Is the male separated with the eggs or is he with other fish? I've
never managed to have the male care for eggs to term with him and the
eggs left in the colony. I did have one male in my breeding colony of
peacocks that repeatedly ate the eggs even if removed. While this did
go on for quite a few spawns he eventually started keeping the eggs
until the fry hatched. He was the largest and dominant male in the
colony and the first to start spawning. As I didn't remove many of the
early spawns (mostly with him involved), I always wondered if he
didn't just get in the habit of eating eggs. The other possibility is
some fish just need to go through the process a number of times before
they learn to get it right.
I don't know if I helped train him not to eat the eggs or he picked it
up on his own, but this is the process I went through with him. I
removed him to a separate tank whenever he spawned as soon as
possible. I then removed him after 1 day. Next time after 2 days, then
3 etc. Slowly I allowed him more time with the eggs each time until
now he always carries them to hatching without problems. I will note
that I didn't even bother to raise these spawnings myself. After
removing the male I just discarded the eggs. It wasn't until later
that I began to keep the fry as I wanted a number a males sitting on
eggs before I bothered to raise a batch. Peacock gudgeons take a fair
amount of time to get to salable size and I really don't like
bothering with just one spawn when I'm going to invest in the tank
space for that time period. For those in the US that are interested, I
do now have a fair amount of sexable peacock gudeons available.
Later
Cary
On Thu, 26 Dec 1996 23:36:09 +1100, TROY HIXON
<wizard at daemon.apana.org.au> wrote:
>I have artificially raised 1 batch and they are comming allong just fine (3
>-4 days old). The other 2 batches became food for the ather well before they
>hatched and he has just set up a new batch this evening :-). I guess he is
>hungry again.
>
>Any ideas on the Male eating the eggs and any ideas on the growth rates of
>the Fry ???
Cary Hostrawser
Minnesota Aquarium Society
http://www.mn-aquarium.org/
Rainbowfish Study Group of North America
http://home.earthlink.net/~sbuckel/index.html