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Hi. I just had my 8th spawn. But the bad news is it again ended up with infertile eggs. Can someone figure out why it's been happening? Has it happened to someone else before? The male always kicked out the eggs 2-4 days after the egg laid. I collected them in an egg trap and I could easily tell that the eggs were cloudy. I keep 10 zeb in my 46 gal tank. I have been using local tap water with 8.2PH. I adjust the PH of my water down to 7.0 with discus buffer. The temp is 82F - 84F. I change water every week and sometime twice a week. I feed them once or twice a day with frozen bloodworms, frozen brine shrimps and shrimp pellets.

Can anyone give me some advice or point me out any potential problem?

I had a similar problem with a pair of discus. My final conclusion was that the male was likely infertile. With 10 zebs the odds are reasonable that with 8 spawns more than one female was involved. This could indicate the alpha male is not cutting the mustard- so to speak.

The ideal way to find out is to remove him and let then next in line male assume the position. Hopefully the result will be fertile eggs. If not, then you know it isnt the alpha male.

The downside of all this is when you return the alpha male, should he be not guilty, it may disrupt the colony some which means future spawning could be delayed.

TTA that sound like the best way to test the male obviously somthing is not working right - at least there are 10 to help breach the gap so there is a chance there is a male to take his place it may delay things fro a whilebut in the long haul it will be worth it.

Well. Last year, I seperate my alpha male and let the other male took over. However, same thing happened again. The other male has ended up with infertile eggs. Do you think the discus PH buffer has anything to do with it? I meant side effects. If it does, oo you think I should stop using it and let zebras to stay in the tap water with 8.2 PH. Can zebras spawn with 8.2 PH of water? Is there any better alternative PH adjustor available out there? Thanks.

Well you have already done what we thought of so it has to be somthing else I would gradually cut down the PH buffer I think the zebs will live in your natural PH at 8.2 but maybe they will ajust and breed at a higher PH they are quite hardy and nature will always take its course in the end where breeding is concerend depending on the volume of your tank you could try blackwater treatment and almond leaves as a more natural buffer although the affect of these are minimal, what sor of water do you use is it tap or ro

I use tap water. My other bristlenose pleco breed regularly with tap water. What does PH exactly do for the fish? Is it neccesarry to breed zebras in lower PH? Does anyone breed them successfully with higher PH or tap water?

Mine breed in tapwater PH 7,8 and MuS 580

Mine breed in tap as well: pH 7.4, gh 6dg (about 106 ppm), temp 86.

I live in the country and use well water, which has a ph of just over 8. I use this water for all my tanks, and my Zebra's spawn successfuly. I do have some driftwood in the tank to help soften the water a bit.

Thanks for your advice, Lora. I figured it out. Now I have 17 fries and more coming up in two weeks since the dady is fanning the eggs!

Oh good news you figured it out and have fry with more on the way

My PH is high at 8.5 out of the tap but I always acclimatise my fish slowly to it and have some bogwood in to try and lower it a little never resort to chemicals though and *touches wood* all my fish are quite happy in it