Expectant zebra dad!!!!!

[Barbie]

I hadn't thought to tell you this before now, but I always wedge something up under the front edge of the cave so it's tilted backwards. The male gets so vigorous in trying to keep the eggs well oxygenated he can kick the eggs and small fry out pretty easily. Tilting the cave makes them tend to head back down into the bunch, rather than out the opening. Congrats on the fry though! There has been quite a bit of discussion on the subject of them eating the eggs. Some people say it's only the infertile eggs or eggs that he's forced to gnaw through to get the fungused ones out that are sacrificed. Darn the no opposable thumbs!

Barbie

[Artic circle]

Sounds like the L66 fry are doing very well.

When you say that 6 of the fry had a problem in the yolk sac do you mean they didn't hatch properly? This is where the male would have helped by eating the egg shell.

That's a good variety of foods you have the L66 fry on. Would the "very cold artemia" be cyclop-eeze? I believe that they originate from a lake in the arctic somewhere. I too do water changes every other day in order to keep the conductivity/TDS nice and low.

Adam

Very cold artemia, i meanet freezed artemia i have sometimes problem to find right words, heh.

[Adam]

Hopefullly the male will stp eating the eggs!!! Wait.......... have you been at it with that dam torch again?????
Just throw the batteries away and slowly walk away from the trash...

Cheers Jerms, I have definitely learnt my lesson with the flashlight.

Thanks for the great tip Barbie, I've already propped up the males cave at a slight angle this morning with a bit of slate. Hopefully this will do the trick.

Sorry Arctic . I thought you were reffering to cyclop-eeze, I guess they could be called "cold artemia" as they come from an arctic lake.

[Tariq]

Hi adam,the bal will get rolling soon dont worry,hopefully more fry will follow.
in my tank activity has been increased right at this moment there is a female being trapped by my biggest male,and i dont get that exited anymor but maybe this time something will happen
cheers

[Adam]

Hi Tariq and thanks.

Hopefully the male will become a better dad with time that's if I don't decide to start taking his spawn to hatch artificially.

Things are looking good for you with the females being trapped regularly. They will do this for quite a while and then suddenly one day you will find that they have spawned. I too had stopped getting excited with all the female trapping that was going on because it always resulted in nothing. However these days a trapping usually results in a spawn. With my lot it looks like there is a definite heirachy amongst the females as the most dominant ones are always very near to the Alpha male's cave. I often see them chasing other females away. Problem is the females around the male's cave do not appear to be egg laiden anymore but the others who keep their distance are.

I hope that your lot get going soon

Regards.

Adam.

[Adam]

Here's an updated picture of the the two fry, unfortunately the one on the right is a bull nose. Despite his disability I still love him very much.

[Mindy]

Your first little'uns. You must be very proud! They look beautiful.

[Adam]

Thanks Mindy,

I am certainly a proud dad. These two little guys seem to be doing great, they must be absolutely fed up of me constantly staring at them. You know how it is, forever the watchful parent.

Adam

[Shell231]

Adam,

What is Bullnose?

[Adam]

Shell, it's a deformity that affects the head of a zebra. It makes the "face"
look a lot more compressed that it should be.

There was a pretty long thread about this subject and possible causes.

Here's the thread: http://www.zebrapleco.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=293

[Rob]

Adam

"Who's the DADDY"

Good to see there doing well. Congrats again, lets keep this batting average up for the uK!!!! We were getting overtaken by California for a while there!!!

rob