How many batches of babies per year?

[blackwater spa]

After seeing Ben's superspawning pair of Blue Diamonds in the Photo Album thread, I'm curious as to how many batches of babies a breeding pair of discus can raise in one year.

How long do the parents take to raise each batch of babies before the babies can be removed completely from the parents, and how soon after the parents and babies are separated before the parents will spawn again and raise yet another batch?

[mcloughlin2]

Bens blue diamonds are great....there really nice... :)

[Merrilyn]

I guess in theory they could probably lay a new batch of eggs every 4 to 6 weeks. Around 6 days after laying for the fry to attach. Two weeks on the parents, and then another two weeks rest before the next cycle.

Perhaps they do this in the big breeding farms, but I honestly don't know of any hobby breeder who does this.

[Ben]

Good questions blackwater spa!

I like to remove the parents from their babies as young as possible but independent enough to eat by them selves. I have found by doing this, any nasties that the parents might have, i.e. gill flukes will not affect the babies as they are too small in be infected. Once the parents are removed i add a UV sterilizer into the tank.

So the babies are with the parents from wriggler stage for 2 weeks. The parents are then removed. I remove the parents from the tank, not the babies.

I don’t and can’t force them to breed again, so i let nature takes it course. The last few times i have found after raising a batch of fry, the parents will spawn again a 2 times and the eggs will be all infertile. I put this down to the stress on the male more so than the female. Then the 3rd go they get it right again.

So the whole process starts again.


After a while, maybe 18 months of doing this, they may slow down on the frequency of spawns and the fertility rate.

Cheers,
Ben

[nicholas76]

hey ben - slightly off topic


ive been told that the fry obtain the flukes bug whilst eating from the slime coat of the parent.

now i assume that flukes is only located around the gill area?? if so then your theory works as you are limiting the oppurtunity / or giving less time for fry to feed themselves from the fluke infested parent.

or

you simply dont have parent fish that have flukes!!


merris / ben / anyone

any incite into this please are my assumptions right or wrong?

[Ben]

Nick,
A lot of hobbyist breeders seem to have the same trouble with young discus. I too had the same problem and lost a large batch of ocean green fry.

My theory is, and it is only a theory:

Up to the age of 3 weeks the young discus are so small they can not be attacked by gill flukes as them flukes can not use such a small host.

So as the discus fry get bigger this makes them at the right size where flukes can attach to the gills.

As the discus is so small, they have a low immune system as compared to juvenile or adult discus.

Why does this not happen over seas?

Well, once again my theory is and i have seen it,
Commercial farms need to breed and sell as many discus as they can to sustain an income from it.
So the parents are separated from the fry as early as possible so they will spawn again, thus increasing their yields.

I am starting to think almost every discus has some sort of gill flukes and they are almost impossible to get rid of!

Ben

[nicholas76]

i agree


the search begins for better understanding of flukes!!