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?
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.
Thirty-five years keeping and breeding discus, and I'm still learning :P
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.
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.
Thirty-five years keeping and breeding discus, and I'm still learning :P
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?