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One tank of my zebs have just started laying again after a 9 month break.

They laid 2 days ago and a month ago, both spawns from the same female & alpha male but both times the eggs have gone within 2 days.

This pair have produced around 25 fry last year from around 4 spawns & have had successful spawns last in Dec & Jan this year.

This male has also had successful spawns with another female resulting in around 25 fry, but these also had their first failed failed spawn in Jan 08.

I also have a another tank that has a few failed spawns, but they have managed a few fry, but very small numbers.
This tank also produced a lot of fry last year, from 2 females & the alpha male.

The things that have changed are I moved all my tanks into my fish room in April this year, so I know this this disturbed them for a while, I started making my Ro water at home, this is only a few miles away but has resulted in a slightly higher ph.

The only major thing I can think of is I started using a different RO remineralizer around this time, could this be the problem?
I wish I had thought about this before typing this, as I shall stop using this & see if it changes the results.

All my water parameters are ok, any thoughts?, as seeing a lot of failed spawns is getting very disheartening.

As somebody who doent use ro, I can't say for sure, but I would guess you hit it on the head. A slightly higher pH should not be the cause of the problem. Moving the tank might stop them from spawning for a while but proven fish should not suddenly start giving bag eggs without cause.

Let us know what happens with the switch back to the previous additive.

After stopping using the ro remineraliser, I started doing water changes 2 to 1 ro/treated tap water but still had 2 failed spawns Feb & March.

The last fews weeks I have been doing 50/50 ro/tapwater water changes & had 2 seperate tank spawns.

The first eggs hatched on Friday night after 6 days, & the second set of eggs are hatching now after just 3 days, I was shocked to see some wrigglers after a quick peep

After 8 failed spawns I was starting to lose faith, but I am finally glad to see some wrigglers again.
It feels great.

Hi
Glad your luck has changed,Big WELL DONE! keep it up.

Jerry

Congrats Stevie.K

Congratulations I bet you are made up just shows the highs and lows of fish keeping well done.

Just a bit of an update, I had success until August last year & managed to raise 35 fry from April to August.
13 spawns in 2009 & 7 of these failed, so not very good.
I also lost one of my main Alpha males & nobody has filled his boots yet so this has had a big knock on affect as I have 3 females in this tank that have all spawned before not doing anything as yet.
5 spawns failed again from August & I have just had my 2nd spawn of 2010 today, my first spawn failed at new year after the 2nd day as before.
I spotted some planaria in this tank about a month ago, I have a problem with this in one tank with just a standard jewel box filter & I must of introduced it during water changes, I have cut down feeding to just lights out now as I used to feed morning & night, I have sand substrate & have been increasing syphoning & water changes using 50/50 RO.
Numbers have been decreasing dramatically but I know they are a bugger to shift, but it is my thinking my spawns may be failing due to planaria as I have read they are drastic to egg laying fish as I think they feast on them?
With my fisrt spawn of 2010 I increased water changes of 20% to every day to try to rid the planaria.
I always have raised fry with there Farther & don't want to remove the eggs as I have not had success in the past with other fish eggs in the past & I also don't want to stress my fish out as he is a big fish & I don't think he would let the eggs get past him, plus he is the only fish that is spawning so I don't want to upset this.
I have been away for 9 days so I will be doing lots of water changes today, as they will need it.
I want to see if anybody knows of anyway to get get rid of Planaria quick & fast without using chemicals & any other thoughts.
Hope its all not too confusing & you guys can help.

Have you thought about putting some other fish in to eat them? I read somewhere that tetras like to eat them, so maybe a nice shoal of cardinals would work, and they'll be fine with your zebs. I also heard somewhere that some snails eat them, so maybe a good meat eating snail like an assassin might work. Failing that they live in substrate so have you thought about changing your sand?

Do you have anything in with your zebs to help clean up the left over food?

Hi Grubby girl, thanks for that i hadn't thought of other fish eating them, I used to have some tetras in a couple of years ago, but the flow seamed too much for them & they used to hide alot under slate, so I moved them.
I have mts & cherry shrimps to tidy up, but there is never any food left in the morning.
I have thought if these eggs go that I will strip the tank & sterilise, clean the filter & go bare bottom.
I have just done a water change & there seems to be very few in the tank, I see only 1 now & again, so maybe they are going slowly, but I don't know how many it takes to cause any problems with eggs, that is if this is the problem?
I have thought about putting assassins in, but thought they were expensive if you needed to put a few in each tank & I have 10 tanks , so I left it.
If anyone has some for sale give me a pm.
Thanks

If you still have the tetras in another tank just put them in for a while and reduce the flow a little until they have done their job. I have just ordered 4 assassins for one of my tanks that has a snail problem. I have 3 filters in there and would like to use one in another tank but I wont move it and extend the problem - hence the assassins. I only paid £12 for 4 including special delivery. I'll let you know next week if they were worth the money!

I have also put a Ehiem aquaball filter in the tank to help aid, the tetras are dead now, never been able to keep them for more than a year!
I have got a few Penguins if they would be any good?
With your snails I place a pleco wafer in the tank & leave for an hour or so, then net them up & dispose of them, I also sieve my hand through the sand until they come to the top & sieve them up with a net.

Stevie.K wrote:I have also put a Ehiem aquaball filter in the tank to help aid, the tetras are dead now, never been able to keep them for more than a year!
I have got a few Penguins if they would be any good?
With your snails I place a pleco wafer in the tank & leave for an hour or so, then net them up & dispose of them, I also sieve my hand through the sand until they come to the top & sieve them up with a net.

I do keep hoovering them up and I do get rid of all I see at each water change - but within a week there are a load of tiny ones again. I have no idea who is laying all these eggs. The daft thing is I actually bought them (they are ramshorns) to feed my puffer - only problem is he wont eat them. I even put the puffer in the tank in the hopes of getting rid, but he is pretty useless. What I need to do is borrow a couple of clown loaches for a few weeks! As that's not a possibility I've trying assassins!

I think I read somewhere that wormer plus kills planaria. Jo might be able to confirm as I thought it was her that mentioned it, but could be wrong

Hi Stevie.K
BTW well done on the successful spawns this year.

I have read up on them and what I found was that if they are separated as across the body or along the body or part of their body they are able to grow back as 1 or 2 complete planaria.so don't try to destroy them will make it worse.

Joby
Jo's Zebs told me about the wormer plus in a thread on going at the mo.
But will have to inform you what to do if she can help?.

Hope this helps

Jerry

Thanks Jerry, little buggers aren't they?
I have some Prazi pro a safe wormer I used to use on Discus, so have tried some on the tank which was originally infected, I will see how it goes, but I haven't tried it in the tank with the spawn.
I will have to add up how many spawns these 2 girls have done in the past, they have been prolific over the last 2 1/2 yrs & have produced alot of fry even with alot of failed spawns.