10 Nickel-sized babies

[Rapture]

Just got my second group of discus! I have only been keeping discus since February of this year, and have eventually had some success with them after a few failures. Two from my first group paired and laid eggs, and I am prepping to move them into their own tank soon. First group thread: http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?122739-75-Gallon-First-Timer&highlight=

I have stayed in pretty close contact with the owner of the store that I bought my discus from, and he knows that mine started laying eggs recently. I went to visit him yesterday on my way home from a monthly meeting for our city's aquarium club (the first one I have attended). While I was there, he asked me if I wanted to take some of his baby discus to practice raising. I now have a group of 10 babies - 8 Flachen and 2 Red Turquoise.

Here are the cute little buggers going into the tank

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIcyNiU_4hE

And here they are investigating stuff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubJx69yNY4c

[Ryan925]

Good luck. Should be fun and lots of work lol. Looking forward to doing my first fry/juvie growout in the future

[Rapture]

Thanks, they are doing great so far. On day 1, I got them into the tank in the evening, offered some beef heart mix a while later, some of them looked at it but didn't eat. I removed the food. The next morning they were more active, I offered some beef heart again and a few discus bio gold pellets. They picked at it a bit but didn't eat much. A while later, I siphoned out the uneaten food and about 50% of the water and replaced with aged water. I have an ammonia alert card in the tank, and although the color dot isn't quite the same color as the first "alert" color, it is somewhat green tinged, so I added some prime. That night, they ate very well, a few more bio gold pellets and beef heart mix. I siphoned out the small amount of food that was left after they had some time to work on it, as well as some normal poops, and topped off water, this wc was only about 5-10%. This morning, they were in the opposite side of the tank after waking up. I dropped some beef heart in but they didn't see it, so I took it out and tried again, this time it fell in the middle of the group and they started eating.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjfhGUcJDXM

[warblad79]

It's great they are eating well but it looks like the eyes are bit larger and shapes are odd. Which is not a good sign, just keep continue with large water change and provide lots high protein food.

[Rapture]

Thanks warblad. I don't know how old they are, but they are probably smaller than they should be. The last time I went to his store they were free swimming, and I feel like that was over a month ago. I'm having trouble finding more pics of fry to compare so I can see what you mean.

[Second Hand Pat]

This is a video of my last batch of F1 Cuiepua fry at two months of age. Not sure it will help.
Pat


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co8SEpZggcg

[Rapture]

Thanks Pat! Everything helps. I'm pretty sure mine are way behind the curve. I think mine are probably 2.5 months old and the largest ones are only 1" or so. The biggest one looks... decent(?) as far as its shape. I think I also saw at least 2 with abnormal dorsal fins. I'll just have to wait and see what happens with all of them.

[CliffsDiscus]

Rapture,
You need to feed and change water more often . Your growthrate is behind.

[Rapture]

Thanks Cliff, I've only had them for 2 days though. The growth is behind from the previous keeper.

[Rapture]

I noticed one of the smaller babies floating around during refilling after tonight's water change. I scooped it out with my hand and looked at it, after a few seconds it jumped, so I put it back in just to be sure, but it died. The other babies looked good except for one of the larger ones, it was dark and breathing heavily with red gills. I dosed prime just in case, even though I dose it and age their water. The water coming into the tank was a little too warm.

Checked on them again and they seem to be okay.

[Rapture]

The remaining 9 are still doing well. Starting to put larger amounts of food in, now that they all seem to be eating consistently.

[nc0gnet0]

change more water, 2 x 75%.

[Rapture]

9 are still doing well. The largest one is now quarter size. I work very long days so I can only water change at night. Still changing 50% every night. I'll need to get ano aging barrel soon if I want to be able to age more than 40 gallons of water daily. Right now I use a vacant 40 breeder to age water for both the baby tank and a breeder tank.

[Rapture]

Fed them too much again this morning and by early afternoon, they were dark and dying with leftover food in the tank. One did die. I siphoned uneaten food and changed water while I was on a phone call and added Prime. They looked brightly colored and like nothing happened a few hours later, begging for food again.

[Rapture]

A while back, one of the babies got sucked into the siphon and died. :( Otherwise, no issues... the largest one has better shape at this point, but looks like a 2 month old baby vs a 3 - 3 1/2 month old. The smallest one is about the same size as when I got them. Moved them to a 40 last night and they took the move very well. One also has a short gill plate on one side. I will likely cull or give away this batch to a younger guy in my local aquarium club that has stated he wants to have some discus but isn't concerned with growing them out large.

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k17/Rapture111/IMG_0969_zps2z5b8hlr.jpg

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k17/Rapture111/IMG_0976_zpshm2gst6o.jpg

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k17/Rapture111/IMG_0974_zpshefs45ru.jpg

[Rapture]

A pic from around Dec 6... I'll try to get a new pic, and post an update soon.

105100

[Rapture]

I missed a couple water changes here and there over the past 10 days or so due to being sick, maybe 3 total, but I did siphon out the waste most of the times that I skipped the water change. I also had a heating issue about 2 weeks ago, and I think all of these things really kicked the less healthy babies in the butt, while the healthier ones did not seem very phased. Some bullying also started around the same time as the rest of the changes.

The smallest one, which hardly grew at all since day 1, was looking horrible this morning so I took it out to end its suffering. It's been about 3 months since I acquired them already stunted, and even with beefheart and water changes, the biggest one has only grown about 1.5," which either means I need to change more than 50% daily next time, and/or goes to show how important the first couple of months are to growth even if you try to catch up later.

The largest

105101

The worst shaped, has a short gill plate on the other side. I don't expect it to live much longer.

105102

Group pic

105103

[BJK]

Looks good! Tagging along to follow! Looks like we are on similar paths. Best of luck!!

[Keith024]

Good luck I am planning to start my grow out journey in a few weeks too....

[Lewjo11]

How did they turn out