Mouldy Oscar Eggs

[ibbledibble]

hi, just wanted a bit of advice regarding my oscars. they are about 2 years old ish and have been laying eggs on and off for a while now. was very occasional but never successful. recently added two pairs of convicts to the tank and almost immediately had babies from them. anyway since the babies popped up the oscars have spawned twice! but both times the eggs have gone mouldy . can anybody advise on this at all?

 

[england]

hi, just wanted a bit of advice regarding my oscars. they are about 2 years old ish and have been laying eggs on and off for a while now. was very occasional but never successful. recently added two pairs of convicts to the tank and almost immediately had babies from them. anyway since the babies popped up the oscars have spawned twice! but both times the eggs have gone mouldy . can anybody advise on this at all?

are you 100%sure there male n female?maybe two females doing ex same as breeding pair...

 

[ibbledibble]

not entirely sure they are a male and a female, but when the female was laying the eggs, the "male" had a tube about a third of the size of hers. not sure if this means its a male, but its always been the same fish that lays the eggs. it takes a long time for her to finish laying so i couldn't be bothered to watch the whole thing. she lays a line of eggs then he swims over them, very low down practically brushing over the eggs, but doesn't seem to actually do anything. then she swims over and lays another line and so on. not sure if he does anything different at the end or not.

 

[helterskelter]

sounds like a pair, but perhaps he's infertile, I have the same problem in one of my tanks the spawn every 2-3 week for 3-4 months then stop for ages then their off again.

How ever the white and and get fungus, i've only seen wigglers once and they never did very well, perhaps it's just the thing with Oscars, but not sure as I've never researched their breeding much.

 

[ibbledibble]

I was wondering if there was anything i could do to help out? On a post about discus i saw someone had painted the eggs with a concentrated methelane blue solution. How do i do this? Would it help? Is it a good idea to move the eggs away from the parents? also on other posts people said to have the eggs in shallow water so the weight of the water doesn't crush them. this seemed unrealistic to me, i would have thought the water would have to be a lot deeper before the pressure became a problem. but then i'm a newbie so i'm probably wrong! is it possible that this is part of the problem, as the eggs are approx 20 inches deep? would prefer not to "steal" the eggs if poss, apart from the fact that the oscars would savage me if i tried, i would like to see the parenting thing happen. but if its the only way they are gonna survive then its worth the risk. i have an empty 130L (UK) tank i could use for rearing if necessary. sorry for all the questions and thanks for the advice so far

 

[Oscarfishlover]

Two female Oscars will lay eggs between each other, obviously they wouldn't hatch under these circumstances. The eggs shouldl turn brown (Tan colour) if they are fertile, if they stay white, they are not fertile. Once the mould sets in, it will probably destroy the eggs anyway. The best thing to do is when the Oscars have finished laying the eggs and the male has supposedly fertilised them, remove the rock that the eggs are on and put them in a small container. The best thing to do is prop one corner of the rock up a couple of inches and place an air stone underneath. This make sure that the eggs are getting plenty of oxygen. Oscars will normally carry out this procedure by hovering over and using their pictorial fins to fan the eggs. This is when using methylene blue is a good idea, it will stop any moulds forming on the eggs. Poor enough into to discolour the water quite a lot. The eggs should hatch within three days. I would strongly advise you not to use methylene blue in your main tank. It could have a detrimental effect on your biological filter.

 

[ibbledibble]

Two female Oscars will lay eggs between each other, obviously they wouldn't hatch under these circumstances.

so does the difference in tube size not mean anything then? i would love to have a male and a female, but they are so difficult to sex!

 

[Oscarfishlover]

Two female Oscars will lay eggs between each other, obviously they wouldn't hatch under these circumstances.

so does the difference in tube size not mean anything then? i would love to have a male and a female, but they are so difficult to sex!

Sorry, must have missed that in your posts. Obviously if you are observing your Oscars laying eggs and it is quite obvious that their sexual organs are different, then you have a male and a female. The female sexual organ will be oval in shape, the male sexual organ is like a little spike. I strongly believe that some fish are infertile. I once had a pair of Oscars that were male and female. They used to spawn on a regular basis but the eggs never hatched. I don't think the male was performing properly even though he was going through all the procedures what looked like fertilising the eggs and then looking after them like he should do.

If you have two Oscars that lay eggs and then one of them loses interest straightaway and is more interested in food, you may not have a compatible pair. If they are breeding properly, they will both participates in egg care.

 

[ibbledibble]

they both guard the eggs quite fiercely for a while after the eggs are laid, if i get too close to look, the male will ram the glass in front of my face! but after a few days all the eggs have gone mouldy and they lose interest. i'm not sure if the eggs change colour or not, will check next time. but i think they do. it starts off with only a few white mouldy eggs and then the rest start to get infected and turn mouldy too. in a few days they're all ruined.

 

[england]

whats this the dorset spread two from bournemouth and one from ferndown<is that near the town centre?

 

[helterskelter]

ferndown is between kinson and wimbourn.

Good to see another Local though here.

 

[ibbledibble]

not that far from it. near the angel pub.

 

[helterskelter]

Nice pub that used to goto the quiz nights there, but was rubbish LOL

 

[ibbledibble]

Good to see another Local though here.

had a look at your bebo page and boyfriend thinks he recognizes you, maybe from clubbing as he likes hardcore too. its a small world!

Nice pub that used to goto the quiz nights there, but was rubbish LOL

only been in once for a sunday lunch. that was pretty good

 

[helterskelter]

LOL ye it is and i still love going to raves... when i'm not working that is LOL