Discus Fry

[rodclement]

So I have a tank full of fry, parents on one side have fish on "free swimer" phase, they swim around but mostly stick with the parents feeding of the mucose in their body.
Second pair are still "wigglers" attached to the breeding con feeding on the left over of the egg shell they hatched from, they should go free swiming by tomorrow.
Hope you like it!

rod

 

[rodclement]

when they were eggs...

rod

 

[shipwrecked]

If I had a cigar to give ya..lol Congrats keep us posted,Im so gonna do discus sometime..

 

[Hawkeye]

that is so cool! does the feeding on the mucus impact the parent at all (e.g. like a parasite)? or is it completely benign to the adult?

 

[SWITCH420]

cool deal good luck

 

[rodclement]

the feeding is natural for the parents, they shake the babies from one parent to the other, the orange female doesn't get a lot of loving from the babies since they prefer the darker male, closer to a wild fish in color...they will do this for about 14 days during wich I start feeding the fry baby brine shrimp and other foods leading to removal of the parents.

The excess slime and overal care of the fry is stresful for the parents and a lot of problems can arise like oportunistic hexamita worms developing and leading to hole in the head. One of my females is currently fighting that as we speak. Metro is the prefered treatment.

The first pair has about 80 babies that have made it so far, the other has about 200 wigglers, we'll see how many go free swiming and attach to the parents, if they don't, they die...

rod

 

[redfishbluefish]

Rod, that is wild!

Just to be clear, all those white spots on the blackish colored discus are the babies?

Another question, and it is probably foolish, if other discus were in the tank, can the babies identify their parents, or would they try to attach to any discus?

 

[rodclement]

You're right Paul, babies...!

The fry will attach to any discus but the parents grow the mucus as they wait for the babies to hatch. A lot of breeders keep exceptionaly great parents on a constant fish caring rotation adding new fry to them all the time. This way the actual parents breed again right away, and the fry are properly cared for by the surrogate

Rod

 

[magic]

Rod

That didn't take long! I can't wait to see what you get out of this brood.

Bob

 

[rodclement]

HELOOO! ;D

 

[magic]

Great shot!

 

[Audi0s]

Beautiful fish rod, Ill have to start looking into discus for sure. If I could have another tank in my 1bed apt, without the gf going nuts Id be all over it! Keep the updates coming!

 

[rodclement]

here are soem new shot, sorry for the bad quality...fry from the second pair went free swiming yesterday, this is a larger batch, they look like flies over the parents! I'll post better pictures later!

The tank, it's a 30 long with a sponge divider, one pair in each side, the foam is green so the fry don't go to it instead of the parents

A couple of the pair...they are German born Santarems, a domestic bred "wild" looking strain

the fry swiming in between the parents...

Rod

 

[SWITCH420]

that is so cool.r they hard to breed?

 

[shipwrecked]

Sweet...what is the survival rate?

 

[magic]

when they were eggs...

rod

The pictures don't do the female justice. This fish is absolutely gorgeous.

Bob

 

[smcooler]

dude are they your fishes. love them.

s

 

[rodclement]

Thanks guys! I'll try to answer...

yes, the fish are mine breeding right now as I post.

The hardest part about breeding is getting a pair, discus are tought to sex and can only be truly sexed when they pair up and breed...second thing is to make sure that the pair is worth breeding, unlike most saltwater fish in our tanks, the majority of the discus being bred today are domestic mixes so a lot of bad fish are out there, either with deformities, or poor coloring. All my stock are imported from Asia and Germany; I also have some wilds.

Survivability, if you get them to breed is variable on the age and experience of the parents, young pair breed larger clutches, while older parents are better at caring for the babies...if you do your job of providing a pristine tank, and the eggs are fecund and hatch, you may get 60% survival rate...but...

No matter how many grow, a very small percentage will not be culled and be considered breeding stock, maybe 10% of the survivors...so out of say 100 eggs you may end up with 6 quality fish, and 54 either culls or pet shop quality fish. Discus raising has more in common with dog breeding than with keeping a reef. Source of the fish matters just like a pedigree! A proven pair of high quality fish can go from $300 to several thousand dollars!

I do daily water changes on all discus tanks, feed them many kinds of food including frozen mixes I make myself, flakes, beefheart, bloodworms, brine shrimp, etc...water is maintained at 86f for the growouts, and 84f for breeders....any more questions? ;D ;D
Yes I love my discus!
Rod

 

[rodclement]

quick updates.

This is a pair of German Santarems, they look like wild fish but are domestic raised, they also look very dark due to the slime in their body that they produce to feed the babies.

This pair is Asian born RSG male and a younger German born Fire Red female...again the dad is darker due to slime...

Rod

 

[Scottyrock]

really good pics man! i had a male develop raw legeions i guess ya could call them from the babys picking when they got to about 1/2 the size of a dime. breeding discus is really fun, like ya said i hope ya enjoy doing water changes