I have eggs, but no cave

Well my bns have spawned, but my setup was wrong... I had lain down gravel with my upside down home made caves on top. I used upside down lids (from simply instant coffee) and the eggs sank going into the gravel. I discovered this when bns were doing their thing and i decided to vacuum the gravel outside the caves. On initial vacuum i picked up several eggs and decided to take a closer look inside. To my surprise, none of the eggs were stuck to the ceiling and so i quickly vacced what i could and put them in a fry grow out tank.

I have since replaced my home made caves with pvc pipes but am curious as to why they did not stick to the roof... are they unfertilized? I have been monitoring them for a couple days, pulling out the white ones at a rate of a couple per day. These eggs have been around approximately 4 days and i have about 30 left. I considered using a baster to try and get them back into a cave, but thought they might not get taken care of.

They are in a clear container with holes in the bottom and top over an airstone at the top of my tank (36" 33 gallon) and im curious if they will grow out... also i have had the lights off to prevent albinism... any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I have 2 males and 2 females in this tank and have transfered my barbs into my 10 gallon.

Hiya,well they probably didn't stick to the top because of the material the lids are made of.Smooth surfaces are difficult for eggs to stick to.Some should hatch if they are above an air stone and where ever did you get the notion from that having the lights on will cause albinism? Having the lights on will certainly not cause albinism.If they are going to be albinos they will be,not because of any outside influence just because that is their genetics.

P.S.. PVC pipes are also very smooth,if you must use these,roughen up the inside surface a little.Have you got wood in the tank for them?

I do have wood in the tank, ok thx for the info... i read somewhere albinism is prolly caused by too much light too early, aside from genetics.

I can assure you that having the lights on will definately not cause albinism just as much as it will not cause them to be black with pink spots.

Ok thx

Bristlenoses wrote:

I can assure you that having the lights on will definately not cause albinism just as much as it will not cause them to be black with pink spots.

Been thinking,If you do get any black with pink spots i will take a few off your hands


Hi Jim

Bristlenoses wrote:

I can assure you that having the lights on will definately not cause albinism just as much as it will not cause them to be black with pink spots.

Ok... so i woke in the middle of the night to find my bn attached to the bottom of my fry box and to my astonishment... half the eggs were gone! Has he sucked them out only to return them to their new home? Or eaten them?

Will update in the morning

my guess would be that hes eaten them. Once they are out of his care they are just as tasty looking as they are to other fish.