Do I need to remove unfertilized eggs?

S

Sumpin'fishy

Humble Disciple of Jesus Christ
Oct 16, 2002
673
0
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Savannah, GA
My Jellybean Cichlid turned out to definately be a female. :rolleyes: I ended up with about 100 eggs on the pre-cleaned rock this morning. She has done such a good job at parenting. Too bad I don't have a stud! I don't think I'm going to go through the trouble of getting a mate, either. Anyways, do I need to remove the eggs myself, or will my fish eat them? Also if I do remove them, when's the best time to? Any other info?
 
Yes remove the eggs asap. The unfertilized eggs with start to decay and might mess with your water. Also if you have any other fish in the tank they will become unnecessary targets of a protective mother.
 
I concur. Remove the eggs. They are likely to develop fungus if you don't. I didn't have the opportunity to remove my BP's eggs, my channel cat ate them before the thought occurred to me to take them out...Problem solved, I guess.

I'm sort of glad you decided not to get a male at this time. I think the tank might've been a little crowded if you had bought her a boyfriend (and they might not have even liked each other...)

Count on her laying eggs on a regular schedule from now on, every few months, I'd say. It's fascinating, isn't it? Even if you don't get babies out of the whole thing...
 
I had a hard time, but I finally decided not to get her a male. The only way my LFS can get other Jellybeans is to get babies. I'm not sure how my female will take to another fish in her area, especially a small runt! I'd have to get another tank set up for the male and it would probably be a 9 month to a year wait for sexual maturity. Then, I'd have to worry about whether or not they would get along and pair up. Just not worth my trouble. I'm just going to keep her alone in the 10 gal. She's still an awesome fish.
 
OH, and how should I remove the eggs, they are on top of a roughly flat rock. My "momma" is still hovering over them. A few have already turned from tan colored to white. No apparent fungus yet, but don't even want to play around with any problems. Should I scrape the rock with a net, vacuum them out( will this work?), or pull out the rock. I don't want to remove the rock unless necessary.
 
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