I have been unsuccessful at spawning my pair of Epiplatys huberi. The ph is 7.0 - 7.4, 150-200ppm hardness, 2.5 gallon packed with floating mops. The pair readily eat flakes and blackworms. The eggs I do get fungus up. Help!
Ben Slocum

Are you moving mops or the pair or are you picking eggs? I have never had any luck with epiplatys in general if I picked eggs. They always fungused. I got lots of eggs but only raised fry if they hatched out in the parents tank. MAybe try moving the pair?

I agree with Bill,
Moving the adults into another tank and a 50% water change in the breeding tank has given me better results more fry than picking eggs ever did with all the Epps

Charles H

Thanks guys, I have been picking the eggs. I will move the parents from now on. Blessings!

Ben

If the eggs continue to be infrequently fertile, try dropping the mineral level maybe 25% via a couple of partial water changes. That is easier said than done, but adding clean rainwater or RO water can make us successful where before we were conscientiously doing almost everything right. But the killies needed a "rainy season."

Killies from Gabon often are from areas with considerable rainfall. So if you are faithfully feeding and doing partial water changes and still not getting good eggs from your Epiplatys, Aphyosemion, et al, dropping the mineral level gradually (maybe by 10% per water change) is almost always a useful strategy.

Ep. huberi reputedly is pretty tolerant of fry. That depends upon the adult population density being modest, the adults being fed almost to satiation and providing a lot of hiding places for fry (as in lots of water sprite).

I've kept them going in 10-gallon tanks for about seven years, but certainly there aren't too many youngsters. I'd probably be wiser to pull youngsters and keep only a pair or trio (M-F-F) of these rather robust killies in each aquarium.

And closely cover those babies! :)