Need help for my beautiful pair

[selina]

Dear all,

I bought two adult size(4 inches) and two young disus (2 inches) two weeks ago and put them into 37 gallon tank. Lucky me, these two adult-size became a pair and suddently lag their legs on the vertical drift wood. I lost their first eggs, they were all gone. This is the second time, I am sure those legs were fertilized since the color turned into orange, not white. I am just a beginner and try to protect the eggs, so please help me for those following:

q1.I didn't remove the other young discus out of my tank. They seem nice, and are playing around with each other happily. They are not interesting in those eggs and parents. Should I really remove those young couple out during the spawn period? If I could get the fly, will it turn out the parents eat them trying to protect from those young couple or the young couple come to eat them?

q2. My filter system is Marineland mutli-stage filter for up to 50 gallons. So my question is should I turn the filer off during the spawn period and after they became a free-swim fry. I am so afraid of the fry may be so weak and tiny to be sunk into the filter. Is that possible? I want to keep water clean, so what should I do?

q3, The female has done great jobs for being always stay next to the eggs. Male just swim around, however, he started to eat female's fin as approaching the eggs. He didn't eat those eggs, just eat her fins!! I could feel the female feels so painful, but she still tries to stay as nearest as the eggs and try to calm the male down (touch his body, "kiss' him, not peck him).I saw her fins has be broken, how should I do? The male stills know he is the father for guarding the eggs, cleaning the spawn area, scaring other 2 young discus away, but he just treats the female so badly after she lag the eggs. Please tell me how to help the mother?

Now it is after 48 hrs after lagging eggs, if thing suns smooth, I should have fry soon. The young discus are still in the tank and the filter still wokring, any prompt help would be so appreciated for us!! :oops:

[Hollowman]

I would say the chances of raising fry in those conditions is very unlikely.
It might be that you have 2 females. The eggs would 'eye up' meaning that they start to turn dark as the embryo grows inside.

Can I ask about your water change regime? how much, how often? To breed sucessfully you will need to be able to keep a high maintenance regime

[selina]

Hollowman:

Thank you for your post. But before the female laid eggs, they were shaking their bodies, swam together, build the territoy up, clean the spawn area. all of their behavors are like what a fall-into-love pair do. I think they should be a pair, not two females, am I right?

I read the breeding basic from this fotum, which said the eggs were fertilized with yellow or orange color, not white. I observed the second spawn, all of them are orange with only one or two are white. Is that said they are parents instead of two females?

I just set up a new hatched tank and move eggs and father to this new tank. Father looks not so happy, now. Should I move the female to the new tank, too?

I changed water often, normally once per 3-5 days, and changed 20-25% each time. After changing water, I observed the moniter to make sure PH and Temperature are fine. My discus have very good appertite for bloodworm. I fed them one tube each time and three time per day. The worm were all gone within 10 mins. The discus seem know me so as I watch them each time, they will swim close in front of me and we are face to face, curiously saw each other and said " hi".

I dont want to lose the fly but also dont want to disturb the exising 4 discus' happy life. Please guildline me the information which I learned so far is correct and any answer/advise would be really appreciated~

Thank you so much!! :lol:

[selina]

Hello,

I justed post one hour ago but urgently to get any professional questions from you pros. I moved eggs and male into hatched tank. The male is getting used to his new environment now and starts taking care of the eggs. Should I also move the mother into the hatched tank?

I've hear the female wants to lay eggs soon, so she will eat her egges as snack. This is why I put male with eggs only. However, It becomes another concern if I wait and move female into hatched tank later. will she forget those eggs are hers, and try to eat them?!

Any quick anwers will be appreciated since I think I may have wrigglers very soon. They are very dark-orange now and 've already 36 hrs old.
:idea:

[ILLUSN]

leave the male alone with them now, he can raise the fry on his own, just make sure you've got the brine shrimp hatchery going.

[selina]

ILLUSN,

Thanks for the help. I followed your instruction and only left dad with the eggs. This morning, I saw the wrigglers!! The dad is swimming around the wrigglers and looks so gentle.

Should I turn off the filter? I don't use the sponge fliter. Is that really necessary for the little fry?

[Hollowman]

Selina,
Do not turn off your filter, but get a fine sponge and cover the intake of the filter to stop the fry from being sucked in. Try not to have too much current in the tank as the fry are still very small and weak. They need to be feeding constantly from the male right now, and as Illusn has said, get some BBS ready as their second good food source.

good luck

:)

[selina]

Dear Hollowman,

Thank you, I willl buy the sponge today for my little fry. So excited now and thanks for you and this forum!!

I read many people got hard time to build pair up and have them lay eggs. I feel I am so lucky to get them naturally so soon. They are the best pleasure for us!!

[jimmyg]

Grats mate on the babies

[Hollowman]

Hi Selina,

We will help if we possibly can, the guys here are great.
How about some photos?

[selina]

Dear all,

Fiannly, I minimized the pics' size. Here are the pics; unfortunately, only 8 frys left. I lower the water lever, remove any dark objects, except their father. However, they just dont want to attach to their father. The male fries so hard, just helpless. So far only 8 frys remaining. My heart is broken.. :roll:

[Hollowman]

Selina, to be honest, I think they will all be eaten or die. I think that your background is totally the wrong colour to encourage the fry to attach, also once they become free swimming I would remove the wood as well.

They'll do it again so don't panic.

[selina]

Dear Hollowman:

Yes, I removed background paper and driftwood already, but it may be too late now.

I will try my best to make the remaining frys last as longer as possible. Any other actions suggested to me to make the frys survived?

I have to admit that I feel so sad last night after putting such efforts for them. But I still feel so lucky since this is second batch I had, lots of progress and experience I got this time. =)))

[selina]

I did some water change tonight. Before that, the frys swims energically; however, after adding new-treated water, couple frys die immediately; the others sunk on the bottle of aquarium and looks like to die soon.

This is regular water change just I did before for 20-30% change. Had something I have done worngly or improperly? Please advise. Thanks!

[ILLUSN]

ok before you change the water make sure you condition it, that means its temp and ph must be identical to the water in the tank, make sure you use a good water ager to remove chlorine and ammonia.