hatched egg rolling off the cone

[odaski]

Hi
I'm anxious and excited. My discus pair laid 3 days ago and I placed a cage and methylene blue and just saw a just hatched egg roll off the cone. Is this normal? When do the cage come off?
Any help would be most grateful
Cindy

[odaski]

Well I've calmed down. I've taken the cage off and walked away. Couldnt bare to see if they get eaten. Will check in a few hours.

[samir]

good luck with them. how many wrigglers do you have ?

[odaski]

Well it's hard to see as they have laid it to the side. I think at least 20 wrigglers. They seem to roll off the cone alot. I left the light on for them tonight so fingers crossed. Cant believe I'm a discus parent!

[samir]

what strain are your discus ?

[Merrilyn]

Congratulations on your first lot of fishy grandchildren :P

Eggs and fry do sometimes roll off the cone, and that's pretty normal. We hope that the parents will pick the fry up in their mouth and spit it back into the bunch still on the cone.

You've got another day or so before the fry become free swimming, then the fun begins.

Good luck.

You're doing everything right.

[odaski]

Sigh! Gone after breakfast feed and I have no idea who the culprit is. Can you cage them till they are free swimming? I tried caging without methylene blue but the eggs grew fungus. Anyone with any ideas how to persuade parents to take to their young? Might try a bristlenose, will they eat wrigglers? Hmm..

[mistakes r crucial]

Hi Odaski,

You can leave the cage over the eggs/wrigglers until they are free swimming. By then the parents have hopefully bonded with the fry and won't eat them. If your pair are eating eggs/wrigglers consistantly I would check the water param's for a while.

I've never used Meth Blue apart from when I was hand rearing Angel eggs/fry but when caging the eggs with Discus I have had more success if I place an air stone close to the cone, fairly gently, just enough to move the water over the eggs.

Any other fish wll eat eggs if left there long enough but BN are probably the best of a bad bunch as far as cleaning the bottom and Discus are concerned.
Cheers
MAC

[odaski]

I am not too sure what you mean by checking water parameters. Which parameters am I checking for? Nitrite/Ammonia nil, slight trace of nitrate. I change the water every 2 day prob 25%(overflow). The water is prob 500ppm, pH 7.4. There's no fluctuations in these parameters. I have relocated the cone from the inflow which is only gentle flow. I will try the bubbler next time as I just cant see into the tank when it's all blue.

[benjohnson]

Odaski... your PH is a little bit high for raising fry in , ideally it wants to be about 6.5 .....

Also 500ppm is quite high in terms of water quality... the stuff I get out my tap here is 220 ppm and I reduce it to 5 ppm by using an RO unit before it goes in my tank .....

I spent about 80 quid (English Money) on my RO unit and its by far the best investment I have made when it comes to keeping discus . Since using it they have really thrived, their growth has come along a lot better and I have had many good spawnings of fry .... Using an RO unit can also reduce your PH down aswell. It has next to no buffering capacity so you can play with it as much as you want and get it to the best conditions , but all I do is age mine for a little while and it stablises at 6.6 and stays there .

Based on those figures, I would suggest you consider doing what I did , you will ultimately have a lot more wrigglers , and your fish will be a lot happier.

Cheers

Ben

[odaski]

I keep a lot of tanks and houses mainly cichlids, hence water parameter. I will move the discus in the next few months. Unfortunately the discus was a "must have" at first sight. I must say they are giving me a lot of opportunity to get it right as they have spawned again. This must be nearing the 20 spawns...
Thanks everyone for their input and thank you Ladyred for the reassurance.
Cindy