Unexpected : Eggs in communal tank.

[Rodrigues]

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. I have a 6 foot tank with 12 discus of a variety of size and maturity and was not expecting any to pair off. Obviously nature had other ideas. They have laid about 50 eggs on both sides of a java fern and today some started to hatch and one of the parents are making sure the wrigglers dont stray to far.
What i would like of course is to make sure as many as possible survive.
It is a communal tank with some cardinals and clown loaches. What are my options ????

Do I leave the parents and wrigglers in the main tank??, try to remove the wrigglers later on ??, remove parents and wrigglers ect ??,

Help needed to save them.
All suggestion welcomed.

[scott bowler]

Rodrigues welcome to the forum , this is a good one , i have the same prob i have put a divider in the tank . thats the only thing that i can suggest . and wait and hope they get bigger . there isnt much else you can do. but if you have another tank you can take the pair out and they will spawn again all the best with it mate

[Rodrigues]

Thanks for your suggestion Scott , I dont think a devider is going to work in my situation so I will let nature take over for now and see if the wrigglers can manage for a few days and maybe move them to another tank. I dont want to stress the parents as its quite hard to catch in the large tank. I will keep an eye on the wrigglers for now and let the parents take care of them.

[Merrilyn]

Leaving the lights on at night will also give the parents a better chance of fending off other hungry mouths during the night.

Raising fry in a community tank has been done, but very rarely. You may not save this batch, but it will certainly make better parents of the pair when they spawn again in a breeding tank.

Good luck, and enjoy the fun.

[Rodrigues]

Thanks for the advise. Will keep you updated.