Severum Spawning.

[tha pint]

Hi there my new green sev and the young spotted one spawned on Tuesday there but after I done a water change yesterday I noticed the male eatting all the eggs. He seemed to be doing the parenting thing brilliantly but all of a sudden they where gone. Kinda expected on the 3rd day to see some wriggles but They have both went back to acting normal .would there be a chance the eggs hatched and they move the fry . I can't see anything. I've a big oscar they are allowing back to that side of the tank.

Not looking good

 

[star4]

Sounds like all the eggs were eaten. Normally they would have dug a pit in the substrate and moved the wrigglers to that and guarded it. Most likely with a large oscar in the tank it was not worth the energy raising the fry so they ate them, they will spawn again just so the female can release her eggs, but I doubt very much they will raise fry.

 

[tha pint]

Yeah that's what I though. Is it possible to remove the stone once in sure the eggs have been fertilized and use another wee tank I have to raise the fry. Do they need the parents to raise them till the can swim free.
What I was going to do was use the small tank I have and put a small heater , filter with filter wool around it , and have a small air stone close to the eggs . Would it affect the parents if I removed them?

 

[star4]

You can hand raise the fry no problem. Remove the rock, if you can put an ice cream tub or something in the tank and put the rock in to move it to the smaller tank, dont expose the eggs to the air. You will have to do the job of the parents then, any eggs that turn white you must remove as soon as possible else the fungus will destroy the eggs around it. I use an eye dropper to suck white eggs up. The air stone near the eggs as you say, simulates the parents fanning the eggs, once they hatch and are wriggling about you dont need to worry about feeding them until the egg sack has completely gone. You will need micro food, banana worms etc, but I crush normal food into a powder with a pill crusher. You will need to do lots of water changes to keep the water healthy for growing fry, minimum 50%/day.

 

[tha pint]

That's good info ...Thanks for all your help. I take it the parents don't miss them if they are removed?
Apart from doing it for interest I'd like to sell them for a few quid on the side or even some credit with the lfs.

 

[star4]

Not really, they may still guard the spot for a few hours. The only thing to watch is the male might start harassing the female to spawn again, if he gets too rough you may need to separate them. I would make sure before you raise any fry that your local shop will take them and give credit, not all shops do and you could be left with a load of fish on your hands that you cant get rid of with them being cross bred, green and spotted.

 

[tha pint]

Tbh the female just floats about like dory out of finding nemo and if the male give her the ruff house , big red the o steps in and sorts him out. When I say ruff house there's no real harassment at all from him just a bit of a nudge from time to time. It only took them a week to pair up and so far everybody's gettin on grand.

It was amazing to see how the male went from being chased and afraid of the oscar to taking no poop when it came to protecting the eggs. The oscar backed of every time he fronted up. But since the eggs have gone the oscar is boss again but he doesn't harass the sev like he used too.