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Female Cac Eating Eggs?

Cowboy

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
28
Location
Lander, Wyoming
I purchased an orange/white female Cac last week and put her in a breeding tank with a triple red male. Right away they started the courting process and she laid about 100 eggs about 36 hours ago. At first she appeared to be cleaning her eggs but now, there appears to be only about 25 eggs left. Is this natural. She appears to be a young female and I am wondering if this is natural for her until she gets used to spawing? Any suggestions? Should I pull her from the tank. I still have the male in there, but he is keeping his distance from the clay pot.

Thanks
 

depthc

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
121
Location
SC
Most likely she is just unexperienced with the spawning process. Or possibly the eggs have fungused.

Its up to you if you wish to artificially hatch them or leave them with the parents. Are the eggs priority or not? They will be at it soon again so dont worry yourself to much. Good luck.

Andrew
 

cdawson

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
271
Location
Vancouver,BC
possibly the male being tank bred needs to learn a bit before he gets the fertilization process right.

Best to remove the female and the eggs with a tank-bred male.
 

Apistt_ed

New Member
the biggest problems that I run into with cacatuoides is not with them, but more with my patience. I have learned that with time, they will get it correct. If your female is young as you stated, then that could be it. Another possibility is that the male, if you haven't had another spawn from just him and possibly a previous female, could be sterile as I have ecountered in the past. Then it could be that he is also not fertilizing them all. If you check to see the eggs that are left and they haven't clouded up or turned white and seem a reddish hue, then they are fertile and the male is also. If all are turning white then it could be one of two scenarios, the female is not fanning them and they are taken from fungus, or the male may be infertile. I'd say give it a couple more days and see how everything progresses. Of the eggs left, if they are eaten, then give them a few more tries to get it right. If a couple of times go by and nothing comes of their spawns then you might want to introduce a new male. That's what I'd suggest. good luck and keep us posted! best wishes. john
 
J

james.sands

Guest
When I had first started out in the whole apisto thing, my females would do that also. and then later she would eat the fry as well when some of them did hatch out. I was told by one of the people that I do biz with is that the female may feel threatend about something and is eating the eggs and fry so that the thing that she belives is a pretator will not benifet from eating any of it. This is what he had told me, and although it sounded strange it makes sense. The next time I knew that she had spawned I never stuck my face to coles to the tank and stopped the water changes for awhile.
 

cdawson

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
271
Location
Vancouver,BC
yeah, definately hold off on the tank maintenance while she's tending eggs and fry for about 2-3 weeks. Reason #1 I keep my breeding tanks planted.
 

libasci

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
21
Location
Glenview, IL
My YG Cauctodies Ate her fry as well

My YG Caucotodies laid and hatched like 50+ fry and everything seemed fine, however just as they ended the wiggler stage she started eating them.

I wonder if it was my fault for using a flashlight to look at them all the time, she did seem to get upset with me when I did that. It would make sense after the previous message.

She has a new batch but there does not seem to be as many, I have still looked at them with the flash light although not as much. I will try from here on out not to disturb her, but is so cool to watch them at wiggler stage.
 

Cichlid Junkie

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
169
Location
Warner Robins, Georgia
libasci,
I use the flashlight technique as well (I just had my first batch of fry come out for a free swim last night!) I was so excited, I had to keep checking. I was worried that she would eat them, but it turns out she's a great mom!
 

cdawson

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
271
Location
Vancouver,BC
libasci said:
My YG Caucotodies laid and hatched like 50+ fry and everything seemed fine, however just as they ended the wiggler stage she started eating them.

I wonder if it was my fault for using a flashlight to look at them all the time, she did seem to get upset with me when I did that. It would make sense after the previous message.

She has a new batch but there does not seem to be as many, I have still looked at them with the flash light although not as much. I will try from here on out not to disturb her, but is so cool to watch them at wiggler stage.

some females become stressed when bothered with fry. Mine tends to keep the fry from the front of the tank and is constantly mouthing them and picking them up in her mouth in order to move them away from the front of the tank when someone is near. They're best left alone for the first couple of weeks aside from when feeding them. Or at the least viewed from a few feet away.
 

nightowl1350

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
217
Location
Brampton, Ontario
Not uncommon for fish to eat the eggs if threatened. Angel fish do it all the time! Is it possible to raise them without the female? Airstone, anti fungal agent a cycled filter once they free swim?
 

cdawson

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
271
Location
Vancouver,BC
nightowl1350 said:
Not uncommon for fish to eat the eggs if threatened. Angel fish do it all the time! Is it possible to raise them without the female? Airstone, anti fungal agent a cycled filter once they free swim?


Once they become free swimming you can pretty much remove them, although I prefer to let her care for them for about a week or two and then remove them from the mothers care. Artificially reared fish tend not to act as natural as the ones raise by their parents. At least a week or two would give them a fair bit of time with the parents.
 

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