Finally a new spawn!

Big Red my red Halfmoon had his way with one of my 5th generation Cambodian females today. He looked pretty fat and I know I fed him well but I'm thinking he ate a bunch of his potential offspring. He looks like a Crowntail now that she handed him his butt in a sling but he's taking care of the rest of the eggs so far. I haven't had any spawnings for 3 months so I'm really looking forward to this batch. I put 9 eggs in a bowl with methylene blue to try and hatch just in case he decides to eat the rest of them. Sometimes I can hatch them without a Poppa.Looks like there might be 3 to 5 dozen in the nest. Here he is beforeand here he is after the mad passionate love fest.I hope it was worth it pal! Ouch, he looks like shredded wheat!

Aww poor little guy! Hope the spawn is successful!

good luck chard

Good luck mate

Hows this spawn going chard?

Any updates ?

Sorry I thought I'd posted a couple days ago. I must have been in a hurry and didn't push send. The stupid carnsarn no good lousy so and so ate the rest of the eggs the next day and the ones I put in a bowl didn't hatch so maybe they weren't fertilized. I've got them re-set up and will release her tomorrow while I have a few days off and try again. I've been looking out for a 4 ray CT female and found and bought one today to breed with my 4 ray Black orchid CT male. I'll get them set up the next couple days too. I put a male and female Copper/Gold CT pair together that I raised from this spring, I,ll post if anything develops.

hopefully the next few spawns will go to plan..

i'd the same prob last week to with an egg munching male

Dunno why they do it, especially when they don't get the chance to spawn often. The lil monsters! lol

I put a few different combinations together last night. I have a little Brown longfinned female that was the boss of the girls tank that I put in with my big Blue Giant. She used to be the smallest adult female but has grown a lot. Much to my delight and surprise the two of them are getting along wonderfully as they pick up eggs and put them in the bubblenest,YAHOO!! I can't get my Giant females to spawn so I guess this is better than no Giants. I put the 4 ray CT female with my 4 ray Black Orchid CT male with bent fin rays in his dorsal. 4 rays are so hard to find I'm going to try breeding him and hope the bent rays aren't genetic. Nothing so far from "Big Red" and the young Cambo girl. I'm hoping he doesn't eat the eggs this round. I ("ONLY") have 15 tanks and 30 some jars in my bedroom so I'm going to have to find room for the one surviving male Dragon to spawn. You suppose maybe I should stick to one or two colors and not have Guppies and an Oscar too?..... Nah.

Lol well good luck, fingers crossed that it works out this time...

wow he was deffo munched on!

Hope things go well this time round

Big Blue male has a couple dozen eggs left this morning. I'm afraid to even hope he wont eat the rest. I feed them well, I try to stuff them before spawning and get them to eat while tending the nest but they almost always eat the eggs and fry. I'm getting sick of it and don't know what else to try.

I hope this keeps up and they are successful, I'll be setting up the 35 and 45 hexagons for grow out tanks! The Black Devil CT girl I just bought and put with my Black Orchid CT male, well a pictures worth a thousand words or what looks like 1,000 eggs.I've been wanting fry from him for months.It looks like a couple other paired up couples are getting close to spawning as well. Here's to hoping to soon be overran! Cheers!

I moved the nest cover and saw one big fat baby in the Blue Giants tank so I took him out hoping there's a couple that might make it. I counted about 7 or 8 eggs left in Black Orchid tank and removed him as well. I might get a few to hatch. I'm sooooo tired of getting excited and losing sleep thinking about having some new fry to take care of just to have the blankety-blank males eat the blank,blank blankety-blank eggs every blank time! One of these days I'm going to snap and feed the Oscar really well for a day or two!! Kidding. Well,.. maybe.

Oooh congrats, hope things work out ok x

The few that hatched from the Blue Giant are dead and the Black Orchid eggs are mush. Pull my self up by the boot straps and try again and again and again and.........

awwww mate, thats tough.. Like you say, pick yourself up and try again.. It will get better sooner or later ...........

Where do you buy your fish?

Wal-mart, Petco here in Branson and Pet warehouse in Springfield. Since I can't find any HM females or the wholesalers and breeders aren't letting any go I'll have to save up and buy some online.

oh I am so sorry - if I were you I wouldnt feed the male whilst he tends the nest - leave him hungry - it could be why he's eating everything

That's why I feed him. I wasn't feeding them before so I figured I'd try the opposite. Nothing works no matter where I buy them or they were raised by me I got one out of twenty that didn't eat them last year and 4 out of 8 so far this year.

you dont feed before hand?

Lol he means he has tried not feeding while the father has tended the fry in PAST spawnings. This time he tried feeding while the dad was working.
I've always fed and never had a problem. I'd rather feed as all other species have a record for eating their young if they get too hungry.

It's nothing your doing chard, you just have a greedy boy on your hands. Make sure the tank dad and fry are in can't be seen by anything else. If they are other fish close by and dad can see them...he may feel threatend and could be a possibility why he is eating eggs/fry.

Just a suggestion!

I've covered the tank with a towel and had a night light over the tank. I've had them in a tank on a shelf away from everything and other times with a tank on both sides. I just can't figure out how to keep them from eating the eggs or fry. I came home from work tonight to find my Green Butterfly male and Cambodian Green Cellophane female had eggs. Then I checked on my big Red Halfmoon and his Red Cambodian girlfriend and they had eggs. So much for sleeping good tonight. I don't want to wake up to another emptied nest.