new breeder setup

[phear]

Hi guys i have really fallen in love with discus. i have been breeding bristlenose catfish and now i have moved to discus. i am thinking about setting up a breeding rack the stand will prob be 6 wide and 3 teir tall i am just wondering what u guys would set up like what size breeding and growout tanks and how many... dont want to go too over board to start with but want to get a decent breeding setup. also do u guys like having tanks piped with a sump or just sponge bubble filters.?

i will be making the stand in a coupboard type of thing in my shead with insulation so that it will keep at a constant temp so i dont get too high of electricity bills from heaters etc.. concidering i already have 9 tanks running in the house..

Jamie

[Merrilyn]

Hello Jamie, Breeding racks can take all sorts of forms. My personal preference for breeding tank size is 2 x 18 x 18. The tank is large enough for a breeding pair to live happily, and to raize the fry for the firsfew weeks. Any larger tank, and I find the fry tend to get lost, and take a long time to attach to the parents. Breeding tanks should be high, rather than close to the floor. Lower tanks are ideal for grow out tanks.

You could have a rack with 2 breeding tanks on the top, and one large 4 foot grow out tank on the bottom. This seems to be the most suitable set up for discus breeding.

Remember, you're going to need good access to the tanks for cleaning and water changes, so allow yourself plenty of working room from the top of the bottom tank, to the bottom of the top tanks. Nothing worse than trying to clean lower tanks while constantly hitting your elbows lol.

There are some excellent pictures of member's breeding set ups in this forum. Have a look there for some ideas.

I keep my tanks as simple as possible. Heater and sponge filter, or corner box filter is all I have in the breeding tanks. Daily water changes take care of any possisble pollution. Grow out tanks have canister filters, but you could still use sponge filters in there as well.

HTH

[axelfaz]

this link shoul;d help mate.
http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4440

Cameron

[phear]

ok thanks guys im looking at say 4-6 breeding tanks is it ok to use a 4ft with differant types of discus or have u found too difficult to tell the differance i may just go with some simmilar breeding pairs like 2 pairs of the same and another 2 pairs of the same and just use 2 4ft growouts or is i ok to use 3ft for growout just trying to get as much out of the space that i can get..

Thanks Jamie

[Ben]

Jamie, i would recommend a 4x18x18 tank for grow out, a standard 4 footer will be fine though.
No matter what size the tank is though, daily water changes are a must!

cheers
Ben