Agap Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Hi guys, I just lost one of my female Descampsii. She was holding eggs for 10 days, when I tried stripping her, she had a solid blob of fungused eggs and fry and was too hard to take out and somehow it suffocated her. Looks like she did not spew out the bad eggs and contaminated the others. Not sure what is the cause of it or maybe she is just not experienced yet in holding eggs. What do you recon guys? Ace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joel Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Hey, This has happened to one of my sandsifters before. Luckily I realised what had happened before it was too late. Im prdtty sure it was a younger female with one of her first few spawns. It looked as though she had a mouthful per normal. I was looking closely after maybe 5-7 days and saw a little bit of fungus protruding from her mouth. Aside from that it just looked to be business as usual. I decided to strip her and pulled out a fairly solid glob of fungussed eggs - It wasnt easy... I havent had it happen since, but i make sure i keep a close eye on the when holding. Shame about your female. Joel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whytri Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 i have had the same issue with my chrysonotus, and as joel pointed out it is most likely due to the inexperience female, only happened for me when she held for the first time, after that everything was back to normal. HTH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dobbin4 Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Agree with above Sounds like the male may not be old enough to fertilize the eggs Catch her in a lg net next time and use a plastic pen cap to open the mouth,needs to be done slowly and keep putting her back in the net to recover each 20 sec's. Nice fish & not many around hope you got more females?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agap Posted July 13, 2011 Author Share Posted July 13, 2011 The eggs were actually fertilized, I can see eyes among the eggs and fungus. Ace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noxious_nasties Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Agree with above Sounds like the male may not be old enough to fertilize the eggs Catch her in a lg net next time and use a plastic pen cap to open the mouth,needs to be done slowly and keep putting her back in the net to recover each 20 sec's. Nice fish & not many around hope you got more females?? It would be unlikely in my opinion for eggs to be fertilised and then rot in the females mouth... if they weren't fertilised there would be a far greater chance that they would desintegrate before fungussing. Perhaps the female took too many then could be tumbled properly or/insufficient tumbling led one to fungus, which then encompassed the entire batch? John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joel Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 What substrate do you use? I used to have Callochromis pleurospillus on mainly 'Sydney Sand' substrate with 1mm crushed coral mixed through. Sometimes when I stripped the females I would find a few coral pieces in with the eggs. I think this was causing alot of mouthfuls to go bad as it might have scratched, crushed or punctured eggs. Just a thought... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agap Posted July 14, 2011 Author Share Posted July 14, 2011 I use river sand substrate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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