Have fry too, fingers crossed

[Sean]

I have free swimming fry at the moment and this is the longest that I have been able to keep them. Last night at about midnight I noticed that the mother was just casually eating any of the fry that passed by her mouth and she wasn't spitting them back out, nor was she 'hunting' for them - so I wipped her out of the tank and left the remaining 50 or so fry with dad. Today they are as healthy as anything with dad and I gave them their first bbs feed. They have been free swimming for about 3 days now and have grown considerably in that time. I have followed the advice of ladyred almost to the letter and have heated water for daily water changes of about 20%, and leave the light on 24/7. The male is not eating however, and algae is growing mad with the extra lights - hard to get a focused photo. The fry keep very close to dad - How long will it take until I can take the dad out? and should I worry about the father not eating for about 10-12 days since eggs were laid. Is there any other gems of info? :)

[Sean]

Umm, also I do not measure ammonia levels - just nitrates/nitrites which is below detection, should I start? water is very soft (GH 2) and pH 7.8

[Merrilyn]

Hi Sean, congratulations. Looks like things are going great. Keep offering the dad food. He will accept it when he is ready.

I like to keep the fry with parents at least 4 weeks, or longer if the parents are ok with it. Once they stop getting food from the parent's side, you have to be really diligent with your feeding schedule so as not to give them a set back.

Don't worry about a bit of algae in the breeding tank. It's good for the water quality, and the fry will pick at tiny organisms growing in the algae. Once the fry are two weeks old, you can turn the lights off at night, which will bring the algae under control again.

If you're not getting readings of nitrate or nitrite then your ammonia level must be okay.

Now you can begin to add some calcium to your water to assist with bone growth in the babies. You can do this a couple of ways. The easiest way is to use good old shell grit from the pet section of the supermarket. Either put a handfull in the filter or add it to the bottom of the tank. Some breeders use a stick of chalk (as in school blackboard stuff) in the tank, but I have always used shellgrit. Renew it about once a month.

Good luck, and well done. Keep us posted.

[weird]

So glad to have you back Merrilyn ! I missed your wisdom and experience. I am taking notes ! :D

[Sean]

Here is the proud Dad

[sunshinediscus]

When you are raising fry with only 1 parent i recommend you remove the fry as soon as possible, within the 1st week of freeswimming the fry will eat bbs, as soon as all the babies have orange bellies proving they are eating it ,it is time for them to come out. A single discus parent has to work hard as he will be doing the duties of both parents, the poor guy doesn't get a rest especially when you are employing breeding techniques such as continuous light. If you leave the fry for 1 month you will have a very ragged male discus by the end of it.

[Merrilyn]

Hi Rod, you make a good point. I guess all spawns are different. I have never had that problem, but I do feed the fry heavily with baby brine shrimp from day two of free swimming, and get them onto a grated beef heart mix as soon as possible.

Sean, there are no hard and fast rules, everyone can have success and still do things slightly differently. But Rod makes a valid point, and you should watch the condition of your male, and make decisions based on that. You can usually tell by the actions of the parent when they have had enough. If he is starting to look a bit ragged or if he is getting a bit short tempered with the fry, then that is the time to remove him.

Good luck Sean. I wish you lots of success.

[Rgoganj]

Sean I hope thing go well with the fry,

Just one question which is off the track, what strain is the discus?

Thanks

[Sean]

Well, the success I have had after so many spawnings has been due to a number of factors including changing the male - the mother was a blue turq and the father is a red allencer. So the strain of the offspring - I have no idea, hopefully I will get some just like the dad as he is pretty spectacular. Does anyone have any idea as to what I may expect from the babies?

[Merrilyn]

Hopefully the cross to the red alenquer will intensify the red in the turquoise and you will come up with red turquoise. But anything is possible.

[sunshinediscus]

These are turks x red alenquer i bred about 10 months ago. Out of 15 discus i grew out only 1 was what you could define as red turk, the rest were more like an alenquer.

HTH

Rod

[Merrilyn]

Nice looking cross Rod. Thanks for that.

[Sean]

Hi and thanks for your posts. I can't believe my luck - the babies seem to be thriving and now eating the odd bbs - I am keeping the lights on and 20% water change/day - The dad hasn't seemed to have eaten anything for the past 10 days, but still looks good. Here's a couple of pics :)

[Sean]

Can anyone tell me when I can count my chickens? I can only manage to feed them 3 times/day, so I was planning on leaving the dad to look after them as long as possible.

