L-183 eggs that wouldn't hatch

[Torb]

Hi guys,

I have a L-183 male that keeps kicking out eggs from the cave afte about a week. The eggs look good but can't get them to hatch, I haven't tried to remove them from the cave early on due to the fact that I wanted to keep them with the male as long as possible.
My water values are as follows: Ph 6.2 , Gh 4 , Kh 0 and temp 26degC

Anybody how can give me a hint on where I go wrong?

[MatsP]

KH of zero is perhaps not ideal - it does indeed represent the natural habitat fairly well, but the difference in chemistry between an aquarium and a big river is also quite big, so I would try to aim for a KH of 1-2. No KH will make the pH quite unstable, and that's not particularly good.

However, I don't think that is DIRECTLY the cause of your problems.

What does the cave look like? Is it possible that the eggs are kicked out by accident, and that a different cave or positioning the cave differently may help.

Other than that, I don't really know.

Edit: I should add that I'm no expert. My attempt to breed L183 ended before it really started - my 3 specimens died within a couple of weeks of getting them...

--
Mats

[krazyGeoff]

Hi Torb,
From my limited experience there are a couple of things:

Is this male "new to the job"? It can take them several attempts to figure out what they are supposed to do.

Shape and material of cave as per what Mats said. Tilting the cave on an angle so it is harder for the eggs to "roll" out can assist here.

Are there any other tank inhabitants? Sometimes other inhabitants try and get into the cave and this causes the male to defend the cave, obviously, however the eggs can be "knocked out" during this defending period.

It is of course also possible that the eggs have not been fertilised and he is kicking them out because they are no good?

Cheers

Geoff

[Torb]

Theres both stone, cermic and bamboo caves in the tank, and all caves are placed realtive flat. So I dont think the is a problem with the eggs rolling out. Looks like he prefers a stone cave. He's kicked them out four times now, maybe he just needs a few more tries. From what I can see the eggs look fertilised, but I migth be wrong here.

The first few times the group where all alone, now there is a small group of L-333 I'll probably remove these again soon.

Could it be that there is to little flow in the tank/over the caves? I'll try to reposition the caves, and ad some more flow in the tank. If this doesnt help, I'll guess its back to the community tank.

[MatsP]

I would reposition the caves so that the entrance is higher than the back of the cave. Also, if you can place them with a bit more current flowing past the entrance, I'm sure that won't hurt.

--
Mats

[DJ-don]

i have heard put the cave on an angle would help the males keep the eggs in the tank

if you try artificial hatching,
grap the kicked out eggs and put them in the fry saver with an airpump with controlable air flow
i only tried it once with my bns and after 5 days i could see that the bubz were fully developed i increased the flow of the air without the eggs flying all over the place
they hatched in a few minutes or so


or you could try an egg tumbler which does all the work for you

[Torb]

I've repositioned the caves, increased the waterflow and removed all tankmates. Thers only the male and two females left, if this doesnt do it I'll try to hatch the eggs myself.

Thanks for all the good feedback

[Farid]

hi there,
also make sure the cave entrences are covered by a flat stone or plants...this might be more comfortable as the cave will be in the shadow.

if the male keep dropping the eggs...try to add then into the cave while lifting the entrance UP with water inside so the eggs can drop to where they belong to. if this happens e few times...i would just give it a try by separating the eggs

farid

[Bwhiskered]

After a good number of failed or eaten spawns I finally got a successful spawn of 50 fry from my 183's last spring.
I found all it takes is one or more eggs to go bad and the male trys to chew them out of the clutch and gets carried away. Next thing you know a chewed up ball of eggs would be kicked out often with no salvage. I reccomend removing the eggs as soon you can and hatch them in a tumbler. Some eggs will probably turn white and should be pricked and have their contents sucked out with an eye dropper.

[Torb]

A happy update. The male finaly managed to keep his egges in the cave long enough for them to hatch, he's currently on his second brood in the cave now. (he only needed five tries.. that I know of before the first one was a success)

The fourth time he kicked them out I managed to save the egges, the picture is from there first days.
Thanks for all your input guys much appreciated!

[2wheelsx2]

Very nice. Congrats!

[Bwhiskered]

Happy to hear of your success. The 183's have very sensitive eggs.