Egg eating dad's

Jacqueline

Member
Jan 19, 2011
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Holland
Hi,

I was wondering if any one has any tips on stopping males eating their eggs after spawning? It's slowly making me nuts as I have tried different things for the past 8-6 months without any progress.

I have one L270 male that began eating his eggs 8 months ago. Now he's at a point that I don't even get a chance to do anything anymore as he eat's them directly after the female has left the cave. That would be at night time most of the times......
Sadly, now I've discovered that one of my zebra males is starting to do the same thing :cry:

Is there any hope for these males or is it best to switch them for other males?? has any one had any improvements from this behavior???

Thanks in advance.
 
J

jamous91

Guest
they might grow out of it but what you could do is get all the males in one tank and female sin another and keep they apartf from each other for a few months then put them bck together
 

Joby

Retired Staff
Aug 9, 2009
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Are they only spawning with one female or different ones? just wondering if the female is laying dudd eggs and he knows so is destroying straight away :dk: every now and again my L134 male destroys his eggs but its usually when he spawns with the smaller female that doesn't tend to have the best success with her eggs. I always say trust the male on instinct but wonder if outside triggers may factor in? Hope someone can help :thumbup:
 

Irene0100

UK Support Team
May 14, 2009
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Norfolk, UK
usually they eat when disturbed, but if not getting that far I would also suspect they were infertile so he ate them.
if it does not get better then maybe a temp separation might be worth a try.
tell us a bit more about the water you keep them in? maybe they die form low oxygen or something so he then eats them?
 

Jacqueline

Member
Jan 19, 2011
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Holland
Thanks for the reply's.

How does my fish house work:

I have 9 tanks each divided into separate breeding tanks with glass panels. They all connect to a central filter system, this is a large biological filter. Also connected is a nitrate canister witch filters out most of the nitrate. The total amount of water is around 2000 liters running trough all 9 tanks.
The water is heated to 29-30 degrees celcius. Water changes are made frequently and make up to 100% each week. Due to the biological filter system and open water flow in and out the separate tanks the oxygen level is high.

The two males with the problem:

The L270 male is young. About 2,5 years old now, tank raised by myself from a few months old. Started spawning in the growing up tank at 18 months. I put the 2 fish, male and female (only had two!) into a tank of their own. I had about 8 spawns of them no problem. They were the easiest breeding fish I had, notting seemed to bother them. Then he started eating the fry when they hatched, and later on he ate them all. I tried separating the eggs from the male after 3-4 days. That worked ones. After that he became more stressed and began eating them earlier until now he's eating them directly after spawning..... The female lays her eggs exactly every 4 weeks, she still comes to him. The egg eating has been going on for about 8 months now.

The L46 male is old. He is wildcaught and at least 10+ years. I know the guy I bought him from and he had him for several years and he bought the fish as newly legally imported zebra's. And that's quite some time ago seen as the export ban exists now. This male never had a successful spawn at the previous owner, did several trappings tho. The female is a very young zebra, just over 2 years old now and did her first spawn 2 days ago with this male. He also had a spawn with an older female of 3 years old, found 9 empty eggshells but didn't even know he had spawned. Didn't realize that he also ate them eggs....until the penny dropped today....

What can I do to make this stop?? :dk:
 
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bigbird

Pleco Profiles Moderator - RIP FRIEND
Sep 9, 2010
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in all honesty after breeding for so long all types of fish, I always find that males etc eat eggs only if they are infertile. Maybe as the other stated the eggs were indeed infertile or one very last option would be the male has a lack of protein. just my thoughts....cheers jk :thumbup:
 

Bigjohnnofish

Global Moderators
Staff member
Apr 15, 2010
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Perth, Western Australia
i had a male 333 that was just about to be turfed on the scrap heap... but he has redeemed himself... luckily for him... he is pretty old also and much bigger than any of the others... he musta eaten 10 spawns in a row....
luckily i have 4-5 females laying so this was about 2 months without new fry...
but every now and then another male has a go while the bigger male is on freshly laid eggs... till the bigger male eats his and smashes the smaller male out and eats his eggs also.... lol...

now the bigger male sorts the eggs and at the wriggler stage turfs them out of the cave till he has 5-6 left to look after... which is fine by me as i just pick them up and raise them by hand....

ever noticed your male couple days before spawning goes on an eating binge?
this 333 male sits in the middle front of the tank looking at me if theres no food in the tank till i feed him!!!!

IMO you breed the best quality fish you have whether you have to persevere with an egg eating male or not.... breeding inferior fry IMO is a waste of time
crank up the feeding and see if it helps...

i've had pretty much every species i keep eating eggs at one time or another... its just part of the game of keeping plecs...
 

Jacqueline

Member
Jan 19, 2011
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Holland
Thanks very much for the helpful reply's :thumbup:

@Bigjohnnofish, your story gives me hope! I noticed that the males doing this egg eating are fat! So yes, I think they have an eating frenzy every now and again!! Or maybe it's because they are eating the high protein eggs....

If my observation is correct these two males are also the most scared/stressed males I have. So maybe they get really freaked out when having such precious treasure that they don't fertilize the eggs after spawning :dk:

But after reading these reply's I'll just stick with my ongoing patience. Then maybe one day I'll be rewarded :)
 

macvsog23

Pleco Profiles Team - RIP FRIEND
May 1, 2009
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In nature patricide is not unknown Homo erectus and Early Homo sapiens practiced patricide. Mainly due to lean times with food.
It is a natural instinct to say “Bugger feeding and wasting any energy on these items I will use the item as food “Hard wired is law number one.
“Reproduction “so any organism knows it can reproduce later.
My suspicions are that the reason is one of two.
The male feels a threat and is.
“Protecting” his offspring by the ultimate removal. The threat could be perceived or real no one can get in to his head and see when he thinks sadly.
Or.
He thinks the eggs are not his and he is removing a future challenge, as a male lion will when he takes the pride over and destroys the offspring of the last dominate male.
A final option could be the male is just nasty and mad?