Black water extract or peat?

[Sean]

Hello, just loined to the forum and excited about learning more about Discus. I have a breeding pair that eat their babies for over ten spawns. Has anyone used Tetra Black water extract or peat moss or both to improve water conditions. I also use 1/3rd Adelaide tap water and 2/3rds RO water - which keeps the water pretty soft.

[africandiscus]

What is the ppm of the water?

[Trebs]

Welcome aboard.

The fact that they are spawning would suggest your water cond' aren't too bad at all.

Is there a lot of traffic near the tank? How old are the fish? What are they spawning on? What is the PH? What strain are they?

Once we have some more info we can look at these issues first (they are easier to address and hopefully won't cost you anything). As far as additives like the ones you mentioned, I don't like them and feel that you can get better results without them.

Just my 2 cents.

[milt master p]

I would steer clear of peat if I was you as it may lower your carbonates to the point of a pH crash.

[nicholas76]

Yes, I have used both however in your circumstances it isnt required. ( in fact its a waste of time and money IMO )

just clarify for me .

they eating eggs? or wrigglers? or fry?

if the eggs are hatching then you DONt need that stuff.

if they are Eaters! than you may need to try using mesh over the eggs , or give them a break, change partners, or remove the eater!!!

NIck

[kalebjarrod]

welcome aboard

what sort of a tank are you running?

what are the specs?

spawning is a great start, lets see if we can get the suckers to produce and rear a series of fry :wink:

[parasite]

welcome to DF , i wouldnt do anything other than what ur already doing if ur fish have spawned consecutively.

[Annie]

Hi Seean, welcme to DF.

[Sean]

Hello, thankyou for your quick replies - The discus i have are Blue snakeskin male with Blue turquoise female - I tried to place a photo but was unable to reduce the size to 15kb with photoshop - any clues? I have them in a quiet location and they are 2-3years old and in a 2ft, 92Lt aquarium by themselves with pH 6.7, GH 89ppm, KH 17.9 and nitrite 0ppm. They spawn on a PVC pipe and are extremely shy and jumpy -I have tried most things wire over the eggs and removing one parent, then next time I removed the other parent. Ihave raised the young till day10-12 post spawning using the exact method of Jeff Bodin - 19 simple steps to artificially rearing discus fry avail on the web, then they die. My next attempt will be to cover the aquarium with a black curtain so the parents cannot see out - any other suggestions would be great. I have a total of 15 Discus and hoping to be able to successfully breed at least some of them. Thanks for the welcome to the forum - nice to know there are "others" out there.

[kalebjarrod]

how many times have they laid?

[Sean]

Hi Ryan, Thanks for your help. My pair have spawned about ten times or perhaps a little more. They are at the moment making "moves" to spawn again -I have just change 1/4 of their water. I have on a number of occassions put methylene blue in the water just after the eggs have been laid to reduce possibility of fungus - this has worked well in the past by increasing the wriggler rate to over 90%- do you know if methylene blue will effect biological filters?
The one thing I haven't tried is to replace the male for a few weeks and see if this helps - I am reluctant to do this though as they are a special pair, although I might be just a little too close to them. I may also be just trying too hard and fussing too much!

[flukes]

With that amount of meth blue your using for fungus it shouldnt effect it at all.

[Sean]

Thanks, I use about 8mls for the 92Lt tank, which is less than the recommended dose on the bottle.