Which comes first??

I have what I'm hoping is a pair in a breeding tank. They appeared to select each other.

The one I'm hoping is a male drops his tubes first...... but I'm doubting its gender, does look a bigger tube than I expect. They have laid eggs last week, but they were all white. I didn't spot them laying, so have no comparison, but I'm sure the "female" has done the business for me last year, so now I'm wondering if I have two females??

Can the male drop his tube first? They both look ready to try again, so could they be two females getting confused??

Hmmm, does sound like it might be two females.

Sorry its sideways but this is the one I hoped was a he  

I'd be fairly confident that that is a male using 2 techniques and not seeing any bulge.

In addition (no pics needed) when viewed head on from slightly below, a female will be fuller with bulge caused by the eggs, so she will look at bit plump, like this: ()

Whereas a male will tend to be slimmer, more of a slim shaped: V

Is it a platinum pearlscale? or albino... did we have this conversation a while back?

"He's" an albino, so maybe thats why they weren't fertilized, he couldn't see them?? lol

I agree with Dean. Looks male to me too. He's also got his tube slightly visable and it looks the same as my males - more pointed than the female's tube

Yep looks like a male.
Albinos do have rather poor eye sight, they particularly struggle in bright light, I use a towel on the cover glass to cut out about 50 - 75% of the light when I'm trying to breed them.

Thanks Rob good tip, He has looked happier with lights out, so I have been leaving him in the dark lol, have to see if he does better round two

I was convinced he was a male, but his tube was much thicker than I expected

his tube was much thicker than I expected

Carry on Fishkeeping!

Well round two seems better, I think there are some viable eggs, she wasn't too good at fanning, he didn't bother at all, but this afternoon I've spotted she has moved the seemingly ok eggs to the top of the flower pot! (Glad I put a glass nugget over the hole!), so will have to see if anything happens.

So looks like I have a pair, just need to give them more practice lol

good luck and I hope it works out

Well after waiting and waiting, they never got it right, they didn't seem too good at the fanning bit............. so I'm trying without them, I've been using Hydrogen Peroxide but as I now have wrigglers, I assume I stop? I had the flowerpot next to an airstone, but this morning the wrigglers looked like they were hanging on for dear life, so I moved it away slightly, hope thats right??

My concern is the fungus/bad eggs, what do I do??? My parents have never been good at taking out the white eggs, and I seem to remember one pair having no trouble with the fungus bit?? some of the wrigglers seem to be on the outside of fluffy stuff, others have no problems and are still stuck to the flowerpot and away from anything. When I first looked I thought it was just these that I had, until I saw the fluffy stuff wriggling

If I try and suck them off surely I'll get fluffy stuff too?? Its so much easier when the parents do it for you!! lol I've raised 100s with parental help, but I'm not sure what to do for the best here

Not much experience when it comes to hatching/rearing without parents, but I'd be tempted to use a meat baster to gently blow water (practice on something first) at the mass of fungus/wrigglers in the hope that one is more firmly attached than the other (my guess is that the fungus is better anchored) and that the less firmly attached can be dislodged.

Well I still have wrigglers, some have had "lift off" today, I assume/hope the rest will follow shortly.

Dad is an albino pearlscale, Mum is a blue marble, I have noticed two sorts of wrigglers, some definitely have recognisable eyes, and some just have white dots, are these going to be albino (assuming mum might have a hidden gene) or is there something wrong with them??

Excuse the quality I was just using my phone

wow you can see the difference in the eyes

They do look to be albino. I can't remember if you got the blue marble from me, or Paul, but he in turn got some of his stock from me. Some of my blue marbles are quite likely to carry albino, and I know Paul was trying to work with the albino gene, so it looks like you've struck lucky.
For comparison here are some wrigglers where some of them are albinos :-

Ahhh yes I seem to have struck lucky then, my blues are from Paul, lets hope I can raise some, still early days and I am losing the odd one