Are these fungused eggs?

[boofeng]

The little white thing in the moss. I first saw several at lunchtime, and wondered what they were. Then just a moment ago, I noticed cotton-woolly stuff growing on them, so - ah hah! fungused eggs, maybe! (Unplanned pregnancy - hooray! But fungus ) Then right after I turkey bastered them all out one more appears, and the female pops out of the cave.

So, are these fungused eggs? And what should I do? I'm thinking of pushing in some super acidic substances into the cave to generate a low pH micro environment. My water parameters are still not blackwater (pH 6+, TDS 150, no gH and kH for now - test kit is with a friend). I just started lowering the pH over the weekend (before this it was growing out some trifasciata).

I put the fish in on Tuesday (LFS told me they just brought in some wild T. candidi. Rescaped it a bit, added caves and plants, on Wednesday.

And now, this. It's happening too fast!

EDIT: sorry bad thread title - there's only one suspected fungused egg here, but yeah. Help!

 

[boofeng]

Quick update - the female's abandoned the cave since and no more fungused eggs are coming out. Water parameters are way off this time so better luck next time. Case closed!

 

[gerald]

Could it be a speck of moldy (or mouldy in GB) food? Or eggs of something else (any Corydoras or tetras in there?) Spawning 2 days after coming home from the LFS seems unlikely, based on the condition of most Apistos I see in USA shops. Unless you have a really exceptional LFS that knows how to care for Apistos. Also, I've never seen cave-spawning cichlids spit dead eggs out of the cave. Have other breeders seen this?

 

[boofeng]

Could it be a speck of moldy (or mouldy in GB) food? Or eggs of something else (any Corydoras or tetras in there?) Spawning 2 days after coming home from the LFS seems unlikely, based on the condition of most Apistos I see in USA shops. Unless you have a really exceptional LFS that knows how to care for Apistos. Also, I've never seen cave-spawning cichlids spit dead eggs out of the cave. Have other breeders seen this?

Hmm, that cave was pulled from my Crenicichla tank. Maybe there was some junk in it and the candidi were cleaning house. Remember I had pushed peat granules into the cave to create that acidic microenvironment? Some of those granules were strewn around the cave entrance afterwards - so someone's definitely cleaning out the cave! (Cichlids are so awesome!) Anyway, the female has gone into hiding again today, and my water is still decidedly not-so-black (pH 6ish, TDS 140ish), so I'll update if mysterious white objects start appearing again.

The LFS is a niche one that handles a lot of apistos and other SA fish, and not so much of the mainstream stuff. The boss runs it alone without hired help too (some friends stand in when needed). And I've seen fry in the shop tanks before. So it might be possible I guess. In fact, I sometimes worry that my own tanks are not as good as the shop tanks.

 

[boofeng]

An update from almost a year later...

I never saw any more fungused objects, though the female probably laid eggs several times - she got fat, went into hiding, and then emerged skinny, but always without any fry...

And then, two days ago, this mother brought out her first batch of free swimming fry! It's a very nice surprise as I'd almost given up hope on these guys ever spawning. And T. candidi is one of my favourite dwarfs.

The trigger seems to have been a benign bout of neglect...?! As I got bogged down with various things, I let the tank get really bushy, let the water level drop, did fewer water changes, and fed less often... and then this happens. I just can't understand these fish sometimes!