"fuzzies" on fish eggs?

[jmattingly]

My cichlids are breeding, and we had an unfortunate situation where the mother died on us. She was transferred to a 10 gallon tank to hold through the cycle, and she died. I still haven't figured that one out! Before dying, she spat all the eggs. I was able to retrieve them off the bottom of the tank, and they have been placed in a tumbler inside my main tank.

My question/concern is over some white, fuzzy material that seems to be growing on the eggs. I know that they can get a fungus, and that it will transfer from one to the next if they remain in contact. I'd post a photo, but the macro setting on my camera doesn't seem to want to focus on the eggs properly.

Any ideas on what's going on?

Joe

 

[webbie]

sounds like its a fungus, remove the infected ones immediately and hopefully the rest will be ok. There is also a product you can buy that is an antifungal and helps to keep the eggs from getting fungus on them, if you do some searching im sure you can find the name of it.

 

[liv2padl]

some white, fuzzy material that seems to be growing on the eggs.

fungus. remove those and hope that the rest are still viable. its rarely a good idea to remove the spawning pair until the fry are at least two weeks post hatch.

 

[jmattingly]

Thanks for the confirmation. I'll have to see if I can save them first. If not, I have another female who is holding. I'm not going to try anything with this one, and will wait till she's spitting before trying to move the fry into a breeder tank. I don't need any additional dead females on my hands!

Joe

 

[Dangerdoll]

the product to keep fungus off the eggs is I believe it's methylene blue... and an air stone for water movement... I don't know if it would help infected eggs but it is used to prevent the fungus in the first place.