Thanks for the replies. I've successfully raised several batches of Uaru a.'s--the last group was a few years ago. In the last batch, I had about 40 survive to 3" before I traded them with a local importer. I always pulled the eggs and put in a hatchery tank. I've used the airstone method alone in the past with pretty good success. Since then, all of my original adults have passed away. I have one pair left from one of the batches of fry I raised and they started laying eggs after I moved a few months ago. Weird timing, but I figured I'd try raising their fry.
Hatching the eggs in the parents tank is not an option. There is no way the fry would survive in the parents' tank with the amount of filtration I have as well as the other fish (3 large red finned botias, 6 Synodontis alberti, and 1 large angelfish). The parents are in a 125gal tank with these other fish. If I do leave the eggs in the parent's tank, they get fungus on them anyway. And, the parents do not pick off the eggs with fungus.
I have found that methylene blue doesn't really help one way or the other. I used to use it in the past and in some cases, the eggs got fungus anyway. It seems that the best bet is keeping the water as new as possible in the tank. Also, I know that if the male doesn't fertilize all the eggs, the unfertilized eggs will surely get fungus. So, I'm wondering if the male isn't getting all of them fertilized when he does his duty.
On the uaru forum, someone had recommended keeping the eggs in complete darkness until hatching as this would help prevent the fungus from growing, but I question this because I don't think fungus is photophobic.
Any suggestions on the best water temp for hatching?
