So you want to Breed Discus? Seriously, think about it !

[brewmaster15]

Breeding Discus is one of the most rewarding aspects of our hobby. To see the Parents spawn and raise their fry is something that never gets old. I hope all hobbyists have a chance to experience it....However it not for those weak of heart, or short on time and commitment. Why ?

If you have a good pair they will do most of the work for you but you still have to do water changes and tank maintenance. You need to suppliment their food as well which for many means hatching baby brine shrimp, a joy in itself! The problem is time here. Your Adult fish may not mind you going on that weekend fishing trip or that week long vacation with the family. Your fry and growing juveniles will though. You really need to plan on a 2 month time commitment. Thats about the time give or take that the fry will grow to a point that you may be able to take some time away. It could be 3 months even. Sure you can probably get away with less, but you risk stunting your fry. Even work schedules can be a problem , if you get super busy look out! You will still have to take care of those little buggers!


I honestly can't do it in the summer months.. It never works out. I am just way too busy. Kids are home, we take trips. I have too many obligations. Wintertime I can sometimes raise them ...and its when I try to focus on it. Other species of fish its easier, not so with Discus! So think about that the next time you think about breeding.


Oh and I forgot to mention, if you do put your life on hold... where are you going to keep all these fry? They will need their own tanks... Those and the heaters and utilities rack up the bills fast....so be sure to consider that. Try not to fall into that myth though that you can make alot of money breeding and selling Discus. If you actually add up the costs, and add a Dollar figure to the time, you'd be better off buying lottery tickets!

Now that I put all that out there.... If you still want to Breed them, Have fun! They are really a cool fish to breed, very unique in many ways..:)


If anyone wants to share their Discus breeding pics, stories, nightmares or advice, feel free.

al

[White Worm]

I think the biggest commitment next to the water changes is that pesky task of making brine shrimp. You have to have numerous bottles going and you have to time it so that you have enough to feed and they don't crash. PITA part of raising any fry but is absolutely needed. I'm always experimenting with when and how to best prepare the BBS.

[gators111]

Couldn't agree more. It's fun to see the first batch of fry attach and grow. But the constant water changes, brine shrimp hatching,...UGH! And then getting rid of them after the LFS's only want half of what you spent 3-4 months growing out. And by then you've got 2 more batches coming up. DIY Joey was right in his Youtube video that it takes all the enjoyment out of keeping discus.

[White Worm]

Selling juveniles here and there to keep the tank lights on is more like it. But then, yes, you are stuck with 100's of young fish that you have to off-load for dirt cheap to make room.

[Poppa Ryno]

I personally enjoy it. All the water changes & brine hatching is like my zen time. Turn on sone J Dilla instrumentals and cruise into fish room meditation.
Its fulfilling to see them produce & grow. Its also challenging as fork, lmao. The little milestones make it awesome. Like i just had my first home bred & raised sapphire rubys mature & a male has decided to cross out with a female super eruption. Not crazy cool. But for me its a milestone as its my first babies growing up and breeding. Lol

[dprais1]

At one point I tried to make a little hatchery with 4 pairs. Very time consuming and it was very stressful for me. Water changes in the morning, water changes at night, feeding, more feeding, dealing with unexpected "issues" and the occasional flood....

The idea was "why not make a little bit extra cash doing something I love anyhow?"

After a few months it became apparent that I could make a lot more money a lot easier by just picking up an extra shift at work one time a month. I had a real nice batch of blue pigeons on craigslist for over a month, I think I was selling 2.5-3.5" fish for 15 dollars each. I was playing text and email tag with people for the whole time but I only ever had one person actually come to buy fish. Ended up selling the rest of the batch to a petshop owner for some crazy low price.

I would still like to breed discus again. It is truly amazing and great fun. But the only goal would be to enjoy it and that would mean selling them for a few dollars each after a couple months and then taking a break before doing it again.

[RogueDiscus]

I'm kind of with Al on busy summers and more time the rest of the year, but then it get cold and harder to warm up my RO, etc. I have no illusions about making money, so I'm trying to approach it from the perspective of breeding something interesting or worthwhile and great quality. I try to sell at reasonable prices so folks can afford the shipping, but honestly, I've given fish away for the cost of shipping. I don't have a LFS store nearby anymore to even try to sell to ( the chains won't take them). I've thought of trying to start some kind of local club where I'd probably offer fish and instruction, just to get more folks in my area into discus.

