[Got Fish?]

It seems that i have 5 female, and 1 male...some of the females seem too be carrying eggs..i can see some white near th ebottom of their bellies...are they pregnant?:bounce:

 

[JenThePlantGeek]

Very possible! Pack in the plants ( java moss and hornwort are good) and do a nice big water change the next evening a thunder storm rolls through. That seems to do the trick for me at least. Look in the morning and you might have eggs scattered about the plants!

 

[Got Fish?]

YEEEEE!!!!!! i recently added some java moss, and this other live plant...hopefully its enough, but i still hav esome plastic plants in it???will it affect them>>

 

[JenThePlantGeek]

The plants are just a good place for the eggs to fall and hide so they won't get eaten. You can also make yarn mops out of any synthetic yarn. Just wrap it around a book a whole bunch of times and snip it and tie it off. If I remember right, serapeas have sinking eggs, so you might want to tuck them on the bottom. Good luck!

 

[JenThePlantGeek]

Oh! and another trick - feed them good foods. Live foods if you can find 'em like blackworms or brine shrimp or mosquito larvae. Freeze dried and frozen work well too, but good foods do a lot to get fish into breeding condition.

 

[Got Fish?]

yea i have been feeding them some dried bloodworms for awhile now

 

[Got Fish?]

do u know what the eggs are supposed to look like, also one of my serpa(female) has been sort of hiding between some of my plants, is she laying eggs, i tried watching her for awhile, but noting seemed to be happening???

 

[Got Fish?]

Also is the male serpa supposed to be by her side, in order for him to fertilize the eggs once they're layed? Do the parent seat their own eggs? I have a pleco, in the same tank...will he eat the eggs at night?

 

[JenThePlantGeek]

I'm stating this generally for egg scatterers, but I do think it's the case for serpaes as well.

When she lays eggs it will be when she's darting around throught the 'bushes' with the male. Generally this happens at night closer to dawn. They'll both swim around and release, and the eggs and sperm will mix and fall to the bottom. The parents WILL eat their own eggs. I'm not sure about plecos, but I really wouldn't put it past them. If you have enough cover, you might see a couple survive. Otherwise, if you want more, you can move the pair to a bare-bottom tank filled with half fresh and half tank water and packed with mops next time it storms really good. The pressure change seems to be a trigger. Put them back in the main tank the next day and after a little while you may see fry start to pop up in your breeder tank.

 

[Got Fish?]

Aight, maybe i'll stay up all night tomrrow and watch my fish...lol i need to get lots of coffee...lots and lots of coffee

 

[Got Fish?]

well sometims the female when its satying in its hiding spot, chases away other serpas....is it because she alread layed eggs in the area and is protecting them????

 

[JenThePlantGeek]

Some fish (like cichlids) will do that. Generally the eggscatterers are horrible parents though! They will gobble up the eggs if they find them! Most likely you have two males in there fighting over breeding territory.

 

[Got Fish?]

well i have six in total...all of them are quite large, except for one...so i'm thinking that he small one is the lone male, with 5 female fish????

 

[JenThePlantGeek]

Have you seen them doing any of the spawning type behavior? Are the females big and round in the tummy and wider than the "supposed male" when you look down on them from above? Hopefully your 'male' is up to the task - and I'd say that if he is, you have a good shot at getting some fry

 

[Got Fish?]

true, well some of the femlaes are much bigger than the male, not just wider, but bigger overall, almost about 2 inches now