Well FINALLY a pair that were at the same stages during the spawning process, and a male who doesn't scoff all the eggs

Eros was really good, Rosie only has slight tail damage and that was from the last few mins when I was trying to get her out. Missed the beginning of the wrapping as I accidentally fell asleep lol, but when I woke up they were in the middle of it XD

TBH she had LOADS more to give but I think Eros was tired from trying to wrap her - she is big anyway but the egg belly is massive, and he had some trouble getting the wrap right. She also kept trying to eat the eggs so he was having to keep pushing her from under the nest lol. In the end he got fed up and started nipping and chasing her away so removed her. Not many eggs that I can see so i'm hoping at least a few are fertile!

Been watching him, it's really interesting watching instinct kick in. At first I thought he was eating the eggs but he was just cleaning them as he put them back gently afterwards So far seems like a great daddy, keeps refreshing the bubbles and is on patrol around the tank and searching the floor for any lost eggs.

Some pics:

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Wish me luck, I am desperate for fry!

Hope you get some, and that male is gorgeous is he a dragon,

Thanks not complete dragon I don't think as he is missing a few thicker scales on one side, but he has some dragon scaling

WOW siler great pair and i hope everything goes well keep us updated hun

Thanks Storm

Babies babies babies!! Wishing lots of fertile thoughts your way LOLOLLLLLL!

Thanks Jess He's constantly cleaning his eggs lol, is this normal?! He's moved them now, right to the back of the cup where I have to crouch on the floor and squint to see them. Think I have to tame down my looking haha.

So... going by Kel's knowledge, if I bred a baby back to dad, I should get DTs? I'll be happy with the wide dorsal as I think it's so pretty. Think it was on Bettysplendens (not 100% though) that I saw fry with long dorsals and they were soooo cute.

Yes to DT's from daughter to father spawn. I've had males that have the fry scattered from one side to the other with 5 or 6 little nests hilly nilly.

Sounds like a fun breeding project for you Lou, even the 'inbetween' babies will be nice looking :-)

It's totally normal for the males to constantly preen the eggs and move them and check them and basically be completely OCD about them lol. They even move the fry around to stop them getting fungusy too. It's a horrible moment when you think the eggs are gone but really the males just moved them! I must be his way of telling you to take a hike :-P

The first time my male moved them i thought he had eaten them, i panicked and shouted WHAT HAVE YOU DONE BOY, then realised he had moved the lot, oops sorry, had no faith in him, how wrong was i

We're so untrusting of our boys, LOL!!

I wonder if you took a sibling pair from this spawn, the male and female with the widest dorsal fins, and bred them together, since their both DT gene carriers would they get some DT babies in their own spawn?

^That would be an interesting spawn too Jess, maybe I can do both - father/daughter to perfect tail and maybe try a sibling pair to get the colour I want most and then compare

UPDATE:

ARGH

So, woke up and I see one egg - I think it's an egg. He doesn't look fat so it doesn't seem like he's eaten them ALL (when I had a close look at a pic I took it looked like about 20 and that's enough to make his belly big).

He's still faffing around under his nest cleaning bubbles and such, so is there a chance the eggs are still in there somewhere?

second ARGH

Eros seems to have ich he has 2 spots, what do I do?! It says on the bottle that I can use the eSHa EXIT with fry, but not too sure. You can add meth blue to a spawning tank can't you?

I'd love to have a go at that too, see if a sibling pair produce any DT's *hint hint* :-D I'm so excited to see what colours you're going to get, so many different possibilities :-)

Posted on other board about this hun, I may or may not be of use lol. I'll copy and paste incase anyone on this board can correct me/add to it:

Don't lose hope yet Lou, the males tend to really shove the eggs far out of reach in the nest so there might be some really out of sight. If the nest was empty it's unlikely he'd still bother preening the bubbles. I didn't think I had many eggs with Mars and Lily, but even after he ate some (maybe they were bad ones maybe not) I seem to have more fry than I saw eggs. roll on 4pm!

Ugh the ich is horrible timing. You can use meth blue with eggs and fry, but don't use a full dose. You may even want to think about removing him once the fry are hatched, and the lowering the water in the tank to about an inch so the fry don't have fall to fall/swim back up, then once they're a bit stronger and older you can start adding clean water into the tank to raise the level. I have no experience in doing that though so you might want to research or get advice from someone not a newb!

Keep me posted, if there's anything I can do let me know! Im making you an e-cuppa in moral support!

Thanks hun I really do hope he hasn't eaten them all. Might add a small amount of meth blue to the tank, if people use it for preventing fungusy eggs then I think it's the better way to go that a med that I haven't heard people use with eggs.

E-cuppa much appreciated

That sounds like the best idea, go with something you know for sure is tried and tested and safe on eggs.

I must've gone through 50 cuppas in the last 24 hours...might have to move on to something stronger until Mars is out LOL. I'm thinking of you hun, keeping everything crossed X