Question about breeding managuense's during tank cycle

W

WilliamG

AC Members
Feb 7, 2005
12
0
0
Springdale MD
I have a 10 inch male managuense that I purchased on Feb. 6th. I set up a tank for him that day and I started the cycling the tank.I have monitored the ammonia,nitrites,nitrates,and pH.I am now at the 24th day of cycling and ammonia is at 0 and nitrates were at 5 ppm and nitrates about 100ppm.I did a 75-80% water change and that brought the nitrites down to 2ppm and nitrates to 25ppm.

Two days ago I found a 7 inch female managuense at a LFS and purchased her.Her stomach was swollen and I assume she had eggs in her.I put her in my tank with my male and they are about to spawn as I am typing.Her breeding tube is almost completely down and they have dug the gravel up in the entire tank.They are cleaning a flat piece of slate to lay the eggs on.My question is,will the cycling process harm the eggs or fry? I am recording the egg laying with my digi video camera.I will post the vid afterwards.
 
Well they laid the eggs.I even recorded the whole process with my digital video camera.I got excellent quality video.I can even see the males sperm when he passed over the eggs.I have about 600-800 eggs.I just hope the high nitrites don't harm the eggs or fry.Nitrites are about 2-3ppm.
 
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The only thing that may happen is you might have a higher amount of spoiled eggs. Really not the end of the world.

The man you would want to ask/PM for a sure fire answer would be Mojo.
 
Hmm.. I think if you keep the nitrites and nitrates in check with a lot of water changes you should be okay with the fry. Keep in mind that even though this pair is mature, since it is their first clutch together, they may or may not get it right the first shot. Its hit or miss, about half the time the pair are fantastic and the other half they have domestic squables over who's the better parent and the fry suffer. If you havent yet source something to feed the fry, I believe managuense are big enough after the wriggler stage to take newly hatched brine shrimp, microworms and maybe even grindal worms. You could try to just feed finely ground flake but I get the slowest possible growth rate from strictly feeding this IMO.

Oh yes - this is a nice big open tank with lots of room right? Just in case one of the pair decides the other is too close to their babies.. you want them to have somewhere to escape to.

Good luck with them, fry are so much fun. :D
>Sarah
 
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