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  1. #11
    Tiny Fry
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    newcastle NSW
    Posts
    369
    Hey mate congratulations on the pair your purchased i'm very envious of you

    Personaly i would't have a 6x2x2 split for breeding i would rather have 2 foot tanks for each pairs.I'd leave the 6x2x2 for the growout tank you will be able to get rapid growth with large volume of water,so long as you keep up the water changes.

    But i'm guessing you may also want to keep some of the fry for yourself you grow up so maybe a 4x2x2 tank to keep some of your own stock.I'm in the process of expanding tanks(not looking forward to the power bill).So at the moment i only have the one breeding pair in a 2 foot tank.I then had another 2 foot tank to remove the fry into this tank so the fry can still find the food easy doing 100% water change a day 50% in mid afternoon and 50% before i go to bed.I have a 5 footer tank that the fry will go into maybe around 5-6 weeks to grow up and i also have a 4x2x2 which im growing some juvies i got a few months back.Plus community tank inside the house
    Jon

  2. #12
    Wrigglers
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    Perth, Australia
    Posts
    239
    Hi iro11a,

    all good points, advice and food for thought. Yeah, I'm not looking forward to the future power and water bills! In an attempt to not freak out my wife at bill time I've actually put up an outside clothes line these days and we don't use the dryer any more. We are pretty busy people and had got a bit lazy in that department. Use to have it on 1-2 times a day with kids clothes etc. HOPEFULLY it makes a difference. I do all the clothes washing now too, so its good for brownie points also at new fish time ; )

    Cheers


    Hi Gang,

    I went down this morning to sit in front of the tank and no 14 fry to be seen..... Bummer!
    Then I got up to take a look at the eggs on the back of the cup.... 1/3 of the eggs were gone and the 14 fry were there burrowing into the eggs! Bigger Bummer!
    I saw one fry with an egg (way to big for it) grab something on it throw it around then it dropped. Then I noticed all the missing eggs underneath the parents. Oh my god the 14 fry are ripping the tails off the rest....!
    Then after a couple of mins I noticed one wiggle out of the tiny white sack that was left and thank goodness it had a tail!

    All this was a rude awakening.... all before any coffee! : )

    It appears that the 14 fry were feeding on the remnants of what attached the eggs and were dislodging the soon to be hatched fry in the process? The newly hatched appear smaller than the other fry at hatch out time? Definitely not as fat and plump looking as Mrs D's pics? But I guess they usually seem to sit and plump up over a few days before free swimming? They don't usually get disturbed from their hatch out spot I suppose?

    The eggs on the bottom are slowly hatching out over the day and seem to be finding their way to near the base of the cone? They seem SO tiny. I can hardly see a tail. The parents seem totally unaffected and are just blowing on the newly hatched spreading over the cone itself. I don't know what they are on, but I could use some first thing in the morning!

    Cheers

  3. #13
    Wrigglers
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    Perth, Australia
    Posts
    239
    Hi all,

    Over the last 24hrs the 14 fry are now down to about 4 or 5. I can't really see but no way 14 any more of the larger two week old ones. The second lot of fry over the last 24 hours have been rounded up by the parents from around the 400lt 5 footer. They are a week old now. I've learnt a valuable lesson watching last night. The tank is so big that the parents would swim a great distance picking up fry in their mouths. Sometimes up to 10. By the time they got back sometimes only 7 or 8 would be spat out. Its making them work to hard. Hopefully there will be a break in the action soon and I can get them into the proper size tank for hopefully the next batch.
    I realise I've made a big mistake also. I used Methlyn Blue to stop fungus but have just been getting rid of it with the water changes. I missed the bit in Merrilyns post about how it inhibits the production of the all important slime coat.
    From Merrilyns Breeding basics post;

    Quote - "Methylene blue is only used if the parents don't clean their eggs properly, and you're having problems with fungus developing. It's often used by breeders who take the eggs from the parents (as in angel fish) to hatch them in a separate tank. Angel parents are notorious egg eaters and the eggs can be hatched and the fry raised quite successfully on their own. Unlike discus, angel fry don't feed off the slime coat on their parents' body.

    It can prevent discus parents developing a proper slime coating to feed their fry, so if you are going to use it, then only use it on the day the eggs are laid, and add carbon to the filter after 2 days to remove all the meth blue, and give the parents a chance to develop a slime coat.

    Personally I don't use it on discus. I find that if you lower the pH slightly, to around 6, fungus isn't a problem. - unquote.

    I've put in the carbon pad as of this morning and had already been lowering the ph. Its in the low 6's which I believe also helps with the slime coat production. The fry already had been congregating more on the parents with this latest batch as the Meth blue would have been very weak, but today they seem to be swarming the parents and not wanting to take off around the tank so hopefully things are getting back on track and hopefully I haven't stuffed things up to much.

    Cheers

  4. #14
    Eternal Moderator Merrilyn's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2004
    Location
    Melbourne Vic.
    Posts
    8,692
    It's all a learning experience, so don't beat yourself up too much. New territory for a lot of us too. I've never heard of the older fry ripping the tails off the younger lot. I suppose to them it makes perfect sense. It's just more live food.

    Keep posting about your experience, good and bad. This is a really interesting topic.
    Thirty-five years keeping and breeding discus, and I'm still learning :P

    Merrilyn has passed, but will not be forgotten - Goodbye dear friend

  5. #15
    Wrigglers
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    Perth, Australia
    Posts
    239
    Hi Merrilyn,

    What I first thought was the older fry nipping the tails off the others was them actually dislodging the newer eggs and feeding on the remnants of what was holding the eggs to the cone. There was like a bald patch in the middle of the egg mass where maybe 1/3 of the eggs had been dislodged with the older first fry feverishly feeding away. Within 24hrs of being dislodged the eggs mostly hatched out and made there way back to and up the side of the cone. There were a few that didn't hatch out that had been knocked to the floor of the tank but I think it was more a case of where they landed was under the parents and I think they got knocked about a bit as the parents fins slid across the area.
    I noticed with the first lot of fry that they seemed to hatch out and then stay in the same spot and develop more. The tails were very noticeable before they started moving from their original spot. With the second batch I noticed that the ones hatching out that had been knocked off the cone, seemed really tiny. Their tails were extremely tiny and hard to see.
    All fry from both batch's appear to be developing well. The parents stay near the cone and the fry swim across, pick at the parents slime coat and swim back to the cone side.
    After checking the dates, the first batch with 5 remaining are about 10mm long by 3-4mm at the head width and actually about 12-13 days old now. The second batch would be 7 days old now and are about 5mm long by 1.5 - 2mm at the head. There's about 80-100 of those but that's my best guess as they are buzzing around way to fast to count accurately.

    Cheers

  6. #16
    Blue Diamond Discus swampy1972's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Location
    Shell Cove, NSW
    Posts
    1,038
    Sounds like they're doing well mate, great to hear

    Can't wait to see some more pics as they develop.

  7. #17
    Wrigglers
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    Perth, Australia
    Posts
    239
    Hi Swampy,

    The water has cleared of the Meth now so will try to get some pics later today,

    have a good day mate,

    cheers

  8. #18
    Tiny Fry
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    newcastle NSW
    Posts
    369
    Great work hooked sounds like things are going really well for you looking forward to seeing some pictures soon.
    Jon

  9. #19
    Free Swimmer
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Posts
    488
    Good 2 c u got a gr8 pair.Remember 2 keep things simple your doing a job

  10. #20
    Free Swimmer Nev's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Posts
    420
    Looking forward to some pics.

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