as mentioned in the above post, I just pulled water from the main tank for the fry tank and then filled the main tank up again. Same everything, same temp, same ph. The fry are going through about 5 packets of frozen baby brine in 6 hrs. The egg to fry process was so quick I did not have time to prepare fresh brine. But I took care of that today. 24 hrs after the fry hatched, they all have two visible eyes and are roughly 3 mm in length.
To be honest, wish I could have moved them before they hatched. It was a very long process. But the day was also long, since I had to build a new stand and set up a new tank on such short notice.


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## Raytee510 (Dec 1, 2003)

Hey GTR, what about your filter system. Did you shut it down for the day? Or did the fry just stick to the bottom of the tank?


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## mantis (May 16, 2003)

syphon the eggs out strait into the fry tank. I would also suggest trying a 10g fry tank, a 50g might work but, a smaller tank is gonna make things alot easier for you.

good luck, keep us posted


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## GTR (Nov 15, 2004)

I put a sponge over the intake of both power heads in the main tank. But, they are mostly staying on the bottom in the gravel. For the most part it looks like the 1500 I took out of the main tank are doing well. Only a few did not make it so far. There are still some in the main tank, but the female is being so aggresive, I cant do anything about it. So I will wait and see what happens over the next few days. If they start swimming around, I will try and take them out. The male has chomped up a few gold fish and left parts laying in the nest area for the kids to eat. This is my first experience, so trial and error starts now. Does anyone have a rough number as to how many should be expected to survive?


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## SERRASOMETHING (Jun 29, 2004)

Over 1,000 if you are lucky, they are factor's.

I would use a larger tank for the eggs, I had better luck with a 20 gallon, you would be suprised what happens to the water within the first week of the babies life. Thats the key trying to keep the water paramaters as constant as possible.
rw


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## GTR (Nov 15, 2004)

Day three and all is well. Thought some might be dead, but when I put the hose in the tank to remove what was thought to be dead ones..................they all started hauling ass all over the tank. Kinda got tripped out on that one.
Its a 4'x1.5'x1.5' tank 3 different air supplies, and I cycle water from the big tank to the fry tank on 2 day intervals. So far so good. I threw the stand together in about 2 hours, so no paint or trim yet.


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## Raytee510 (Dec 1, 2003)

Update. I experimented and removed have the eggs from the parent tank and into the fry tank. I used %100 water from the parent tank, bought a sponge filter and two brine shrimp hatcheries. I also got some first bites fry food. All of the eggs I placed in the fry tank turned white and grew fungus. All of the eggs I left in the parent tank hatched. The only reason I could think of is the water flow in the fry tank was not strong enough and the eggs did not get a fresh supply of eggs over them. The eggs in the parent tank were given a fresh supply of air as the father gaurded and moved water over them.

I removed the dead from the fry tank and caugth as many fry from the parent tank as I could. Lil buggers are fast. Today I placed the fry in the fry tank and crossed my fingers.


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## GTR (Nov 15, 2004)

Not like Im a guru or anything, but, I left(not that I had a choice they hatched so quick)my eggs in the parent tank until they hatched. Once I saw tails, I syphoned all the fry I possibly could to the fry tank. Using only parent tank water and 3 different air stones to supply Oxygen. Two days later, there were another 500 or so that I caught out of the parent tank and moved to the fry tank. I did not have a filtration system set up at all. I only changed about 20 liters of water every 2 days from the parent into the fry tank, and all of my fry are still alive. Im at the 11 day mark and all is well. I just started my fluval with the sponge filter yesterday.
As far as getting them to breed.........I got extremely lucky. I only have 2 Reds in my parent tank. Ensuring they have a very large space with very very clean water, and keeping them nice and fat seemed to work fine for me. I have had the female for about 9 months. I just put the male in about 1 month and a half ago. The male is only 8 months old. He came from a friend of mine who bought 5 newborns from a local shop and he was the only to survive. So, I am very lucky, but these are the conditions that I have with both tanks, and I have had remarkable success. Hope this helps.


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## mantis (May 16, 2003)

If you try adding some dissolved salt next time, it might help with the fungus. How long were the eggs in the parent tank before you took them out?


