Actually laying white eggs

[Mazzy]

Just wondered if anyone has experienced this before. I have successfully bred hundreds of discus before, but my albino pair have about 200 pure white eggs on the cone (this is the first time they have paired). I watched her lay, and I watched him cover them and every egg is pure white immediately that it is deposited! I have not seen this happen before and was hoping someone might have the answer.

[Hollowman]

That is interesting, I have not heard of this before, I wonder if it's anything to do with the albino gene?? I will have to ask my friends who also have albinos. Keep us posted as to whether they are live.
What type of albino are they?

Hollowman :?:

[Mazzy]

I refer to them as Albino, but the male is refered to as a 'road map' and the female is leopard. The female has had live young last year but I stopped her breeding because she wasn't eating. The male has not bred before. Both fish are very healthy. The eggs are only about 2 hours old now and both fish are caring for them. If the eggs were older, I would probably assume the male was infertile, but like I said, I watched the whole thing and they were white when deposited. I have a few hundred fish and have never seen this before.

[Matt15]

Mazzy i've been breeding an Albino male with a Female Albino Melon Intermediate. Upon each lay I have noticed 4 colourings of the eggs.
1st being white - infertile eggs. 2nd & 3rd being two different shades of dark, most proberly red melon and a red cover of some sort. And the last being a creamy colour being the Albino.

Time will certainly tell whether or not the eggs are fertile or not. Fingers crossed for you they are. And obvisouly if the eggs don't hatch then your male is infertile.

I've been having alot of trouble because the fry won't attach to the parents so i've been working on a cobalt surrogate parent.

[Mazzy]

I seriously believe they will all be infertile, but to have every egg pure white at laying point is the weird part! I have only put these two together about 5 days ago and this is her first lay in about 6 months. Both are about 18 months old. I am familiar with infertile eggs turning white after 24 hours or so, but not immediately. Too soon to declare the male infertile he still has 'L' plates on!
Very interested to hear you have had different coloured eggs. Thanks for the information, much appreciated.

[AHC]

sounds interesting to be white at first lay. Whats the PH like?

[Mazzy]

Ph is running at 6.5 in this tank. I had another pair in this tank until last week and their eggs were normal and fertile. Tank is crystal clear and I clean 16 filters every week all the same way and never have any problems. Don't use medications etc.
Only use discus buffer in my breeder tanks to keep water soft. Our water is recycled ocean water (the authorities state 50% of our drinking water is recycled).

[samir]

are they opaque white or translucent white ? never had a problem with albino eggs being different, fertile albino eggs look nearly transparent after a day or so. I've had females laying maybe one or two opaque white eggs a batch.

does discus buffer soften water ? whats the kh, i wouldn't call the male infertile just yet.

[AHC]

does discus buffer soften water ?

Yeah seachems discus buffer says it lowers PH and GH. My initial thoughts were leading me towards the hardness etc of the water too. White (assuming opaque) eggs as soon as they are layed? :?

[Mazzy]

The eggs are opaque. Will test KH tonight, I haven't changed the way I do things, but I know the place that has been recycling the ocean water has had to slow its operations due to decreased oxygen levels in the ocean. Who knows what they are doing with our drinking water!
I had a look at the eggs 12 hours after being layed and they haven't changed. No signs of fungus either.

[Matt15]

Yeh unfortunately it still sounds like they might be infertile. I've had a cobalt male take part in over 10+ lays and each time produced no fry. They eggs were always white, so i've labeled him as being infertile.

I've read somewhere the a certain % of Asian bred male discus are infertile due to the colour feeding. Not 100% sure if this is true or not and I can't remember where I read it.

[Hollowman]

I have asked some of my friends about this, and I think the general consensus is that they will be infertile. I have never seen a white egg being laid though. I have seen them go white very quick, so I am leaning towards thinking there is a water issue somewhere.