[Merrilyn]

Great news Sean. Sounds like you've got a wonderful dad there. Keep and eye on his condition, but it seems he is doing it easy at the moment. Try to keep those little bellies filled with yummy brine shrimp. You should be able to see the orange of the baby brine shrimp showing thru the wall of the belly. Then you know they are feeding well.

At two weeks, you can begin to turn the lights off at night, and begin feeding very finely grated beef heart for at least one meal. Last thing at night, syphon the bottom of the tank so the babies go to bed in clean water.

Keep up the good work.

[Kaza]

Sean,
Congrads Iam hoping soon that will be me, WHERE are the pictures.

You said to get some fry food from Seaview which I will get tomorrow Have you or ladyred heard of cyclop-eeze suppose to be great fry food? karen

[Sean]

Haven't heard of the cyclops stuff - APR is the stuff I use which is suppose to be full of rotifers, artemnia (bbs), and something that starts with 'P'. I also mix in a spirulina based fry food from Sera with the APR - must say they do not seem that interested at the moment - still feeding off dad. I ahve had trouble with attaching photos - here goes

[Kaza]

Thanks Sean, dont forget to save me some especially the ones that look like Dad.
Also maybe when you have taken Dad away could you use one of the automatic feeders to give them more than 3 feeds a day.

[Sean]

Well, I don't seem to have lost too many fry and Dad seems to be coping as single parent of the year just fine. My concern is that I will be in troube with regard to feeding the fry - ATM they get a feed of fry food - mix of 3 commercially available food, and 15 later get a suirt of bbs. But this is only about 3 times a day as I am out of the house from 7.00am to 7.00pm at night. The dad seems to be looking a little skinny, but he is eating now and I expect him to put on conditon soon. Is there any ideas how I can cope with the long time without food. I still leave the lights on 24/7, and i suppose I could manage 4 feeds in a 24h period.
Cheers
Sean

[Merrilyn]

Automatic feeders are the answer in cases like yours where outside commitments keep you away from home for 12 hours at a time. I haven't used them, so can't comment on brands, but I know Proteus has some on his tanks. Maybe he can give an opinion on the best ones to buy.

[Dave76]

Congrats on your fry Sean

Here is a link the an auto feeder that I use on a number of tanks - can program for up to four feeds a day.

It's basically the chinese version of the Eheim feeder & works really well IMO

http://www.aquariumproducts.com.au/prod791.htm

Regards

Dave

[Sean]

Cheers for the info. I will look into the auto feeders, hopefully the lil buggers will take the finely crushed flake food. I have just received some white worm culture that I got through ebay, so I will be able to give them a treat when I get home from work. The father is back to eating lots now so things look good -
Big thanks to everyone who contributed to this post - now what to do with 50 odd discus? - They have been so much work - I don't want to part with them, kinda attached to em' - I think it is an addiction this discus keeping and I am not sure there is a cure :D

[Sean]

Thanks again for your valuable advice, Ladyred and Rod! Well, I think that the fry are now close to 6 weeks of age - and I have not changed the arrangement with the dad looking after them - As I am away for most of the day I feed them all lots when I am at home - bbs for the fry and beef heart mix and also a fry flake food. I still have the lights on 24/7 as I think it means I can leave food in the tank longer. I have ordered an auto feeder from the website (ta, Dave) - The dad looks great - I have never seen him with such vivid colouring and he eats heaps - the babies still chew on him a bit, but he doesn't seem to mind - I have cut back the water changes to every 2nd day (3/4RO and 1/4 conditioned tap). When do you think I am 'out of the woods', should I slowly change the water parameters now so I can grow them out in 100% conditioned adelaide tap water? Would they be growing faster being on continuous lighting? The larger of the fry are 5 cent piece size and there are quite a few 1/3rd of this size, all seem to be eating well though. I have moved 5 fry out into another tank (cycled from the water that I took daily from the fry's tank for the last month) to see how they fare without dad. Sorry to bombard you with questions but I am hesitant to change what seems to be working.
Cheers again for you support.
Sean

[Merrilyn]

Sean, that's fantastic news. Congratulations. Now, we want lots and lots of piccies. You are well past the danger time. All you need to do now, is keep those babies growing on by giving them plenty of food and lots of clean water.

That sounds pretty average size for babies at around 6 weeks. I'd move some of the bigger ones out into the other tank, and leave the smaller ones with dad. Having dad there just gives them more confidence and encourages them to eat.

Now would be a good time to slowly change them onto Adelaide water, but do make it slow, like over a month or so. Change your lighting when you feel ready. Begin by turning the tank lights out but leaving the room light on, then cut that down to just a small lamp in the room and finally full lights out. They will adjust to a period of darkness very quickly. Reverse the order to simulate sunrise.