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## Raytee510 (Dec 1, 2003)

They were in the parent tank for two days before I siphoned them out. They were still orange but I saw them wiggling their tails. They were still wiggling once I moved them but they stopped after a day and that was all she wrote.


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## mantis (May 16, 2003)

once in the fry tank they just clouded up, and were toast?

trial and error my friend









I always had sucsess syphoning the eggs out, you could try leaving them in there even longer.

Keep us posted


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## Raytee510 (Dec 1, 2003)

mantis said:


> once in the fry tank they just clouded up, and were toast?
> 
> trial and error my friend
> 
> ...


Yep!!! But I discovered the problem. I used a 50gal for my fry tank. The heater was too small so the temp dropped....fast. They never had a chance. But on the better side, I fixed the problem, my fish spawned three days ago, and now I have wigglers in my tank.

Got my fingers crossed this time.


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## mantis (May 16, 2003)

Awesome, keep us posted









good luck man.


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## Coolguy (Dec 28, 2004)

I have a question. how long should the eggs stay in the parent tank before being removed to the fry tank?


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## Raytee510 (Dec 1, 2003)

Coolguy said:


> I have a question. how long should the eggs stay in the parent tank before being removed to the fry tank?
> [snapback]823288[/snapback]​


The first time, I took them out immediately. That was a bad idea. The second time I waited until they started to wiggle. Would've worked but The water in the fry tank was too cold. The third time I again waited until they started to wiggle, put them in the fry tank with better water conditions....and now I have small fry. They are still pretty small, eating baby brine shrimp.

I'm experimenting with a new brine shrimp hatchery. You put the eggs in with salt water, wait two days, then the newborn brine shrimp swim up toward the light and out the chamber into the tank where the fry are waiting...


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## HOLLYWOOD (Feb 6, 2003)

Sounds cool. How does this hatchery separate the egg casings from the live brine. The egg casing floats to the top.



Raytee510 said:


> I'm experimenting with a new brine shrimp hatchery. You put the eggs in with salt water, wait two days, then the newborn brine shrimp swim up toward the light and out the chamber into the tank where the fry are waiting...
> [snapback]829157[/snapback]​


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## Raytee510 (Dec 1, 2003)

HOLLYWOOD said:


> Sounds cool. How does this hatchery separate the egg casings from the live brine. The egg casing floats to the top.
> [snapback]829168[/snapback]​


Good question. There is a chamber that is above water, you put the eggs in it, they soak up water and sink to another chamber. The eggs stay in this chamber until they hatch. Then they swim up a small tub toward the light and then out of the last chamber. The entire thing in s brown except for the exit chamber which is white. This makes the exit chamber the best place to be for the shrimp because it is brightest.

You can use it several times before having to clean it. I think the casings remain at the bottom of the hatching chamber.


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## Raytee510 (Dec 1, 2003)

Ok, from first successful batch, about 8 survived and are doing well. I think the problem is trying to feed all the little buggers. I copied NIKE'S idea and feed them live brine shrimp and Hikari first bites. They love the baby brines, but I never see them eating the first bites. Anyone every try the frozen baby brine shrimp. Trying to get more of them to survive, but cant keep up with the feeding. Anyone have any ideas?


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## WolfFace (Nov 2, 2004)

Yeah, I've been freezing brines (artemia) all the time. I filter them away from the eggs as usual, rinse them in fresh water and suck them up in a air hose. Then I put them on a little plastic cup and freeze them

I use as little water as possible to speed up the freezing and to make it easier to take a suitable piece out, and then I add a little more water before freezing it.

I use a plastic cup with very thin plastic so it's easy to break loose a piece to feed the fry with.

I think it's smart to do this, I hatch a couple of teaspoons every day, but things *can* go wrong, one day I almost didn't get any to hatch for reasons unknown... Thankfully I had some frozen.


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## WolfFace (Nov 2, 2004)

Heh, actually I've seen a few artemias move about after being defrosted in the breeding tank







Not many, but still kinda cool... Didn't look like the were swiming like normal, but very much alive for ten-fifteen minutes in fresh water until they got eaten.

Guess it's easy for so primitive and small organisms to be able to revive after a "cryo-sleep"...


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