Discus Spawning

[angelmouse]

Woke up this morning to my discus having another try at egg laying and managed to get some video
hope they last the next few days, they seem to be getting better at it there are alot more eggs this time
Video
http/s114.photobucket.com/albums/n244/an...glaying1001.flv
mum and dad

Angel
Does the video work?

 

[Jimb0b]

Yeah video works fine.
Excellent stuff,hope it works out.Great fish probably my fav of all fw fish.Just wish i had the room to keep some myself.
Keep us posted.

 

[angelmouse]

more eggs have turned white than normal, think it could be down to ph being too high. ph is kept low in main tank with r/o water and co2, but without the co2 in breeding tank the ph seems stuck at 7.2. I gave eggs a bath in diluted methylene blue as i've heard this can help fungus attacking them. I hope they survive, i would love to succeed in this, not looking hopeful though.
This waiting is worse than watching paint dry and feel bad for all the hard work the fish are putting into this.
Angel
Eggs were eaten overnight
Angel

 

[PoPoV]

Sorry to hear that

 

[kribensis12]

Sorry about the eggs. Your discus should spawn soon again and hopefully they learn to be a better parent.

 

[angelmouse]

i made this cage to stop my fish eating the eggs

it worked but having trouble stoping the eggs from fungusing.This morning i found i have just 3 wigglers out of the whole batch of eggs and i don't know if they will make it as they are surrounded by the fungused eggs.
But on the bright side this is the furthest i have got, never got any to the wriggler stage before. I think my ph could be abit high for the eggs.
Angel

 

[ArauraDiscus]

good idea on the cage. What is it made of?

 

[DiscusAngel]

great idea. try and get some ph lowerer stuff lol. if your ph is past 7.0 then tht may be why.

great idea. try and get some ph lowerer stuff lol. if your ph is past 7.0 then tht may be why. o and also, to treat for fungus and to prevent it us methelyn blue. good luck!

 

[angelmouse]

good idea on the cage. What is it made of?

its just wire mesh that i had left over from my rabbit hutch, but i've just treated myself to a breeding cone that comes with a wire mesh cover from ebay as i think that the bogwood with the rough surface is attracting any little particals floating round the tank.
i took the cover off and they ate all the fungused eggs and the 3 wriggles as well, don't they realize they have just eaten their kids
i have also ordered some seachem ph stuff and gona have a go at making my own beefheart mix so got some spirilina and lecithin as recommended, not looking forward to that as i hate touching heart/livery things
Angel

 

[kribensis12]

Try methylene blue, it prevents and kills funguses.

 

[ArauraDiscus]

In addition to methelyen blue, if acroflavin is sold, it's just as good. Just in case their out of the methylene blue, it's another option.

 

[kev_kb]

I've never tried to spawn my discus, but here are my thoughts:

I wouldn't put anything not created for aquariam use in my tank.

I wouldn't cover the eggs, the discus will kinda mouth them and remove bad eggs if left to get on with it. If they always eat all the eggs there is a reason and you'll need to identify why. For example, water conditions may not be correct or they get spooked.

pH lowering chemicals should be avoided IMO. You will need soft water to breed them successfully, to achieve this you should use RO water with additional minerals for example Kent RO right or mix in a little tap water to get the appropriate hardness. Personally I keep my discus in RO/Tap mix and would suggest every discus keeper do the same. It allows you to keep the water conditions totally consistent and that is the most important thing.

Also any local discus breeders will probably sell frozen beefheart mix so there is really no need to create your own.

 

[angelmouse]

kev_kb i use r/o tap mix but my tap is so hard that i can't seem to get it low enough in the breeding tank, if you add r/o right or others will the r/o ph stay the same or can it cause the ph to go up?
I don't have any local discus suppliers and i find buying beefheart online quite expensive and the blister packs from the fish shop seem so watery and again expensive so i decided to make my own from a recipe from discus holland as a cheaper more nutritional option (just hope they like it after the mess it made in my kitchen)
i see alot of breeders use these egg guards if they have a pair that eat eggs but i think in my case the pair are still young and need more practice.
regards Angel

 

[kev_kb]

Not sure if RO right and such will change the pH, I have never used them. As your using RO water I would not worry about the pH, but the hardness. Use a test kit for gH and kH and make sure to keep it consistent. You'll need to research the softness required for breeding though. I take my tap water from a total hardness of low 20s to around 8, but as I said I'm not trying to bread them. Providing your RO unit is working ok and your pure RO is 0 hardness you just need to find how much tap water you need to add.

Also with the softer water you'll want to do plenty of water changes if don't already, I think I'd aim for 20% every two days, or maybe slightly smaller each day.

From my experience all discus love beefheart, but just use it as a treat and I always do a water change a few hours after feeding it.

 

[ArauraDiscus]

Egg gaurds are perfectly fine. Don't worry. As long as you use some sort of fungal retardant, or yes the eggs will be overcome with fungus. Also, Discus can be easily bred in hard water, thats a myth. After breeding and inbreeding for quite some time, the non wild discus can breed in fairly hard water. The two local breeders nearby me are breeding in 250 and 300 ppms of general hardness respectively, but keep in mind these are not wild discus, wilds need soft water. Also Ph lower chemicals have never caused me problems. I always use them and have bred some brilliant and beautiful looking fish. Many of these chemicals as I have said before are completely natural and use ingredients harvested from nature. I would use sodium biophosphate. And finally I reccomend Discus buffer from seachem which helps lower the hardness by precipitating calcium and magnesium, lower the ph, and also helps buffer the alkalinity of the water. Large Water softening pillows work great for me. My tap has 300 ppms of hardness and my water softening pillow lowered that to 50 in 2 days.


ps, that mesh you used looks metal though, if it's metal it can leach, so I might not use that often.