Breeding journal with pictures - the next batch (Spawn #2)

[DIY]

I wasn't going to do another journal type thread for my newest batch of fry... but I changed my mind and decided I would but focus less on detail and more on pictures... and with fewer updates :wink:

If you hit this thread first and haven't read my orignal journal for my first batch of fry, which is much more detailed - the link is here:
http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17743

This thread is for the next pair I tried, a pair of snakeskins. It so far has been easier than the first pair. They seem more natural parents. Interstingly they spawned on the same day of the week (Sunday evening) as my the previous pair, not sure if it's to do with extra feedings and maintenance while I'm home on a weekend or just coincidence :ug



Timeline:

Sunday 9/11/08 evening - pair spawned in tank. Since they were still young, I didn't worry about truning off air or adding meth blue. I was happy to just wait and see if the eggs were fertilised. I also didn't worry about putting a gaurd on the eggs since they had spawned a few times in the community tank and seemed like excellent gaurders that only ate the eggs after they went white.

Wednesday 12/11/08 - Wrigglers :shock: :blob , they may have been there late evening Tuesday but I was in bed early that night :roll:


Friday late evening 14/11/08 - wrigglers leaving the cone occasionaly, but being spat back on my both parents, no problems with either parent eating the eggs, wrigglers or freeswimmers :thumb


Saturday 15/11/08 late morning - all freeswimming. Notice they took longer to attach than my previous batch, but still all were attached by the evening. Up to this point I've just been doing fairly normal waterchanges, not being especially careful or anything just waterchanges as normal :wink: I'm terrible at guessing numbers, but I think this batch is slightly bigger than the previous one, and since the previous one was around 120, my guess is I may have up to 150 in this one :shock:

[DIY]

Saturday 22/11/08 - 1 week old. No problems so far. Fry growing as expected, parents seem fine. Fry are already taking some frozen bbs, earlier than the previous batch so that's good.

I haven't lost any at all, and no belly sliders that I can see... almost seems wrong to be this easy so far....

[DIY]

Saturday 29/11/08 - 2 weeks old. OK some minor problems, the female is getting VERY aggressive. if anyone goes near the tank and points a finger, or gets too close she goes flat out at them and headbutts the glass... almost crazy :shock:. When I actually put my hand in the tank to do waterchanges though she's fine. She's starting to bully the male about pretty badly, so I expect in the next few days I'll be taking one of the parents out.

Both parents fins are starting to fray, I wonder if it's just too big a batch for them as they are still young and not overly big discus.. could help explain her aggression and the fins fraying. I've added some salt after today's waterchange to try and help the fins stop fraying.

I still haven't lost any... but the appetite doesn't seem as good as the first batch and there are a few dark ones :x I didn't do a PP dip on the parents before I put them in the tank to breed which was a silly mistake... I won't do that again, next time the breeders are getting a good PP treatment or two :wink:

[jimmyg]

Hello DIY, what filter do you have in your babies tank, can you take a full shot of your tank please.

Jimmy

[DIY]

Hi Jimmy,

It's a sponge filter on this tank. Check out my original journal thread that's linked at the start of this one, there's quite a few full tank shots in there. :wink:

[jimmyg]

Thanks mate, my babies are getting there slowly they sem to have stop on there growth spurt and slowed down heaps.

They are around 3 months old. My new batch is 1month old as well as another batch is just 1 week old.

Thanks
Jimmy

[Mickey_owen7]

Hi DIY, i think i may have asked you this before, nut what is PP? :oops:

[Hollowman]

Hi DIY, i think i may have asked you this before, nut what is PP? :oops:

PP is Potassium Permanganate, it is an oxidiser, which means it literally takes oxygen from anything it comes into contact with. We can use it in a very diluted form in the water to kill off parasites/bacteria and external bugs in the water.

hth

Hollowman

[Mickey_owen7]

Okay thanks. Where do you reckon i can get some?

[DIY]

Check out this sticky in the illness section,

http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14585

It's not easy to find, you can get it from some chemists but not all sell it as it's gone out of flavour (it's actually one of those old style type remedies your grandparents probably used and would recognise as Condy's Crystals) so you may have to try a few, might be wise to ring around first - it's sold under the gold cross brand.

[Mickey_owen7]

Thanks DIY. I guess it would be stupid to treat the parents if they are brooding. :x . When are the young old enough to be treated with PP?

[DIY]

Yeah not while they are brooding, leave it as long as possible before you treat.

[DIY]

Saturday 06/12/08 - 3 weeks old.

I've lost a lot during the week since my last update :oops: over 50 in one day and another 20 or so the next :twisted: .

I treated with PP after losing 50 in one day, even though they were only 2.5 weeks old. I lost the extra 20 or so in the 24 hours following treatment but they seem better now :? Thankfully it was a large batch, I've probably still got something like 50 left.

I've also removed the male as he was getting irritated with the fry trying to eat from him.

[DIY]

Sunday 14/12/08 - 4 weeks old.

Been losing a few each day :oops: , down to only 30 or 40 left.

I've been treating with PP but I think they have just been too young up to this point and the PP is too harsh on fry less than 4 weeks old. all the reminaing ones are dark and breathing heavy.

I took a couple of scrapings and found flukes, quite a few on each scraping and I couldn't find anything else so I tried prazi last night as a last attempt at saving them... lost a few more overnight and they were all gasping at the surface this morning. after adding some salt and a waterchange this afternoon they seem a bit better.

If they don't recover very soon I might cull the remaining ones and try again but clean the parents properly this time :banghead

[Merrilyn]

That's a real shame after such a promising start.

The strain of flukes we've been seeing lately seems pretty resistant to most meds.

I think we're losing a lot more fry to flukes than we did a few years ago.

Starting off with clean parents, and a tank that has been cycled using a fishless cycle seems to be the only way to reduce the fluke population.