Rice fish breeding noob

[CH Aquatics]

Hello all,

I’m new to breeding rice fish, just wondering if rams horn snails might be eating the eggs? I have a female in my group of 5 that carries and lays eggs every day for weeks now, but none have hatched after pulling the mop. I even tried removing adults to see if any eggs weren’t on the mop, no luck there either. They get fed live baby brine a couple times a day and some ground up tetra color tropical granules in between, they’re very healthy. 10g tank currently, also tried them in a 10g bucket pond before moving them like I mentioned. 
Any tips anyone? Thank you!

[Aubrey]

I wouldn't call myself a breeder, and I'm not trying for numbers. I have never done the spawning mop method, but something similar is in my tank. I have some java moss growing on a piece of driftwood, it grows above and below the water. From my observations it seems like this is a perfect nursery for rice fish and cherry shrimp. The rice fish seem to prefer this area for placing eggs. There is a large concentration of seed shrimp that hide in the moss and fry food collects on the moss. With it being close to the surface, where rice fish fry will spend most of their time, it provides sufficient cover and a food source. Without seeing your setup, I would also recomend floating plants. I've seen a noticeable increase of fry since adding floaters. I can't comment on the rams horn snails since I don't have them with my rice fish, but I suppose it is possible. It sounds like you are feeding adequately sized foods for fry and conditioning the adults well. Keep it up and have patience. 

[CH Aquatics]

Thank you for the reply!

Both set ups are heavily planted with water lettuce, Java moss, guppy grass, jungle Val, and the 10g they’re in now has tons of hair algae (which I don’t love, but know helps with breeding/fry raising). I’m hoping it’s not snails eating eggs, or I’m in trouble because I have millions in every tank! Lol 

Sorry about the glare but here’s the pond and 10g I mentioned. I was really hoping the little cove in the 3rd pic made by moss and guppy grass would be a spot similar to how your moss works for you!

[Aubrey]

@CH AquaticsWow. Ok. It looks like we have similar things going on, with the key difference being the rams horn snails. I do have Malaysian trumpet snails and assassin snails in with my rice fish. A quick search of "do rams horn snails eat fish eggs" didn't result in anything conclusive. So, you only have one female? And you haven't had much luck with finding eggs on the mop? I have netted a female carrying eggs and gently removed them and placed the eggs in a deli container on several occasions. I have had some successful hatches by doing that, but also about as much failure with the eggs fungusing. I haven't tried using a tumbler or methylene blue. I don't recall my rice fish having fry instantly after I got them. Maybe they just need some time to get accustomed and comfortable with their environment before they deem it acceptable to reproduce in.

[shkote]

Ramshorns definitely do eat eggs. The last time I hatched out rainbows, I tossed some java moss into the tank and had a few hitchhiker ramshorns, and caught them several times mowing down eggs. Will be putting MTS and shrimp in the next setup for cleanup, I've had good luck with them.