eaters

[shorty]

Hi There,

I would like to know how to stop my pair eating their wrigglers the moment they become freeswimmers.

I dont have a surogate pair to use and my pair dont like the babies attaching. :?

Advice needed as I have lost the last 6 spawns.

Shorty

[Proteus]

I havent got a conclusive answer other then removing the parents into another tank and hand raise the wrigglers feeding them Baby Brine Shrimp and/or other liquid fry foods... water changes can be done with a fine sponge on the tank end of a hose...

I could be way off, but that seems logical anyway...

anybody???

[gsaqua]

It is difficult to breed with young discus, they don’t have the parental instinct, their fertility rate is very low and they don’t produce the mucus coating to successfully raise fry, the best age where everything seems to come together is about two to two and a half years.

George

[shorty]

Thanks guys for your responses.

Is there anyway I can mabe MAKE them slime up???

The really hate the attaching thing, they act like they have parasites and rub up against anything in the tank that they can.

They are about 2 years old and they are solid coloured (hardest to slime) lay heaps of eggs which all hatch. usually end up with 100 plus wrigglers.

I have them in a 3 foot tank on their own, should I maybe go smaller??.

Thankyou for your help

Shorty :D

[gsaqua]

Shorty

Can you give us a bit of a run down on your breeding tank like the water perameters, do you use gravel, what sort of filtration, do you use carbon in your filter, what do you feed your breeders and how much water do you change weekly.

George

[shorty]

Hi there,

Sorry should have done this already Ok:

Ph 6.2
ammonia nil,
nitrite nil,
nitrate just registering,
KH 3
GH 4 drops
TDS reading 80ppm

bare bottomed 2 air operated sponge filters, heater temp 29 degrees and breeding cone thats it.

I do with the water changes: 50% water changes up untill they lay, I then do roughly 10% while they have eggs, when there are wrigglers I do 20% changes daily, and when they start to free swim I do 20% changes daily as well.
I then start the cycle again cuz they eat them at that stage.

My pair lay every week to the hour. Last spawn they had 4 left and re-layed so I wiped off the new eggs they still ate the 4 they had left.

What am I doing wrong???

Shorty

[shorty]

OOPS forgot,

I feed them blackworm, krill, bloodworm, plankton, beefheart mix that I make up myself.

Shorty

[Mattzilla]

sounds like oyu are doing everything right to me. some pairs take dozens of spawns before they get it completely right.

i'd say just be patient and you'll eventually get the results

[brew3]

Shorty,
What you could do the next time, remove the female before the fries are free swimmers and she is the culprit of eating them.
Change 20% of the water in your tank once every 2 to 3 days, by changing the water too often you will induce the famale to respawn again and eating the fries.

[gsaqua]

Shorty,
I have to agree with brew3 in 75% of cases the egg/fry eater will be the female so keep an eye on them and remove the offending fish.
Your water conditions are ok and you should manage to raise some fry with those conditions but if you want a really good hatch rate you need to get your GH down to 1 drop and your tds should be around 30, adding some RO water or carbon filtered rain water should bring those levels down nicely.
I’m not a great believer in breeding cones they are made from clay and the porosity can harbour bacteria which can destroy eggs very quickly I prefer to use a piece of 50mm pvc pipe siliconed to a piece of glass so it stands upright in the tank this also makes it very easy to use a stainless steel mesh guard to protect the eggs/wrigglers from being eaten.

George

[brew3]

The breeding cone should be made of PVC, the clay pots are very porous, prone for bacteria and parasites to colonize and attach to the pot.
If you do set up the breeding water of gh of 1 drop and TDS of 30 ppm, you will run into trouble of the pH crashing, you have nothing to buffer your pH and on top of that it may cause problem with the fries with almost pure or demineralized water - gill cover problem.
Breeding water conductivity should be in the range of 60 to 80 uS/cm, gh and kh in the range of 50 to 80 ppm.
Just my two cents worth.

[shorty]

Just thought I would let you know that I had seperated the female yesterday and left dad with 2 day wrigglers, well they are gone:(. I'm starting to feel like I'm going to have to find surrogate parents (which I dont have another pair yet) or try to manually raise them myself.

Can someone please explain how I can manually raise them PLEASE.

Shorty

[Proteus]

Shorty... how big is this pair...

I am thinking you have the same problem as my pair, too young and still getting it right...

[shorty]

Hi,

The pair are about 5 inches and about 2 years old.

I have them in my bedroom as it is the least traffic area in the house. Before I got them they were in a community tank and had spawned in there and of course the spawns never suvived, but they have been on their own now for 3 months and the same is still happening. I have a very faint light over the tank which is a 25watt blue bulb which is on all the time. Its night time that they eat the fry is maybe the light too dim??

I am starting to think that maybe I should put my 12 month old turks ( I think they are a pair) in the tank but divide the tank and see one of two things,
1. See if they are male and female (the turks) and see if because the pair I have now are spawning if that will induce the turks to spawn, 2. if this is the case then hence surrogate parents.

Im getting so disheartened with this and prepared to try anything.

What do you think???

Shorty

[shorty]

Hi guys,

Just thought I would let you know whats happening since the last post.

I have had 2 pairs form in my community tank and 2 spawnes from them, so I've moved them to their own tanks.

One of the new pairs layed the day after my original Pair, Kewl, I transfered the pot over to them and they have taken on the new fry as their own and raising them.

Its day 3 of freeswimming and they are attaching and eating from the surrogate parents and doing well.

Trace(shorty) :D

[Proteus]

Excellent news... well done

[pyro]

patience is a virtue and has paid off in this case. great to see

[DiscusMad]

well done!

[shorty]

Hi guys,
just thought i would show u a pic of my little guys and gals.

Trace :D

[Anthony]

Hi Shorty,

glad to hear you eventually had some success. Just a thought for you: Sometimes the best way to get sucess with your fish is ti LEAVE THEM ALONE. Some people might say that i'm a tad negletful of my fish, but its the way i get most sucess, i do a good 50% water change roughly about once a month or whenever my PH drops (which is uncommon) I don't over feed, and i keep them in my gararge where they get disturbed very little. I feel that sometimes one can get too obsessed with their fish and never let them settle, keep your hands out of the tank!!!!
I know this is not for every one but for me it works, i've got pairs forming all over the place, am raising babies etc.
PS with the babies i do change the water more often.