Fungus On Bristlenose Plecos Eggs

FUNGUS GROWING ON ACTIVELY HATCHING EGGS: Advice please?

Hey guys,

My bristlenose albinos got mature enough to produce their first eggs! It's been four days since the eggs were laid, and I'm seeing a few little tails wiggling out. The problem is, my male pleco didn't stay with the eggs to fan them and fungus is taking over!

These guys had three caves to choose from but they laid the eggs on the side of the heater and the eggs fell into the gravel. Because of other fish in the tank as well as poor water flow/ circulation, I moved the eggs into a breeder box with a bubbler in it.

I saw the first tail movement last night, but since I left for work this morning, there is a quite noticible increase in the amount of white fuzzy fungus in the egg clutch.

I have never had fish lay eggs before, so there's a lot that I don't know. I am wondering how to safely remove the eggs covered in fungus without harming the healthy eggs. I am also wondering if the fungus can grow on the yolk surrounding the healthy wigglers. I worry because I have read that the need to absorb the yolk in there first few days before beggining to swim about.

I think I see fungus growing on some of their tails too! Can any of these eggs/fry be saved? Please see the attached s showing the fungus growth.

 

Do you have a turkey baster you could remove the fungus with? I bought one at dollar tree for cleaning my fry box so if you don't have one maybe check there. I wouldn't think wrigglers could grow fungus but idk. There's something called methyline blue you can use to treat fungus but I've never used it so I can't really give you advice on that.

 

Raising fry can be tricky. There are some tough logistical issues to overcome. Methylene blue is an antifungul used to keep fungus from growing on your eggs, but you have to be carefull with your filter. Methylene blue will destroy your biological filter. One way to do this is move the eggs to a separate tank with just an airstone and the meth blue, no fillter and do water changes every day to keep the ammonia down. This also prevents the other community fish from eating the wigglers.

 

I am on to my second batch of eggs and read that having a high pH can really contribute to fungus growth. Since I have hard water and am pretty near an 8 on pH, Ive been using acid buffer to bring it to a 7 and have set up a separate breeding tank. I am still using the breeder box because it keeps all of the eggs in one spot where I know I can give them a bit of a current with an air stone. I don't like messing with my cycle, so as long as this works for me, I probably won't change much else. Having them in their own tank is a plus because I can give them a little more love and clean it more often.

This time around, Dad his seemed super stressed since I took his eggs away, and I feel so bad for him. I'm not sure what to do. He was trying to guard and fan them, but he was moving about too much and knocking them all over the place into the gravel outside of the cave and spreading them out. I was uneasy about that because of the other fish in the tank. I really don't like to see him so restless though. Thoughts anyone?

 

Fungus will only get unfertilised eggs. You’d have to have a quite disgusting tank for it to get fertile eggs and fry.

Pick the fungussed eggs out, and use a fungal treatment at half dose. Far safer than meth blue.