Help with gardneri

[chicknb]

Hi all, I need some urgent help. I have a male gardneri with 4 females in a 20 liter tank with some spawning mops and a few decorations. The tank is heated and has a small external filter. I change the water (about 30%) every week and the temperature is about 24º C. Every week I collect about 15 eggs that I put over wet peat and keep them over one of my tanks to avoid the temperature dropping too much. The thing is that the eggs seem to disappear, last week I had about 20 eggs and now I only see 3 eggs and one of them looks like it is broken and loosing its contents. Only a few of them got fungus but the rest just vanished. I want to send some eggs to some friends since here killies are not common but with this problem it may take months before I get a dozen eggs to send. I will appreciate any comments to improve the success with the eggs.

REgards,

Tony

PS. My fish are F. gardneri mamfensis "Faishang" and are about 6 months old.

[keehoe]

Can tell me how you keep them in wet peat? Could it be the age of the parents are still young.Hence the egg produce are not viable?

Non-annual eggs are very sticky. So if you mix them up with peat. They will "disappear".

[chicknb]

keehoe, thanks for replying, I thought about the age but I am not sure that is the reason. When I put them in peat I use a small box where I put a layer of peat and transfer the eggs so they are over the peat, not mixed with it. That way I can check the eggs over time without having to disturb the peat.

Thanks again, any other comments?

Tony