artificially raising discus fry (stubborn pigion pair!!!)

[ILLUSN]

G'day all,
I'm sick of my pigion pair, i'm consistantly getting spawns of over 250 fry (this will be their 6th batch since early october), they all get to free swimming, then both mum and dad chow down on them once they try to attach.
I've tried splitting the parents, and both mum and dad seem very happy to eat the fry on thier own.
I've got about 300+ eggs ready to hatch in the next 36 hours, I'm going to give artificially raring the fry ago.

Have their been any improvements on the egg yolk method of the 60's-70's?

theres a bit on the web using brine shrimp food + BBS and Plankton, but has anyone here done it sucessfully? (Discus world can I convince you to share your method :wink:)

[samir]

if you can get your hands on freshwater rotifers, they are the best.

[ILLUSN]

thanks mate will throw a sickie tomorrow and go looking, eggs are goin well, only 2 white ones so far, hopefully a big batch for me to play with.

[samir]

try this place, you need the chlorella as well.
http://www.southernbiological.com.au/ListProducts/Specimens/LivingSpecimens.htm

you need to use a small tank or a bowl. also need to add enough rotifers so that they are in the fry's face. too few and they wont eat them. leave the rotifers for 3-4 hours then do a water change.

you will also need one of those plastic valves for air and an air pump. airflow should be just enough to break surface tension. dim light on top of the tank or fry keep swimming upwards. water changes should be slow. after a bit of practice you should get near 100% survival and parasite free fry.

keeping the rotifers alive is a pain, plus you will end up with so many fry, you will start hating them.

[ILLUSN]

nice work mate, thanks for the link, got the icream containers (2L & 5L) ready, floating in the tank now, I've "T'd" the air line into the tank with valves for each of the 2. I've Rigged up a small light to run above the tank, so i think I'm all set bar the food, got the 1st of the 3 bbs hatching containers going. To be honest I've even boiled and egg and froze the yolk just to be sure. will put up photos and let you know it goes. fingers crossed.

as for too many fry, thats why i got the 2 900L ponds ;) cant wait to see the wifes face when the next power bill comes LOL will try an put up a photo of that too :).

[samir]

with the egg yolk you must change water within the hour. the trophy discus book recommends brine shrimp, maybe give that a read, though I've had much better success with rotifers.
microworms might be a good idea, I used them with betta fry and it worked well, Xtreme has cultures (not sure) toward the end of the month.

[ILLUSN]

thanks mate, have got some microworms from my lfs for pick up tomorrow. will let you know how it goes.

[ILLUSN]

a few pics of the setup.

I took 30 babbies out from the brood, 24hrs after they hatched with a diy turky baster, 10 i've put in with the rose red pair, they seem to be raising up the young with their own, the other 20 i put in the artifical setup.

water changes are done by straining the fry through a brineshrimp sieve into a clean container, of fresh tank water.

[samir]

why only that many fry in the tub ???

[ILLUSN]

was trying to get mum and dad to do it on their own, plus i guessed they would be free swimming while i was out and didn't want to starve too many, I should have taken the lot!

[samir]

yeah, for that size container you need at least 200.

[ILLUSN]

that would stop all the wasted brine shrimp ;)
doesn't matter, the concept seems ok enough, and it hasn't been that hard to manage. That pair will spawn again on wednesday night, or even tonight when if cold front comes through.

[ILLUSN]

Came out this morning and it didn't look good , 13 of the 20 fry were dead, i believe the brine shrimp were just too big, as i wasn't getting enough tiny bbs so was just feeding all the bbs (big and small) and there was alwas alot of dead bbs left over at the 2hr mark.

The final 7 i moved in with the redrose pair who are so far sucessfully raising their brood and the 10 pigion fry i added on the 29/12/07.

2 hours after all 7 fry had attached and seem to be feeding well.

the pigion pair are ready to spawn again, they were cleaning the cone as i left for work, this time I'll take all the fry and see how it goes.

more fry in the tub should mean less left over bbs to pollute the water, will also do the change 1 hr after feedings instead of 2-4

[samir]

round bowls work better, why I dont know. just enough bubbles to break the surface tension and dim light 24/7 or they start swimming at the top like idiots till they die.

[ILLUSN]

Thanks Samir, that was the problem with the last location, the T5 was on for 12/hrs aday, I've set up a small tank in a dark corner of the fish room.

Have also removed the housing from the lamp, so the 20w halogen bulb is naked (more focused light)

Will take your advice and try a round bowl, the pair laid again today, lots of eggs again, they should all hatch at 9pm on friday night.

was pretty happy with the bubble rate, was only just enough to break the tension, the 7 fry are still alive, although noticibly smaller then the rest of the spawn (wow, the diffrence 3 days makes, discus milk must be VERY nutricious food).

will put up pics of the new setup on friday.