I disagree,the fry are a weak old eating brine shrimp don't bother with egg it will only pollute your water,the point of feeding egg the first days of free swimming is one it's cheap and to get them big enough to eat baby brine shrimp.If you want you can buy a pack of hikari baby brine they have a lot of vitamins and what not added one cube a day along with your live should be more than enough to raise some healthy fry.
I tend to agree with Nathan in regards to raising fry on BBS from say day 4 free swimming. The fry are doing super well, growing very quickly.
I can understand artificially raising discus fry from egg/hatch would be an intensive task, but this is not what I am doing, or intend to do.
I am lucky enough to work in a research technical role, working on commercializing rock lobster larval culture. We hatch approx 1.5tins of BBS cysts per day. So i have ready access to newly hatched BBS daily. One thing with BBS is its nutritionally best in the first few hours post hatch, without some form of enrichment, the nutritional profile drops over time as BBS use energy and begin moulting to new instars. Therefore, one little trick you can do (if you dont have access to newly hatched BBS daily) is to 2 store them in the fridge for a couple of days. This basically slows them right down to the point where they use much less energy and will maintain the higher nutrient profile for longer.
I have raised lots of freshwater ornamental fish fry on BBS and they are very successful.
As with all larval rearing, feed management is key. When feeding live larval feeds like BBS, I like to keep the larvae relatively confined in the early period. This allows a higher feed density when live BBS is added, making it easier for the larvae to find and feed on. They become pink bellied withing a minute of BBS being introduced.
Anyway, i am hoping my pair will become good parents with time and I can leave fry with them for up to 2-3weeks, feeding BBS at the same time. However, in this case, given there were only 10 or so left at day 4 free swimming and were feeding on BBS, it was a good opportunity to "save" these little guys.
The parents did lay again friday, and today are hatching, only about 40-50 will hatch however. Another chance for the parents to learn and gain more experience.
Here is a couple of pics of the fry at day 10 free swimming. Looking great to me.
Good luck with them fisho. I hope they continue to do well. None of us are experts here and our advice is going to differ according to our own experience.
If you've raised a lot of other fry using BBS then you'll find discus fry to be no different. They are simply cichlids and will behave as such.
Your work sounds interesting, and although I probably shouldn't say it, rock lobster lava is really just plankton, and will make a delicious and nutritious follow on food for your discus fry
Thirty-five years keeping and breeding discus, and I'm still learning :P
Been a while so time for an update, the pair have been doing really well.
Original batch doing great, putting on size quick. About 40days old now and close to 3cm. Smaller middle batch and lastely a really nice batch of 110+. Quick clips showing each. (they share a tank with some endlers and L134 plecs).