[LizStreithorst]

Breeding Discus here in the States is a for hobby for people who have money, If your goal is to enjoy the ride and break even, forget about it. I'm raising a small spawn from the beautiful RSG's I got from Ryan. I don't expect them to breed true. I'll get Turks. I only did it because the pair wanted to so much and the joy of seeing the parents so protective if their kids is so wonderful. I don't mind the BBS and the huge WC's twice daily but I know I will spend way more on raising them to 3" than I will make when I sell them.

[Clawhammer]

If I ever breed it will be to raise a tank of discus from baby to grave, no selling. Finding the fish homes would be too stressful; turning a profit seems impossible.

[LizStreithorst]

The culling will break you heart. Figure on a spawn of 150.

[Clawhammer]

You are probably right Liz, good advice

[Bud Smith]

Al. You could not said it any better. Done with trips for now since I retired and I miss my discus breeding but to think about starting over as you said does not enthuse me. Never messed with planted tanks in all the years breeding and raising discus but that is my new passion. Doing low tech planted tank with angels but working on another planted tank with a few discus. I will always have a few discus around. Discus breeding is very satisfying but must be done right with means time, maintenance and patience.

[fishbubbles]

I currently have 3 confirmed breeding pairs in their own 29's. With 10 aquariums in my house with 6 of them being for discus, the water changes, feedings, and cleaning every single day can really take a drag. I wouldn't mind all the work if there were more local enthusiasts around me that were willing to buy/trade fish to offset the costs. It's definitely tough to stay motivated and hunting season for me is right around the corner which takes a lot of my time.

[Neptune]

I have a pair that constantly lay eggs in the display tank. I have NO desire to hatch them!

[gators111]

Me too Neptune. I have 2 pairs in my tank that lay every week. I guess the Irma really put them in the mood, because they both decided to spawn on Sunday evening. Luckily, I never lost power, despite the eye going right over me. I've only ever had one spawn attach for about a day or 2 and then they are gone.

[LizStreithorst]

It's only for weak people like me who just can't help but not let a beautiful pair live full lives without without passing on their genetics even though we know from experience that it will end badly in one way or another.

[warblad79]

Yes! I breed discus to sustained my hobby but not to make money out of it.

Some of my Giant Flora 7" grow out.

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[Poppa Ryno]

Yes! I breed discus to sustained my hobby but not to make money out of it.

Some of my Giant Flora 7" grow out.

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Stunners. Well done & nice work.

[warblad79]

Stunners. Well done & nice work.

Thanks

[deliana]

You have some beautiful discus there !!!!!

[fishbubbles]

Beautiful shape and colors on those giant floras. I have a pair of them in my display tank now that should really be in their own tank. Takes a lot of work and dedication to get those fry up to that size. Great job Warblad.

[warblad79]

Beautiful shape and colors on those giant floras. I have a pair of them in my display tank now that should really be in their own tank. Takes a lot of work and dedication to get those fry up to that size. Great job Warblad.

Thanks

[warblad79]

You have some beautiful discus there !!!!!

Thanks

[scubasaurus]

Hopefully potential breeders are reading this - a lot of great input from experienced breeders are sharing common realities. My wife spends a lot of time and money in her garden - she does not do it because she expects to profit from selling flowers, and if her only motivation was having a beautiful garden, she could hire a professional gardener for about the same amount she spends on it herself, and would have a lot more free time. She does it because she enjoys the beauty of nature and working outside in her garden is a hobby that gives her peace and pleasure. Breeding discus is the same - do it because you love discus and get pleasure from watching a pair raise their young. If you find the daily tank maintenance to be a chore that you despise, find another hobby. We have the benefit of offsetting some costs by selling some fry to other hobbyists or LFSs, but it is not an income opportunity. A beginner may think that because they can raise 50 fry per month and a discus cost $50 at the LFS, they can make $2500 per month. The reality is that your local market probably doesn't have demand for 50 per month of the same strain of discus. Your LFS might give you $5-8 each in store credit for half a dozen every few weeks.
Breed because you enjoy it.

