spawns in community tanks

just wonderng if anyone has had any luck with spawns in a community tank or even a discus only tank (more than just the pair in there)

Brenton

G'day Brenton,

From my own experience in the past when I had a pair in a 4x2x2 with other discus, the pair would get the fry to free swimming after some fierce guarding of the eggs against other tank mates. Once free swimming the other discus would either one by one pick them off, or when lights went out in the tank the others would distract the pair and pick off the wrigglers until there where none left ... wasn't much fun to watch :? , but gave the pair a real sense of gaurding the wrigglers when I moved them out to their own tank. They became very good parents. :) HTH

Cheers,

Dee :)

cheers yeah, i thought i've seen them cleaning and so on etc etc twice now and i think i have missed the first spawn because there were egg like remnants on a log in the tank

out of six in the tank i'm pretty sure only one is female which makes it a bid hard on her atm

thanks

my discus spawned in my tank a few times and the female kept guard for a couple of days but she would always end up eating them because of the other fish moving in on them

Well, I must say I've had discus spawn in community tanks, dozens, of times, and I've never actually successfully raised a spawn in the tank.

They always seem to get eaten at some stage, so the only safe way is to breed them in a separate tank on their own.

Remember in the wild, a pair only has to raise a very small number of young to be considered successful parents. The rest of the spawn are expendable, so long as a few survive.

We, on the other hand would like to raise as many of the spawn as possible, so we provide them with optimum conditions.

Hi Brenton

I have got babies to 3 weeks old twice in my community tank,but i was lucky it happened up the ends of the tank and put a piece perspex to divide the pair from the others which i drill holes in.When wriggler hatch I had to also put a netting around the perspex to stop them getting out. as well I suck up all the gravel and put a box filter with them to keep the surface water moving a little.

Brad

is there a chance of moving the parents and the free swimming spawn before it all gets eaten?

skoom,

thought of that myself, by trying to siphon off the little-uns and then have them reattach to the parents once moved seems too tall an ask, also the parents after a move like that i think would be too shocked to bother about the fry.

Their happy for the moment in the community and as i am rebuilding fish-house they can stay there, i'll just have to suffer manually trying to raise fry or let them have a go for survival.

Brenton

I have at this moment a pair who have spawned and I have a divider to separate the fish, even the female to the eggs wants to eat the eggs. Well will wait an see what happens, the eggs were laid yesterday for the first time in the community tank....