Discus eggs

[blka4t]

HI,

My discus have recently paired up and layed eggs. Though, when the eggs get about 1 day old, a fluffy white grass substance builds up on the eggs. The eggs then dont hatch.
I have a 4ft tank and im running a fluval 204 canister filter (600-700LPH). I also have plants and substrate. There are no other fish in the tank.

Can someone please tell me what is going on? (fungus, dirty water)

Is the filtration sufficient for the tank?

If it is a fungus or bacteria how can i treat it without injuring the discus or the fry.

I have heard of fungal treatment products such as MarOxy and Blue Methelyne. How do they rate?

Thanks.

[Merrilyn]

Hi and welcome to the forum. Sounds like you have a young pair just starting out. Could be that the male is not sexually mature yet, or that he is not fertilising the eggs properly.

Could be they just need time to get things right.

I see you are using a mesh guard. That is why your eggs are getting fungus on them so quickly. The infertile eggs will fungus, but normally the parents pick out the unfertilised ones to prevent all the eggs getting fungus.

Don't use methyhlene blue or anything like that, it stops the parents producing a slime coating, which the fry feed on for the first week of their life. No slime = no fry.

Keep your tank really clean, and do regular (daily) waterchanges when you want your fish to breed, and when they have eggs or fry, as this keeps the bacteria level down.

Next time try without the egg guard, and see what happens.

[Ben]

I agree with merrilyns first statement, the male is not doing his little bit, i have found this same problem with a lot a of my discus pairs, the female lays eggs but the male just does his fertlise run, just without the fertilise. i have found after the 3rd to 4th time he will usely do his job.
HTH,
Ben