Can Parents not produce slime for their fry?

[Nadine]

First I want to say that this is my first experience with breeding discus, for years I bred many other kinds of tropical fish. My problem is that I have a pair of discus that paired abot 4 month ago, one is red turquoise and the other yellow PB. The pair spawned 4 time with the first 3 totaly unsuccessful (they ate the eggs ) but the last one was hugely successful, over 100 eggs, almost all fertilized, all hatched succeffully and the parents seemed to take great care of their babies, once they became free swimmers the fry tried to eat from the parents and swim next to them, but after a day or so, I noticed that the fry lost interest in the parents no matter what i did, I lowered the water level, i had all sides of the aquarium coverred with white sheets of paper, but unfortunatly the fry seemed to get weeker and rested on the bottom of the tank. Of course they all died withing 4 to 5 days of being free swimmers. I was not able to see any slime or parents getting darker. Could it be that the parents did not produce any slime? Or could it be desease that early or what? My water temp was 85 F and the PH was 6.5 and I was using RO water.
Any help will be appreciated since the pair is spawning again..

[ILLUSN]

young pairs can take a few goes to get everything right, theres a few things you can do to help them.

if you can get your ph a little lower, say 6.0 or even 5.5 they will produce more slime, also adding a tsp of salt to 40l of your ro water will also help.

Try dimming the lights, i like to use a table lamp next to the tank and letting that run as your only light source for the 1st 3 days of free swimming, also keeping the water level low so as these is just enough forr the parents to swim upright helps ALOT.

[the german]

add salt to ro water??? then you dont need ro water imo.

[Nadine]

At which point Are the parents supposed to start producing slime, when the eggs are laid, when they hatch or when they become free swimmers? last time I couldn't see any slime what so ever. I will try to lower the PH within the next 2 days before the new batch of eggs that was laid yesterday hatches.

[ILLUSN]

add salt to ro water??? then you dont need ro water imo.

If your ph and kh is high and your using ro (compleately deminerilised) to drop it you'll have to replace the minerals.

NaCl is great for regenating slime.

you might not see it untill the fish turns suddenly and you'll see the diffrence in sheen on the fish. mine usually start to produce it when they begin or just after they've finished spawning, they'll go darker, you'll see the stressbars on your turk.

[the german]

[quote="ILLUSN"]

If your ph and kh is high and your using ro (compleately deminerilised) to drop it you'll have to replace the minerals.

[quote]

but please not with salt mate. esp not with that amount.

[Nadine]

I'm using RO water and adding Discus trace minerals to it. The eggs will hatch tomorrow or the day after, I still can not notice any slime or the parents getting darker.I will lower the PH and see what happens. Thank You

[samir]

need to treat your pair for parasites and stop interfering too much, they will take care of things on their own. do a big water change before they hatch scrub all the sides of the tank.
are you sure your temp is 85 ? sometimes thermometers are off, if fry are very weak, lower temperature to 84 even 82 so they take longer to hatch. on the other hand maybe they need just more practice.

[Nadine]

are you sure your temp is 85 ? sometimes thermometers are off,
Actualy I have 2 digital thermometer in the tank and they are both reading 84.8 so the temp is accurate. I will make the big water change today since they are supposed to hatch tomorrow.
How about the feeding for the parents, should I stop for a couple of days now or continue as ususal. i feed them frozen BW.