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Have my first zebra spawn 3 days ago. so far the male kick out 1 egg, need advise is I should harvest the egg and get an egg tumbler to replace the father, normally how long will it take for them to hatch temperature is at 84.2 , should I harvest the fry once they hatch or continue leaving them with the father? thanks

First, congrats on the spawn. it should be the first of more.

There are no rules for this stuff. Different breeders use different approaches. basically we use what works for us.

First spawns often do not work out well as the dad is so new. The eggs may be out because the dad knows it is bad and intentionally kicked it out, Equally possible is that, due to inexperience, he did it by accident. I usually use my dedicated turkey baster to suck up the egg and gently shoot it back into the cave. You can also pull it and try to hatch it in a trap. Most breeders I know prefer to raise the fry in the breeding tank, They seem to do better there than in growout tanks. Some breeders will remove the wigglers and then return them once they are free swimming. I always prefer to let dads raise the kids.

Some folks will put something under the front end of the cave to cause it to tilt slightly towards the back end, this tends to reduce the accidental rool out of eggs.

Lastly, zebras when very small do not some veggie matter in their diet. Even the adults will eat some as well. I usually mix earthworm and veggie sticks and I also feed 100% of my fish spirulina w/garlic and paprika (from kensfish) every Saturday.

Thanks for the reply. The egg was kick out by accident when I shine into his cave. I have place it into a breeder box, any idea why the egg form into a 8 shape. It was round when I first place it to the breeder box. Notice this morning that the smaller circle turn white I have should I separate it from the bigger egg?

If you can do so w/o damaging the bigger one, yes. One thing to realize here is that there are any number of reasons an egg or eggs may not be viable. While we may not see this sort of thing, the dad knows. His jub is the keep the eggs aerated and to remove unviable ones so they do not cause harm to the rest.When we find an egg or eggs out of the cave, we may not know if this is with cause or an accident, So out best course of action is either to try to return the egg or move it a trap as you did.

If you have not already done so, you should look at the pictures in the Breeding section of the site. Click on the link at the top right.