my nagels laid eggs again. this time, i pulled them out and put them onto a ten gallon. I used water from the parent tank, kept i the same temp, and had a sponge filter going. I treated with methylene blue and did not usa a light over the tank. still, 24 hours later, they are all dead anyway. Is it possible i over treated the methylene blue? should i have had a light on the tank? help me out everybody, i wanna raise these things, they should grow up to be awesome marbled veils. Im ready to try anything that works

Are you sure you have a pair? They could be unfertilized eggs.

im not totally sure that its a pair. this is only the 2nd time they have had eggs, so i havent gotten to watch them. It was ten days apart so hopefully i can catch them in the act. I did see one angel fanning and one chasing the others away.

So many possibilities....

Could very well be that you don't have a pair. Keep an eye on them, if you can catch them spawning next time you should be able to tell then. Even if you DO have a pair, there is the slight chance that one or the other may be sterile

Also, when you say that you pulled the eggs out and moved them into a ten gallon....did you actually remove the eggs from the water (were they exposed to air?) Try to keep the leaf, slate, or whatever they spawn on, submerged at all times....immerse a jar or small container into the breeding tank, move the eggs into it before lifting out of the water.

Is the 10 gallon cycled? Is the sponge filter cycled? It is good that you used water from the parent tank. I would keep an extra sponge filter running in the parent tank, when you move the eggs to the 10 gallon, move the extra sponge filter as well...that way you KNOW there are active bacteria!

I don't think a light over the tank would make any difference one way or the other. Methylene blue when used according to directions should not be an issue either.

Are you keeping plenty of water flow moving over the eggs after you move them, replicating the fanning of the fins that the parents do? An additional airstone does a good job of this.

Hope this helps!

As nerve racking as it can be to see them lay hundreds of eggs and then suddenly they're gone a day later, I would suggest that if they are a healthy young pairing that you just let them go a couple of times. The best results I have are when I do little or nothing. The more I interfere the more likely I am to get skunked.

1st, if you have a true pair and they are spawning every ten days or so I would try to move them to a 20g. hi tank of their own. The less threat from other fish and the less commotion from outside the tank the more comfy the parents are and the less likely they are to eat the eggs. Give them a couple of spawns to get used to the whole process and see if they'll parent themselves. By far the easiest and least chemically involved approach.

If you do resort to pulling eggs again I would agree that the aeration and maintaining a steady flow of small bubbles running past them does help tremendously. Every body has their own approach to this, mine is to keep as much air as possible running over them for the first couple of days and then to cut it down once I see wigglers. I use a cycled ten and keep a spare sponge in each breeder tank so that it can go with the babies when I move them but normally I leave everything with the parents until they're free swimming. After the first day of mom and dad going nuts trying to stick the fry back on the slate they sometimes get pissy and start to do a little more than just cull so I'll move the fry at that point. If the parents do raise them to free swimming you'll notice if you watch them very carefully that many times they will eat a few that are typically weaker or slower developing...just don't let them get carried away 'cuz they can clear the tank in a manner of minutes.

If you have a particularly special pair that you absolutely must have babies from, or that the parents are relentless in their homicide, try using water other than treated tap. My perspective is purely anecdotal but I have had much better results hatching eggs that were pulled in refortified R/O and/or ozone treated water. You can also try picking off unfertilized eggs with a dental pick to keep fungus off of the good ones, a decidedly low tech but chemical free approach, but it is tedious to say the least.

As for whether or not you do have a true pair that can be a little trickier. Lesbianism in particular seems to run among the Scalare, where two females will exhibit behavior identical to a true hetero pairing. If you haven't witnessed it first hand it's a bit difficult to imagine but just before and during the egg laying you'll see them drop their tubes. The females will be thicker and more blunted or rounded than the males. If they are about the same size and age this is a lot easier to discern as the male's will be sharper and usually smaller. I've also had two females both laying on the same stick at the same time so watch the line of eggs as they are laying and hopefully fertilizing.

Hey...if it was easy it wouldn't be any fun at all when you finally grow out your first. Anybody can feed fish but sometimes egg layers can be a bit frustrating. Good luck.