5 week old fry dying?

[Hooked]

Hi Gang,

I have some five week old fry and over the last week I've lost about ten. I just found another on its way out with two bulging eyes.
The ph is 6.5 and I'm doing 50% water changes per day. Its actually 25% in the morning and 25% in the evening. Its a 400lt tank with two mature Eheim 2217's. The pick ups have two large cube sponges wrapped in white filter cloth. The spray bars are drilled out and wrapped with heavy duty filter material so there is very little current.
I started with live brine shrimp for about two weeks (weeks 2 and 3 of their lives) then frozen brine shrimp ( from weeks 3 up to now) with the odd feed of beef heart mix (started about week 4 for a week, just occasionally) similar to Merrylins recipe, with vegies, garlic etc. When I started getting a death or two over the last week I stopped the beef heart as I thought it may have been to much for their small stomachs, causing blockages. Out of the roughly 8-10 that have died about 2 had ruptures in their sides, one with what looked like an intestine hanging out of the rupture with food in the tract. I now just feed with frozen Brine shrimp and I'm adding some squashed thawed peas to help with some possibly roughage. They eat them.
The other tell tale sign is that they have popped out or bulging eye sockets. It doesn't look like "pop eye" the bacterial illness that I've seen pics of. Just the eyes are bulging out severely and a couple of dead had an eye actually hanging loose.
I have been adding aquarium salt at the rate of two teaspoons per 20lts as recommended by a friend that's a breeder for the last couple of weeks. I have now started to use epsom salts (as of today) instead of Aquarium salt to possibly help with the what seemed intestinal blockages.
After research I think possibly part of my problem is that I'm pouring the change water in to fast and causing the gas build up problem (forgot what its called) due to to much aeration? I have been tipping the water over my free hand to break it up and there are a lot of bubbles.
I should have said my water is aged for about 48hrs, treated with supa chlor (like prime) and three teaspoons of seachem acid buffer to get ph 6.5. I'm going to carefully syphon the water in as from tonight and hopefully that helps.
I've only seen a couple of young "flashing" from time to time, so hopefully not related in any way to flukes.
I appreciate any advice, as I'm obviously doing something wrong.

Cheers

[giorid]

Sorry for your loss, I know how it feels, the only thing I can suggest is that you check your filters and see that you keep them very clean, eg, change the filter wool or wash the pads, contamination from the filter can be a real headache, disconnect and wash the cannister and hoses if necessary, check that your food isn't off or contaminated by bacteria, keep in fridge, someone else might have more ideas, good luck.

[Hooked]

Thanks giorod,

The filters are really quite clean (I hope!) One was cleaned at day one, hoses etc too. The other was added about two weeks ago, very clean at start. I checked one the other day and it seems the pre filter cube sponges over the intakes are stopping a lot of the food/waste from getting in. I clean the cube sponges about every four days, vigorously in a bucket. I vacuum out the water morning and night and go over the sponges with it also. There never appears to be much of anything on the sponges. I try to clean/wipe the glass daily, sides and base. I do get a brown thin algae build up on the base glass in patches that also gets an extra clean off about the same time as I do the pre filter sponges (4 days) when/if noticeable.
I go through the food fairly quick. I have a bout 25 Discus in a display and they are real pigs! : )

I just realised also that I have been feeding some live black worm, mainly for the parents but the fry do eat it also?

Thanks giorid, have a good night

[swifto]

Hi Hooked,may b u should try syphoning the changed water in from a bucket i know its longer process but worth a go.Sorry the c u have lost some u were going gr8 at raising them.By the way Marlon got me a gr8 deal on my new 4x2.5x2 set up,order a Dal-barb through his company and saved hundreds,the mans a legend.Cheers Rob.

[Hooked]

Hey Swifto,

Yes mate, it was almost going to well! Almost forgot I was rearing Discus : )

I did exactly that mate as of last night, syphoned from a bucket slowly. Yep took a while but managed to create way less, if any aeration. I had put an air stone in the tank a couple of weeks back and I removed that also just in case. I've gone back to just having my return/spray bar wrapped in filter cloth about 10mm above the water. It creates a gentle curtain of water along its entire length that should be oxygenating the tank enough.
There's been no deaths today to wake up to today. Fingers crossed!
I managed to count them late one night when they were settled and counted 93, give or take. I've had about 10 die over the last week.

Good to hear about the new tank. Marlons a good man!

[swifto]

93 fry that means Dinning the Misses,a big bunch of rose so u can get more tanks

[Hooked]

Ha ha!

The amount of time that goes into the cleaning and water changes, morning and night, probably means I'll be lucky to still have the Mrs when they are finally grown! : )

[swifto]

Mine wishes she add gills

[iro11a]

Ha ha!

The amount of time that goes into the cleaning and water changes, morning and night, probably means I'll be lucky to still have the Mrs when they are finally grown! : )

I hearing you there mate. with a full time job running my own business plus raising discus fry not much free time.

[Hooked]

Hi iro11a,

It's amazing how much time it sucks out of your day! Maybe its best suited to a retirement pastime. : ) I think anyone that's wanting to make money out of selling Discus would be much better off buying them in and on selling them. I'm doing this for the satisfaction of hopefully raising a good batch. I just hope the deaths stop and they grow up free of peppering and I'll be stoked! The parents arrived here free of any peppering but now have a bit. I hope its just the darkening that goes with raising the fry? We'll see.
I'm lucky my wife is understanding.... to a degree : )
I remember what free time use to be like : )

Cheers