Re: Artificially hatching Ram Eggs

[IDMiamiBob@aol.com]

Mike writes:

> Is this something that takes many generations, like
>  with really crappy commercial angels and discus?

Remember folks, raising discus at ALL was very, very rare until Wattley
figured out how to raise them artificailly.  Now, as the understanding of
water quality increases, more and more people are enjoying watching their
discus nurse their fry, including fish that are direct descendants of
Wattley's first artificial raising technique.  Are these discus crappy?  I
don't think so.  And I will repeat- if you have a pair of angels that refuse
to hatch and raise their fry- send them to me.  In a month or two I will send
you a photograph of them doing it.  Crappy angels are only those which have
been bred from poorly chosen parents in terms of fin development, color, etc.
I have seen a whole tank of angels in a store that had holes through their
foreheads, partial dorsals, and the like.  When I chased down where they came
from, I found a teenager who had been taken by surprize when he woke up one
morning and found a piece of driftwood covered with eggs, and two angels
beating up his platys and corys.  Can I discourage this?  No, but I can take
him under my wing, and help him to get better breeders.  The folks in
Singapore who are responsible for the majority of these fish are beyond my
reach, but more and more angels are being raised stateside by quality
conscious individuals.  But even "Crappy" aangels will tend their young, given
the right environment.

>  Are the number of
>  egg/fry killing/eating parents on the rise due to this?

I guess that depends on who you ask.  If, by virtue of the fact that more and
more people are keeping dwarves we can say there are more anad more dwarves
eating their fry-yes, sure there are.  But when those people start to pay
attention to their fishes' environment, more and more successful rearing
stories surface.  I just lost the sixth spawn of my cacatuiodes from a pair
that were parent-raised.  The male was pulled for his own safety.  The female
ate the fry as they hatched.  It dawned on me this moprning that her mother
had moved the wrigglers as they hatched from the cave to an indent in a piece
of driftwood that had peice of slate over it, forming a "cave" with a solid
bottom.  All the caves in her tank have gravel bottoms.  So this week I will
create some spots for the fry to get moved to, and try one more time.  Bad
parents?  No, just bad husbandry on my part, until I can prove differently.
And will I pull eggs?  You betcha.  I need to get another generation going  to
keep these cacatuoides in my tanks.  But at this point I have two pair, and
will wait before I do it.

Bob Dixon


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