Hatching the eggs without the Father

[Myron Tay]

My male started to eat the eggs and had a full belly. Took him out and lowered the water level to about 1-2 inches. Is that low enough?

[Chris Yew]

Hi Myron,

That level should be low enough. Are the eggs fertilised?

On some occasions, I've seen the Male seems to be eating the eggs, but actually it's not. So now, I will juz leave the Male alone until the frys are free swimming.

Chris Yew
http://bettasonli.netfirms.com

[Dr Hsu]

Myron,

Nowadays I "que sera sera" - if the father eats the eggs up, likely something wrong anyway so I let them be. If really totally eaten up, then try again later with another female. Sometimes maybe some may be fertile and not be eaten up - difficult to see so I just leave the male in if he seems to be "tending" the nest.

Regards,

Li Chieh

[Myron Tay]

Thanks Chris and Li Chieh.

Yup. Confirm that the Father is an eater coz his motion this evening is whitish. The fries have hatched and seem to be doing well (minus the father). When should I raise the water level?

Need to raise the water level so that the bottom of the tank would be cleaner. How clean must they be?

[Chris Yew]

Hi Myron,

For me usually I don't feed the frys for the first 3 days after hatching. But always remember to have some water plants or java moss in the breeding tank. You may start to increase the water level a little a day.

Chris Yew
http://bettasonli.netfirms.com

[Myron Tay]

Have some moss (not sure what sort of moss it is) in the tank from day one. The fries look happy for now. Thanks for the advice.

[Myron Tay]

Is this egg eating thing a genetic flaw?

[Jonathan_Tan]

i think its just an individual thing..
my saichon HM male was also an egg eater so i just removed him after i realised he started eating eggs again.. however i just removed the male and left the water level at 4 inches..only about 5 fries hatched..rest of the eggs got eaten up

[Sebas]

I think there could be a few reasons for Egg eating males

Firstly, eggs are not fertilised at all. If you take notice, some egg eaters are first timers. So maybe due to their inexperience, the eggs are not fertilised. Males do eat unfertilised eggs and eggs that have fungus.

Secondly, conditions may be unsuitable after the eggs have been released by the female. It could be due to basic instincts that in the wild, if the conditions such as weather is not right, the males would rather eat the eggs to survive than to take care of a spawn of fries that have no chances of surviving.

Thirdly may be due to habits. Individual fishes have different characters like most of us have already noticed. Maybe different individuals have different habits during the spawning periods. The more sadistic ones tend to eat their own young. [bt]

Lastly, distractions. Humans who are so 'kaypo' like us like to watch fishes do it. The males may have felt threatened such that they eat their own young. I see that in the National Geographic once in a while.

[Jonathan_Tan]

good points...

[Toh Ming Wei]

quote:Originally posted by Sebas

I think there could be a few reasons for Egg eating males

Firstly, eggs are not fertilised at all. If you take notice, some egg eaters are first timers. So maybe due to their inexperience, the eggs are not fertilised. Males do eat unfertilised eggs and eggs that have fungus.

Secondly, conditions may be unsuitable after the eggs have been released by the female. It could be due to basic instincts that in the wild, if the conditions such as weather is not right, the males would rather eat the eggs to survive than to take care of a spawn of fries that have no chances of surviving.

Thirdly may be due to habits. Individual fishes have different characters like most of us have already noticed. Maybe different individuals have different habits during the spawning periods. The more sadistic ones tend to eat their own young. [bt]

Lastly, distractions. Humans who are so 'kaypo' like us like to watch fishes do it. The males may have felt threatened such that they eat their own young. I see that in the National Geographic once in a while.


very true, i had this experience whereby the father kill of all the fries and eat them when he get so stressed up due to our movements.

[Toh Ming Wei]

quote:Originally posted by Sebas

I think there could be a few reasons for Egg eating males

Firstly, eggs are not fertilised at all. If you take notice, some egg eaters are first timers. So maybe due to their inexperience, the eggs are not fertilised. Males do eat unfertilised eggs and eggs that have fungus.

Secondly, conditions may be unsuitable after the eggs have been released by the female. It could be due to basic instincts that in the wild, if the conditions such as weather is not right, the males would rather eat the eggs to survive than to take care of a spawn of fries that have no chances of surviving.

Thirdly may be due to habits. Individual fishes have different characters like most of us have already noticed. Maybe different individuals have different habits during the spawning periods. The more sadistic ones tend to eat their own young. [bt]

Lastly, distractions. Humans who are so 'kaypo' like us like to watch fishes do it. The males may have felt threatened such that they eat their own young. I see that in the National Geographic once in a while.


very true, i had this experience whereby the father kill of all the fries and eat them when he get so stressed up due to our movements.

[Myron Tay]

I guess my question is whether this flaw passes on to the succeeding generations. Anyone has artifically raised spawns (due to a poor father) which produced excellent parents?