[Kingdom Come Discus]

Yes! I breed discus to sustained my hobby but not to make money out of it.

Some of my Giant Flora 7" grow out.

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Very nice job Walter. Maybe a winner for the homegrown section thick line class in the 2018 NADA show!!! Great looking red turqs!!

[warblad79]

Very nice job Walter. Maybe a winner for the homegrown section thick line class in the 2018 NADA show!!! Great looking red turqs!!

I have one that I'm saving for the show, same strain but bigger and better shape. This fish is probably almost 8" now, picture was taken 6 months ago.

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[LizStreithorst]

Beautiful fish. Good job.

[Allwin]

Beautiful fish Warblad, Good job. Growing out a batch of albinos currently at 9 months, if they reach the potential size will think of bringing to the show.

[warblad79]

Beautiful fish. Good job.


Beautiful fish Warblad, Good job. Growing out a batch of albinos currently at 9 months, if they reach the potential size will think of bringing to the show.

Thank you!

[RogueDiscus]

Glad mine are snakes, wouldn't want to compete with those :)

[warblad79]

Glad mine are snakes, wouldn't want to compete with those :)

I'm creating a new bloodline and naming it Giant Flora SS. This is cross between Giant Flora x Red base Fineline SS and then the offspring will cross back to Giant Flora. The offspring SS are in the breeding age now but still growing. This project might take at least 5 years to see the outcome.

[RogueDiscus]

I'm creating a new bloodline and naming it Giant Flora SS. This is cross between Giant Flora x Red base Fineline SS and then the offspring will cross back to Giant Flora. The offspring SS are in the breeding age now but still growing. This project might take at least 5 years to see the outcome.

Thank you Bryan(?) for presenting this perspective! It takes several generations to develop something special. I'm just coming up to a point where I could consider breeding my F1's. I'm trying to keep my focus narrow and on some long term direction. Kind of like a fish version of bonsai, if I dare say.

[Alight]

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This post is in response to Al's original post asking about disasters, embarrassments, etc. I plenty this summer.

I am a hobbyist with Discus. I have bred them on and off for more than 40 years. I always did well with the first couple of batches pairs would have, usually small batches (70-100) of fry. I only have a few tanks so the small numbers did well. However, the pairs always seemed to lose fertility and I eventually gave up on them, got rid of the pairs and started over.

Last spring, I figure out how to stop the loss of fertility and have large batches of fry. This did not end up going well. Be careful what you wish for is the name of this story.

I posted the first part of the story in the spring. Very few people paid any attention to it. What I posted was that I found out that the lack of fertility was being caused by something, most likely a mold or fungus, or bacteria that stops eggs from hatching. This pathogen can be stopped by treating with Acriflaveine. I just removed the eggs, put them in a 10 gallon tank with 1 tsp of Acriflaveine, used very soft water (30-33) and after the eggs hatched, screened the cone and put the fry back in with the parents. I got 80-90 % hatch rates. I did this with another pair just to see if it was a fluke, and the same results. After the fry were large enough to be removed the problems started.

I now had 600 fry and only two 20 gallon tanks and one 50 gallon tank to raise them in. To make patters worse, I raised one more group of fry just to prove it would work with the first pair again, so now I had even more.

I got rid of one batch of fry that were only 1.5 inch that I had from one of my small successes before the hoard (thanks Mike Dennis), but soon started to have fry dying all over the place. I did not have enough good food for them and not enough time to grind what they really needed. I blamed the deaths on disease, but it was actually the over crowding and lack adequate water changes and good food that was at fault. I tried every drug in the book, and all the tricks, but in end had to cull nearly all of the fry. WAY TO MANY FRY = NOT GOOD. So, be careful what you wish for.

I gave up trying to raise any fry for the rest of the summer, and just concentrated on finishing the grow out of the 8 Turks that I saved from a batch of fry from last November. They are finally pairing off now. I attached some photos of them. They are bigger than I thought. When I moved 2 down stairs yesterday, I measure one while it was in the net, and it was 6 and 3/4 inches. These were from the 2nd generation that started from a batch of 8 that I got from Discus Hans.

Anyway, I now know how to get nice batches of fry, but also know when to stop allowing new fry to be hatched.

Al Light

[LizStreithorst]

You raised some beauties despite everything. My hat is off to you.