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Hi all,

I've had a problem with my few last spawns of L340 and L270. Too litle spawn were hatched in the dad's cave so I decided to hatch them artificially. The eggs have been immediately placed to the breeder's net and put to the pure RO water with added minerals, kh+ and acid to make water TDS 10ppm, KH 2-3, ph 7. The net was in strong current made by aeration.
Most of them got fungus within two days.
So I decided to use meth blue next time. I've put 8 drops to 15L (size of the aquarium they were in). Fungus appeared again and only one of 25 eggs survived one week.
Does anyone have any idea what might cause that? Or what to change to get better results?

Another problem is that half of the remaining eggs hatched within about 2-3 days and they were obviously not developed well yet. Is it normal?

Thanks for any thoughts...

aldare wrote: The eggs have been immediately placed to the breeder's net and put to the pure RO water with added minerals, kh+ and acid to make water TDS 10ppm, KH 2-3, ph 7.

What is this. You say you put them in a breeders net. The breeders net should be in the parents tank and be the same water. If your removing the eggs to another tank and not using water from the parents tank then that could be a big part of your problem. I would also add a airstone close to the eggs.

I've maybe used a bad word for that. It is something that is holding the eggs and airstone is underneath with air going through bringing fresh water to the eggs.

I am using the same water that is used for the aquarium of parents, just without any NO3 and contaminants resulting from the feeding of the parents. Do you think it is bad it is clearer than the water the eggs were layed in?

I've been working on more artificial hatches lately because so many of my whiptail spawns are being kicked during active mating. The best success I've had was by adding a few cherry shrimp to the hatching container. They actively feed on any bacteria/fungus/debris that settles on the eggs and don't bother the fry. They also help keep the tank clean once the fry are free swimming.

Larry