Adrienne

jfishfanatic is 100% correct. The eggs that the female has dropped in the tank will not be fertile. This is because when the male wraps around the female and embraces (squeezes) her he releases milt (sperm) which fertilises the eggs as they are released by the female. No milt/no fertilised eggs! If she is dropping eggs it is because she is ready to spawn and too full of them. Take her away for about 11 days and then try again. Not all attempts at spawning are successful. Not all fighters will breed with each other, like humans just because you like someone it doesn't mean you want to attempt to breed with them. Sometimes one or both fighters are too young. Sometimes the male is an egg eater. The bigger the tank for spawning the harder it is for the male to seduce the female as he has to swim further to attract her attention. Better to keep them in a smaller tank.

females should be okay with a male fighter, but male guppies sometimes get nippy. the fry will be a yummy snack for the fighter though.

As Caryl says. I tend to wait until they stop looking like little balls with tails and instead start to look like tiny fish. By then they can usually swim well enough to hide in floating plants. A good tight mass of plants or small hidey holes amongst rocks and gravel will help as well.

Great tanks, lovely fish and fantastic photos

They can hold for a long time (4-8 weeks) and sometimes drop a few at a time over several weeks. If that is what she is doing then they may be being eaten. Guppies are the same, one fertilisation can lead to several batches at different stages of development being held therefore staggered drop dates.

How many fish do you have in this tank? You really want to get to the bottom of why your water is changing so much. Do you only test pH or do you test for ammonia etc. Alkaline can be caused by high ammonia which may indicate your filter is not working properly or as you have said you cleaned everything thoroughly. Did you completely clean out your filter because if you do your tank could be cycling again and will take a while to settle. Low pH is not a problem unless you have some varieties of cichlids.

Now in Santorini, tomorrow we move on to Mykonos. Still hot days, much cooler nights here with really strong winds. We hired a scooter to get around the island and went everywhere we could possibly go to. Until I saw Santorini I thought the paintings I had seen around the place weren't real but in fact the houses are exactly like all the pictures. We have walked for miles, up to 7 hours a day every day since leaving home. The sights, sounds and food are unreal.

after 4 days of a few of the thousands of amazing sights in rome we are flying to athens. firenzenz we are not going to florence but have see some leather goods made in firenzenz. a couple of days in athens then off to the greek isles

I am on holiday but one can only walk for so many hours a day - 7 hours today- and then we had to get away from the daily thunderstorm and downpour.

not the best idea to have two males of the same family - anabantoids - living together but might work as long as they dont take a dislike to each other

mine dont and wont eat the freeze dried stuff but will eat anything else thats going after a few days of refusing

thought i would log in and say hi from rome. place is amazing and very hot and sticky still. about 26 degrees during the day and we had several large thunderstorms yesterday evening and last night. weve been to the vatican museum, sistine chapel, st peters basilica, the colloseum, roman forum and pallatine hill in the two days weve been here. stopped in seoul korea on the way for 17 hours and went for a walk around the block. got a few pics of fish for sale at restaurants (live) and at roadside stalls (dead) which i will post at some stage. will log in again in a few days and update.

the seller is not known to me but the original breeder is well known by a few of us and they will be nice fish.

hope your shovels sharp - its about 30 hectares!!

I am still sticking with my opinion that it is indeed finrot. It is able to be cured as long as you treat it with strong enough meds. The damage will grow back but not be as good as it once was. The fins don't dissolve, they fray and fall off.

ooh lol, you'll have to get in the security gates, past the security guards and our dog first!!! :lol:

You'd be better putting lots of plants in your tank than you would having more than one female in a net otherwise you'll find that as the fry are born the other female will be having a nice snack!

well the discus fry got to free swimming and then disappeared overnight, however mum and dad have spawned again, this time there are hundreds. The cory eggs have finally disappeared, not sure where but tonight I saw a young cory about 1 cm maybe a big more, about 1/3 the size of the parents. So its obviously not the first time they have laid :oops: I'll have to stop vacuuming the tank so well and then I'll find more. Anyway I'm off on Saturday so will see whats in the tank when I return on 11 October!

I know kribs can be mean and nasty but I am certain that its finrot looking at the top fin. With cts its nearly impossible to catch it in the early stages as you have to look extra carefully to spot it amongst the rays.

well it will be great if it is the cories. Even if none survive this time I will know that there is at least one male or female in the nine that are in the tank. I've had them for about 15 months now and its the first time there have been eggs.

Novotom floats on the surface of the tank so any current or movement will make it move around. I find it does foul the bottom of my tank faster than other food but it is a good alternative in times of need. It doesn't make the fish grow as fast in the beginning though. I still prefer bbs for this.

As some of you know I am heading to Europe next Saturday for a month. Last week one of my discus pairs in my community tank spawned (again!). This time, 4 days later the fry have hatched, being religiusly watched over by their parents who have all the other fish (discus, cardinals, hatchets) cornered down the far 1/5th of the tank. Have waterchanged, the fx5 is still running, and they are at this stage still hanging in there. Heres a pic Will see what happens once they become free swimming as I don't think they will make it with the current flowing as it is. Then about an hour ago I discovered these eggs down the same end of the tank. They weren't there this morning so are the culprits the cories in the pic or is it possible its the SAE's. These are the only fish to make it down to the same end of the tank as the discus in the last few days and even then they are chased away. I have stuck a closer view up in the left hand corner of the picture. The eggs are on the glass and on a couple of plants. Who do you think these eggs belong to?

Supasi - thats a great blog you have, keep it up please

Sorry - I thought it looked like neons in the left hand bottom rear corner of the tank :oops:

Are you looking at the male on the right? Thats what I thought. Theres a couple like that but most show the delta or half moon tail.