Light and raising eggs

I pulled a slate of eggs and put them in a fry tank with methylene blue. They were mostly off the slate yesterday and wriggling so I changed the water. I shine a torch on them from time to time to check on them, and they are still when its dark, but when the light falls on them they wriggle. At this stage, should the tank be lit during the day? It struck me that we want them to wriggle, it strengthens their muscles, so if they only do it when light is on them, should I have a light over the tank?

I don't pull eggs, but in general I try to maintain a normal photo-period from the start, but I'd avoid too bright lighting as that might stress them.

How many chances do you give the pair at raising their young? Some of mine havent managed it after at least 5 or 6 attempts. That is why I pulled the last two lots, I got sick of waiting.

How many chances do you give the pair at raising their young?

It depends on how desperately I want babies from that particular pair, the behaviour of the pair and the stage at which the eggs/young disappear.

If most of the eggs seem to fungus & then don't hatch, I'll suspect that the male is not doing his job, or that the water isn't perfect or that the male isn't a male. I might lower the pH, take care not to disturb them when they're laying, feed them extra rations, but if after three or four attempts there's no improvement I return both fish to a community tank, bleach & reset the breeding tank and then try again with a different pair which might or might not include one of the original parents and/or one of their siblings.

If the eggs are obviously hatching, but the wrigglers are disappearing overnight I'll consider using a night light.
If one of the pair seems particularly nervous, or the pair seem to be bickering a lot, then I might consider removing one of the parents.
But if both parents seem dedicated, and they seem to be getting further with each batch, I might let them have 6 or 8 attempts before replacing them, or in some cases moving them to a bleached & reset tank, and bleaching their previous home before introducing a different pair.

Frankly it's all a bit of a lottery, some pairs get it right first time, with little fuss, others take lots of effort, and some fish never seem to get the hang of it.

In the last 12 months I've had about a dozen successful batches, ie 24 individual fish, yet I've got close to 100 breeding age fish to choose from, so if I try a fish with several different mates and have no success with it, unless I've got a very strong reason to keep trying, it goes to the shop to make way for a more willing and cooperative one. Apart from anything else, my reasoning is, if I breed from good parent raisers, the next generation will hopefully follow suite, and it does seem to be the case that I have fewer problem fish now than I did a few years ago.

Another factor to consider is the variety you're trying to breed, some, eg albinos, paraibas and blacks/pinoys do seem more sensitive & therefore require more persistence.

I will persist a little longer then. I realise I'm at the beginning with this. It could be that I've bought my fish from sources which didn't parent raise. I have enjoyed rearing the young myself but I really would like to see the parents try also. It hadn't occurred to me to break down and clear the pair tank and put them back into a community and feed them up. I haven't had a pair have eggs up to wrigglers yet. They have eaten them before that regardless of nightlight or no nightlight. One thing I might try is a black cloth over the tank. Thanks again.

Update: I have had another round of eggs from 4 different pairs, all eaten. I left an LED light on and covered the front glass with a black cloth, all to no avail. But one of the layers was a newly formed pair! The 5 black youngsters I bought have matured and two paired up and surprised me with a nice leaf full of eggs. They ate them of course, but to be fair there were other tank mates. They are now on their own.

The fry I pulled at the end of august now look like proper little angels and are eating well, I am now introducing decap. brine shrimp. I find the hatching and harvesting a bit of a nuisance but I am prepared to do it for 2 weeks at a time I think. They also like banana worm and microworm so have a lot of those.

I was completely wrong about one pair! They must have moved the fry, as today they were surrounded by free swimming fry! So Im celebrating with a bottle of sparking wine!

Now, how long do they stay with the parents?

congrats Peaches

Hey, great news, it's a sign of a good pair when they manage to fool you!

any reason why I can't read the last 3 posts on this thread??

Very odd, no idea, it certainly wasn't me who deleted the comments, maybe a glitch on the server?