Ways to get rid of infertile eggs

[ChristineB]

I'm overrun with infertile eggs. My three female P. waltl have been laying for a week, more every day as soon as I clean the last batch, and I'm looking for a way to get rid of eggs without messing up rooted plants and scrubbing slime out of wads of java moss. They all look like they're still pretty full of eggs, too; when does it end?! I thought spawning happened over just a couple days?

Would any peaceful feeder/cleaner species eat eggs without bugging the newts? They are less delicate than axies (no gills, thicker skin) so they should be OK with shrimp, white clouds, guppies or platies; anybody see any of those species eating eggs?

Any other suggestions? Both aquarium tongs and 1/2" siphon hose have been pretty ineffective at getting eggs off plants without removing the plants.

Thanks!!

 

[Bellabelloo]

I leave the eggs in situ. The larvae that hatch will, most likely get eaten. You may find you have the odd larvae that avoids this, at this point I'll end up fishing it out and raising it

 

[ChristineB]

Thanks, but there's no male in the tank and none of the eggs are fertile. I tried seeing if some of the eggs would loosen up and get sucked up by the filter after a few days and I found that the eggs get cloudy after awhile and I worry they're getting moldy and will be bad for water quality. :-(

I just finished a major cleaning and water change and got all but one or two of the eggs out . . . I'm going to try not feeding them tonight and see if that helps wrap things up. Maybe they're too comfortable!

 

[ChristineB]

Anybody else have tips? Will the eggs dissolve over time if I leave them in there? Or is that inviting fungus? Seems like this would be a common problem but I didn't see much in my forum search . . . Mostly people are concerned with saving fertile eggs, but it doesn't seem worth pruning plants to remove lifeless eggs, and cleaning them is difficult, the only effective way is to remove them and replant, which isn't reasonable every few days. At this point there's been new eggs almost daily for two full weeks. They're like a flock of dang water chickens!! :grin:

 

[Otterwoman]

Maybe just let them rot and increase your water changes? That's what I might do, though I've never had your problem.

 

[ChristineB]

Thank you. I'll try it and see what happens. I caught one of them eating eggs and I hope she gets a taste for them! I also didn't feed them today. (They usually get three Hikari Carnivore pellets each per day.) I would try shrimp but until my plantings grow in more I suspect they'd be an expensive snack.

 

[ChristineB]

I have found that after several days the egg jelly softens a little and is easier to suck off the plants with the siphon. No fungus observed. And I tried putting in a couple platies (yes, they were quarantined first!) and they don't care about eggs. I also learned my pellet-raised newts are not hunters. Even when the fish practically climb in their mouths, they give a really half-hearted snap and wait for me to drop nice easy pellets right onto their faces.

Fingers crossed the Eggpocalypse is over. It's been a few eggless days but Gussie is either fat or gravid . . . Hopefully she'll reabsorb the eggs this time.