babies not finding parents

[aaron1828]

hi i've had two spawns of free swimers already but the babies fail to find the parents, but you can see a few eating off the parents at time but then they swim off again. The parents are not very dark in colour is that maybe a problem? it doesn't seem that the parents are ignoring the babies as the parents keeps siting where the main group of babies are waiting for them to attach. Any help or hints are much appreciated.

thanks

[samir]

how about a picture of your tank

[aaron1828]

hi its just a standard 18x18x24 with a pot and a conner filter.

[bigslow]

lower the water level to make it easy to fined the adults. less wandering around the tank.

You can bring the water back up after they attach.

I have to do this the white diamonds.

[samir]

a pic would be nice. what strain ? age ?

[scott bowler]

aaron1828 hi and welcome to the forum mate .ok well it is a good idea to drop the water level and do you have any black or dark things in the tank that my be catching the eye of the fry?. like samir has asked what strain are they he is asking becouse some of the lighter strains have this problem for some reason.so if you let us know that someone maybe able to help more scott

[aaron1828]

ill try and get some pics up later on in the week, as for the breed they are pigeon blood approx 18 months. i had a black sponge filter in it but i took that out after the first batch was attracted to it. I might give the lower water level a go. thanks for the tips

[samir]

next time, put some white paper on all sides of the tank and drop water to about a couple of cm higher than the pair. if you don't feed after they spawn till wrigglers attach you will get by on an airstone. on the other hand you can remove the sponge.

[Crocky]

Turn the tank light on and leave it on for 10 full days.
The brighter the better and you wont have any wrigglers going for the dark corner of your tank.
Works for me.

Brad

[aaron1828]

http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/1710/discusrs6.th.jpg (http://img510.imageshack.us/my.php?image=discusrs6.jpg)

[aaron1828]

will the parents be ok with the light turned on 24/7 don't need to sleep?

thanks

[scott bowler]

hehe no mate dont need to sleep for a while they will be ok

[Merrilyn]

Definately lower the water level, and as samir suggested, paper all around the sides of the tank with white or very light coloured paper.

You want the parents to appear as the darkest things in the tank. Little discus brains are programmed to seek out the darkest object, which is normally their parents. Unfortunately pigeon blood parents don't darken much, and your fish are very pale to begin with, so the fry are obviously confused.

Give Crocky's suggestion a go. I've never tried that, but it could well work. I know he's bred albino fish before, and they are also very pale.

If that doesn't work, then try keeping the tank very dimly lit 24/7 for at least a week after hatching. Hopefully that will make the parents appear darker than the white surroundings.

I probably don't need to remind you, but super clean water is essential.

Good luck.

[discus2007]

hi mate
i am not an expert, but i just had the same problems before but now ok...
you have too much water in the tank. need to lower the water and if possible remove everything except the air stone and heater. don't turn air stone too high or else too much vibration and fry will follow the vibration instead. they can't see. anyway lower the water down until only 1 cm left from the parents.
good luck :P
again i am not an expert just from experience :D

t.k

[aaron1828]

I did lower the water level and put white paper around the tank and also left a night light on next to the tank. I also took out the conner filter when at the wrigglers stage, as the wool had dark patches in it and i was gonna put it back as soon they found the parents as i didn't want to have no filtration in the tank. But all the fry died with in 24 hours of free swimming where as before they had lasted about 3 -5 days even with out finding parents. Every batch previously i had about 5 survivors but this time all died.

water temp 27 and ph around 7 which where same water conditions for every batch. Also have not been feeding the fish during this stage as they don't seem to eat any way

any ideas

thanks

[samir]

if the're sticking to the black corners use a tank without them. a much smaller tank would be ideal ,without the black aluminium edges.

[discus2007]

hmmmm sound like some sort of bacteria you have in the tank :?:
have you try to cover the tank with white stuffs ??? but i think to do with your water..bacteria....

t.k

[aaron1828]

yep i have put white paper around the tank except for the front

[Crocky]

waters to cold,get it up 30,31.

[GreenDiscus]

Hi Aaron

A bit past the event, but I find the following works for me for the light coloured parents !

When wrigglers are evident on the laying pot, I cover the 75mm black sponge filter with a 100mm white waste pipe say 200mm high but with an uneven base to create a water flow "upwards" past the filter.

I then "turn" the laying pot so the wrigglers are within 100mm of the nearest corner which I actually cover with an area of black tape.

The wrigglers eventually head for the black corner, and the light parents situate themselves between the pot and the corner trapping them. Babies come out of the corner to feed then go back, and do not stray until several days later.

I remove the white pipe after one week, the black filter graveyard risk is then not an issue.

Just an alternative method for you to consider and yes lowering the water is good so long as the white pipe is covered.............!