which methylene blue preps?

[odaski]

Hi everyone

I am new to discus breeding. I purchased a pair of snow white pearl pigeon discus 2 months ago and they have laid probably 6-7 times. I noted that their eggs are clear visually(presumed this can be normal. The eggs have never hatched and usually gobbled up within few hours-2 days. I'm considering caging but I would need to apply methylene blue as well as parents can no longer pick out the white ones...which methylene blue preps do everyone use? Or if you just let them keep eating, is it guaranteed that they will learn to stop eat the eggs?
Additional insight would be greatly appreciated.

Cindy

[benjohnson]

odaski

I dont think your eggs should be clear to start with. They should be a salmon almost orangey colour when laid, and eventually go slightly darker with a dot in the middle after 48 hours.

Clear eggs would suggest they are duff eggs. Do you know if the shop you bought them from was pumping them full of steroids to bring their colour out ? If they were, that means it will take at least 5 months for the drugs to leave their system, and this can commonly make a discus sterile until these drugs are out of their system

Another option could be if the discus is quite young. If it has not reached sexual maturity yet, it may wel lay eggs which arent formed correclt,y and may well be clear . Any of these options ring a bell????

Ben

[Merrilyn]

Welcome to the forum Cindy.

From my experience, eggs can come in all sorts of colours, from almost clear to bright orange, and a lot depends on what the fish have been feeding on. As Ben pointed out, they should start to go darker after 24 hours and by 48 hours should be a deep orange colour with a black dot in the centre, which is the eye spot of the growing fry.

Seems your fish aren't leaving their eggs long enough for you to see them develop

Yes, I would cage the eggs at this stage, even if only to see if they are fertile.

Don't add meth blue if you cage the eggs. It will affect the slime coat of the parents. Best to just make sure the breeding tank is spotlessly clean and you are doing regualr water changes to keep the bacteria and fungus away.

Sadly there are no guarantees with discus. Most of them do grow out of eating their eggs and become very good parents, but some never learn.

This sounds like a fairly young pair that you have, and they need time to learn their parenting skills. Usually once the eggs hatch, and the fry start wriggling, the parenting instinct kicks in, and they become reliable parents.

Cage the next lot of eggs, and then give them a chance to see the eggs turn into wrigglers.

Fingers crossed for you. :P

[odaski]

Thanks.
They laid again this morning and I have a cage in place. So will wait and see. Will keep you posted.
Cindy