Male is negleting the nest, and fry have hatched

[cajunamy]

Will the fry survive on the floor? Daddy did great with the eggs, rotating them all the time, but he forgot to maintain the nest! There is only about 1/4 of the original nest left, which was the entire size of the half styrofoam cup. He seems to try to be injecting the eggs that haven't hatched yet, and the newborn fry into plain water.

In all my research I haven't come across this scenario, what can I do, if there is anything to do? I have no other experienced males in the house.

[CrowntailxKing]

I read before that they can survive on the floor. I don't know how great a chance of survival they have, but I heard that they can.

[cajunamy]

Thank you for the response. I know that this is my first post, but this is my first spawn attempt, so I don't know what to expect and when this happened, well, I kind of freaked out a bit!

I have read on bettysplendens that they should be ok until they can get themselves back up .. but I'd like more than one source to confirm this ya know?

[indjo]

Nest or no nest is OK As long as daddy is tending to them. And the ones that hit the floor will eventually swim back up. Take daddy out if he stops caring for them.

It sound like you have a large spawn - too much for daddy..... Too bad mommy won't help him. lol............ Congrats.

[cajunamy]

I don't know what the heck happened during the night -- I'm guessing one of my cats -- my door is usually closed! But my air pump was hanging off the dresser which caused the sponge filter to move, causing the cup to move, and now fry are ALL over one side of the tank instead of one spot! It looks like eggs still haven't hatched yet. With everyone all over the place, Daddy definitely can't keep up!

Should I move things back so Daddy can see things better (there are eggs and fry under the IAL) or leave it the heck alone?

[Panthera]

I'd leave it alone. Having your hand in there moving stuff around will just freak him out, which causes some males to just eat all the eggs and fry. He'll find his way, hopefully.

[cajunamy]

Just posted this in my spawn log so I thought I'd share -

April 28 - 2 days old. I was getting pretty nervous - Kadin could't keep up with all the eggs/babies! One of my cats must have pulled on the airline/plug for the air pump b/c it was hanging off the dresser this morning. Which made the sponge filter move and also the cup, destorying a bit of nest with it. There wasn't much nest left though to be honest, Kadin wasn't tending it. He's been great as a dad otherwise though! I took a nap and checked on them and it looks like everything was picked up and inserted into a new small nest Kadin had built. I guess it finally clicked for him! Now we're just waiting for the free swimming stage! I'm undecided on when to set up the BBS hatchery. I don't want to hatch too soon and then the BBS are too big when the babies can eat them, but I don't want to wait too late either.

[Dragonlady]

I know it is not uncommon for some breeders to remove the male right after the eggs hatch, especially if the male is a known fry eater. The less you mess with the tank while he is tending the nest, the better. As soon as the fry have lost their yolk sack, they will need something to eat almost immediately. Some breeders feed very small amounts of dissolved egg yolk and infusoria on day 3. Others start BBS right away.

[cajunamy]

I have VE & MW ready. BBS will be hatched out soon for about the week mark.