Weird breeding behavior.

[margo45]

Hey all! I'm new here but I have a question! I have a pair of macmasteri and the female lays eggs in her cave then Guards them for the day, however after a couple hours she picks them all off the ceiling and puts them out of her cave. Any ideas as to why?

 

[Apistoguy52]

Short answer probably sounds something like mama knows best. There’s probably something wrong that she gets, that we don’t.

 

[margo45]

Fair enough. Thank you. This is the second batch she's done this to, so I was a bit confused.

 

[Apistoguy52]

Fair enough. Thank you. This is the second batch she's done this to, so I was a bit confused.

Yeah. Been there, done that. In my experience, it usually comes down to one of two things. 1) male didn’t do his job (very infrequent ime) 2) conditions that are conducive to incubating eggs (bacterial/fungal loads or water parameters (inappropriate pH/tds).

2 is usually the culprit. After the second misfire, I’ll start softening the water and reducing the pH till it works

 

[margo45]

Thank you! I had my other pair breed and they hatched a ton of babies so I'm gonna have to check the TDS on this tank to see how different they are