Brilliant Turquoise Layed Eggs.

[Primordius]

Hey Guys,

My new pair of Brilliant Turquoise layed eggs yesterday and although that was the desired result, never in my wildest dreams did I think it would happen so fast! I had the pair 4 sleeps and came home to find about 100 - 200 eggs on my PVC pipe (makeshift breeding cone!).

Although i've had many fish in the past, this is my first attempt at breeding any of kind. I did a lot of research and it really helped me identify different behaviours, stages and also maintain the right water quality. Can't remember how I got to this forum, but the information I found here has been invaluable. Thanks to everyone!

For those others that are having problems breeding, here is a short summary of my setup and routine.

1x 2 Ft tank
1x bottle of PRIME
1x Pair Brilliant Turquoise
1x Discus Buffer pack
1x pH Master Kit
1x Biomax Sponge Filter
1x Eheim 2217 Air Pump
1x PVC Pipe sectioned and cut to angle inside tank
1x 32 Cube pack of Blood Worms
1x Pack of Epsom Salts (just in case)

I setup the tank and equipment approx 1 week before purchasing the pair. At this stage, I forgot the filter takes in excess of 2-4 weeks to fully cycle (more on that later). I hadn't even been cycling the filter properly --- just checking pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate and temp levels.

Before I collected the pair at LFS, I did a 50% WC and checked all the appropriate WQ settings. The LFS claimed these Discus were kept at around 28 deg C in a pH of 7.4 and were being fed blood worms.

My pH was about 7.2 at the time and temp fluctuating between 25 and 30 deg C. I was extremely concerned about the temp, so I decided to heat from 27 deg C so as to prevent major fluctuations. Even then, I thought i'd have a problem. However, this was not the case.

Once I transferred the fish into the tank (slowly), they seemed to settle in OK. That night, they were acting strangely --- I'm pretty sure it was pH shock as I think Ladyred mentioned to me. The following day, they were eating blood worms normally (as the LFS described it). I was feeding them 3 times a day on blood worms ONLY and varying between 1 and 2 cubes a feed (being careful not to overfeed).

On the night of day 2, I did a 30% WC. On the night of day 3, a 20% WC. On the night of 4, a 20% WC with a slight drop in temperature (about 2 deg C), along with a small amount of discus buffer to lower the overall pH to 7.1. The reason I did the small drop in temperature was in hope this would stimulate breeding. The pair were exhibiting signs of preparing to breed that afternoon and I thought this might speed up the process. The major indications were; angled kissing, shimmying and guarding an area of the tank. It appears this was successful because I have 100-200 eggs on my PVC pipe!

I was doing so many WC's due to small amounts of Ammonia being found and a small degree of leftover food in the tank each afternoon. In truth, the filter is perhaps not even fully cycled yet and because of this, I will probably have to keep doing WC's for the next week or so until everything stabilises.

So there you have it, that's how I achieved where i'm at. I'm setting another 2 Ft tank up for breeding Brine Shrimp so I can bring the fry up with fresh offspring. I'm also setting a 6 Ft tank up for about 2-3 weeks time when the fry will need to be moved into a tank of their own. Does anyone have any suggestions for the best course of action from here? Do I need to do anything with pH for the fry?

Happy Breeding!

[the german]

you dont need to do annything on the ph.

2 foot tank for brine shrimp?
you only need a small hatchery because you only need small ones
so look under food,nutrition..... in the forum ben's staff is good.

[fish_r]

nice informative post
what is the gH of ur water ?

[Primordius]

This evening I came home to find all the eggs had been eaten. Did the parents feel something was wrong with the water? Did the eggs not fertilise? Not enough food?

I'm not overly disappointed. This gives me time to drop the pH a bit more before the next batch to increase the slime coat on the parents for the fry. How common is it for the eggs to get eaten on the first batch? Hopefully, the next run will be more successful.

[Primordius]

nice informative post
what is the gH of ur water ?

I must confess, I don't actually know how to test the gH with my test kit. It only does pH, Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate. There are no settings on there for gH, dH or kH. I'm kind of a bit lost with that side of things.

[fish_r]

u will need another test kit if u want to test for gH i think having a low gH is pretty important for breeding ?

[samir]

cage the eggs and see if you get any wrigglers. they're probably a problematic pair otherwise they wouldn't be at a lfs.

[Primordius]

I sourced the pair through LFS. They weren't there to buy. Not exactly sure where they got them from, but they were definitely ordered in.

I have a suspicion they ate the eggs because they didn't develop a good enough slime coat. The pH was around 7 --- don't they need acidic water to even develop slime coat?

... anyways, I lowered the pH to about 6.8 today --- which they seemed to cope with quite well. In another couple of days, i'll lower it again and see how they go on the next batch.

Does anyone have any comments or suggestions?

[the german]

samir is right,no breeder will sell a good pair!
some really big breeder i know in germany (20000 l +)
sometimes sell reasonable good pairs but you pay an arm and a leg for them!!!!
there are many reasons why pairs eat their eggs,sometimes their just
not a good pair and you can try to cage them like samir sayed.

[Primordius]

I can see your point. This pair didn't come cheap though. We were considering paying as much as $800 AUD for a decent pair. Luckily, we didn't need to spend quite that much. I think they'll turn out right --- just have to get my experience up and get all the conditions right in the process.