# Questions for those that use egg tumblers



## Dacrittergitter (Dec 28, 2008)

I have two questions regarding the use of egg tumblers. What is your average successful hatch rate and how do you deal with fungus when it shows up on the eggs? I'm using a tumbler that I purchased recently for the first time and I have lost half the clutch already in the first four days to a white fungus. I pick out the white eggs as soon as I spot them but at the rate I'm losing them in a day or two there will be nothing left. Any tips to help me save whats left?


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## Carmesi (May 8, 2008)

couple things here.
1. Allow the mother to hold the eggs as long as possible. Did you strip her? how long had she been holding?
2. Make sure that the eggs arent tumbling around, just shimmying on the bottom. It should not be like a bingo ball roller, more like a vibrating bed at a cheap motel. 
3. Always get rid of any that show molding right away.
4. keep in same water the mother was holding in with plenty of airation.
I use the tumbler only when I feel the mother is sick/stressed/too small to carry. And IME stripping a mother sometimes causes her to spit/swallow early the next time, or just plain not want to breed anymore, but I guess it depends on how tramatic the expirience is for her


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## Dacrittergitter (Dec 28, 2008)

Carmesi, I stripped the eggs on day 1 because the mother swallowed the last two clutches within days of spawning and I really wanted to raise some fry. All eggs are showing signs of fungus today so my last ditch attempt to rear the eggs with a tumbler failed. The tumbler is running in the same tank with the parents and I keep the water pristine clean. I'm shocked I lost them all to fungus, I don't know what I did wrong. I really thought the tumbler would be the answer to my problems but my bad luck spawning these fish continues.


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## Dacrittergitter (Dec 28, 2008)

I jumped the gun on yesterdays post. I saw white thread like growths on the rest of the eggs and thought they were going to succumb to fungus as well. As it turns out what I was seeing were little tails emerging. Today I can see clearly that I have eight little fry developing just fine. That's not as many as I was expecting from 27 eggs but I'd have none if I let mom swallow them again. So I'm happy with the results so far being my first try using a tumbler.

















Hope a few will grow up to look like daddy.


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## Carmesi (May 8, 2008)

Good to see they are developing. Pretty soon, you will not need to worry about fungus as long as they can move around on their own. I didnt know they were ngara's, thats a beauty of a father. I am trying to breed some ngaras right now as well. I cant even get mine to do the deed, so I'm jealous. How big is that female. Most will swallow the first couple of times, once you get this batch, and they start breeding more, try and let her hold again. I think my female is not breeding at all because I stripped her twice and now she doesnt want to go through it again.


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## Dacrittergitter (Dec 28, 2008)

Well it's day twelve for the fry and my little wigglers are doing great. I haven't had any more problems with fungus and hope things stay that way. I'm really enjoying watching them grow and change each day but now that I have a few fry to raise I'll probably let nature take its coarse on the next spawn and see what happens. The female that spawned is fair size, I'm guessing right at the 4" mark. Here's a picture that I snapped yesterday.


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