premature babies!

Less than a week after the last lot of babies came out of the tube I saw mum and dad making more - argh!

Just now I have seen that there are quite a few tiny, almost invisible fish with large yolk sacs attached, but they have come out of the tube for some reason. They are all still alive, but - and i think I probably can guess the answer to this one - are they likely to survive?

There's nothing I can do, as I would squash them if I tried to move them, and I can't sit and fan them all night and day! I have never seen this happen before and am wondering what has gone wrong?

Unrelated question - my largest young male is full size (10cm) now and the spikes on his nose are just starting to come through. Anyone know how old that would make him? Am planning on rehoming him asap, hopefully in the next couple of weeks.

Will try and attach photo, but have failed before so will put it in my gallery if I fail again - pic shows end of dad's tail in tube, mum (albino), older brown baby, and tiny blobs are the newest ones with their yolks.

Crowded tank, but not confident enough about my water quality to sell them just yet, but hopefully soon.

ive just had the same thing happen i lifted a peice of bogwood out the tank and loads of fry with egg sacks shot allover the place their all in the corner of the tank now were the air stone sits. ive reared loads of eggs in fry savours and they dont need fanning once they hatch and will do ok just with the water currant from the filter

thanks, I was starting to worry about them a bit less as they were all wriggling, but now that the thing is in there with them, they're just an easy snack!

Can't find it, will need to drain some water out the tank to be able to get all the bits and pieces out, was really hoping that it would be a shrimp, then I'd just look like a stupid lady with a shrimp in her tank, instead of a stupid lady with lots of dead fish!

babies gone, just saw them being slurped up by a greedy fish, whilst I was looking for the THING.

quite often a female will force a male to spawn again even tho he is still recovering from the last one. If this happens then the male is more likely to boot the eggs or fry as he will be starving and needs to go and get food. This is one of the reasons why it is important to keep breeders in peak physical condition. The fry with yokes attached normally do fine as the water movement in the tank should be enough to ensure they get plenty of fresh water. the issue is that they are next to useless at swimming and as such if there is anything in there that would eat them, they are doomed

if the thing that you were trying to catch was a drangonfly or damselfly larvae then im sure they would have had a field day

Is it possible to target feed the male while hes fanning the eggs?

hmm, maybe. He tends not to come out of the coral tube unless someone else gets too close.

I have managed to drop a spirulina tablet next to him a couple of times, but the other fish and a snail came to eat them, which made him cross!

He curled his tail back and batted the snail through the water a few inches away, like it was a ball! It was quite funny, but maybe you had to be there! :o

I was curious cause when mine fans the eggs I place an algae wafer rtight in front of him. He grabs it and munches away.

Do you use tongs or your hand?

I take the tablet out the packet with the fingers of my right hand, open the tank lid with my left and drop the tablet in roughly above where I want it to end up.

He is always head first in the tube with just his tail sticking out the opening, so I don't think he has much of a clue what's going on outside unless something brushes into him!

I have never tried to feed a male while he was on eggs. intereting idea! could work, only thind is all my males are face first into the cave so getting food down there without disturbing them would be hard.

I have done this a couple of times but only when my male hasnt had break for a while, and i no he is starving, as you see him nip out now and again but the slightest noise and he darts off again, so its a good idea to drop one on his doorstep but only after 1 week..which gives him plenty of time to establish his little wrigglers....

Interesting. I must say I despaired a little when I saw them straight back in laying more eggs after the last ones were just out, and I notice one or two of the last batch of babies have sneaked back in the tube with him, think they need a little push to leave the nest, he is too good to them!

Anyone know how long they breed for? He is over 7 now and works so hard with the babies, I am a bit worried he will wear himself out!

Not much I can do though without giving him his own tank to retire to.

when a male is ready to give up the breeding game he will. My first ever breeding male was a monster by any reckoning! at 18cms for a common he ruled the tank with an iron fist. he was a prolific breeder too. until one day he just stopped. no number of gravid females could convince him. Still as healthy as a horse, but he just decided that breeding was a younger fish's game and he was out. He was about 8 then, he lived for another year and a half after than before he slipped into that big tank in the sky.

I think the trick is not putting too much pressue on them. If you are not trying to get them to breed, they just do it cos they like your tank then you are fine! they will do their thing til they decide its not for them.

hmm, maybe not too many more broods to go for mine then.

Never intended to breed them, didn't even know I had a male and female, was just an accident.

Had no idea they could get to that size, mine seem to have stopped growing at about 10cm, so 18 is huge in comparison!

Wow...I must have the chillest BNs on the planet. Neither the male or the female shy away from me. I've hand fed them both once. (not something I want to get them used too). And when he's fanning eggs i just put the wafer in front of him and he'll eat it.

Come to think about it...I could prolly pick up any fish in my tank. They only "run" if the net goes in there.

What can I say...they love me.

They probably attribute me with food...but I'll still gloat anyway.

mine are pretty brave too, dad and mum will sit on the other side of the glass and just look at me.

Had to pick up dad once when we moved house and he suckered onto my hand - had a scary moment with images of little leech teeth sinking in and not being able to get him off (overactive imagination!), but he slurped off again once in the water.

can't say they'd take food from my hand though, that's pretty special!

now I am scared!

nice pic!!

Leeches are scary things! i've seen them go blood crazy in tanks!