Artificially rearing discus

[Steve_Warner]

Hi all,
I need some help/advice. I have ANOTHER pack of wigglers tonight, from a spawn a few days ago. None of the other spawns have faired well, and have disappeared. I wany to try the artificial method, but have no clue as to how it's done. I know Bill & Brenda at Team Discus did it(showed me), but don't remember how it was done. My only tank is a community of discus, so there are many predators on the free-swimmers! Anyone out there able to help?


Steve

[brewmaster15]

Hi Steve,
check these links out....

http://forum.simplydiscus.com//index.php?board=6;action=display;threadid=1262
and

http://forum.simplydiscus.com//index.php?board=6;action=display;threadid=1237

and Instant message me your home address and I'll send you a great article By wattley on it. Its where I get all my techniques


take care,
al

[Steve_Warner]

Thanks Brew-brother,
I sent you an instant message.

Steve

Steve: Try my method. I don't think anybody will agree with me cause it's too easy. I've taken fry off parents numerous times at the first day of free swimming rescued from the community tank or due to extensive fighting which sent fry whirling all over and one of the parent would eventually eat them. Believe it or not. One day old fry can take newly hatched BBS which escape from the BBS net. They're small enough for the fry. They just catch it and hold it in their mouth and eventually they can swallow them. They can only take about 2-3 and then lay on the bottom of the tank unable to move. They're are not dead, just overeat. I start it with only 2 inches of water in a 2 gal tank. Don't put too much. Just an eye drop will do. It will last them for about 6 hours for the next meal. In 3 days. They are big enough to take regular BBS without any problem. You're home free. I've tried shoe box, egg yoke on glass, smear on dark object cut out at the shape of a discus. But there's too much labour involved and just W/C alone can kill them. With BBS. There's no need for water change. Water will stay clean due to small amount of food needed. Just add an inch for the nest few days when they need room to move freely. They will huddle in a little black ball at first. They only need very little space. Turn the aeration extremely slow when feeding. HTH

Jimmy.

Hi Steve,

Jimmy is right, you can feed NEWLY hatched bbs for your 1st day swimming frys, but the success rate is pretty low. Imho, the eggyoke method is better, but alot more difficult to perfect, technique wise. (perfect technique means 80+% survival rate on hatchings/free swimmers.).
If you are interested, do grab a hold of a copy of AD2. Bing has a very good article on it. hth.

Phil.

[acorn54]

i spoke to a local breeder who had artificially raised discus but gave it up, as he said the discus that he raised artificially developed into fish that were "weak".

[Rod Coleman]

Has anyone tried infusoria culture? Maybe day-old free swimmers could feed on Paramecia?

Regards
Rod

[brewmaster15]

i spoke to a local breeder who had artificially raised discus but gave it up, as he said the discus that he raised artificially developed into fish that were "weak".


Hi acorn,
Artificial rearing of fry wasone of the things that jump started this hobby decades ago. IMO it gets a bad rep, but if done properly should not give you fish that are any different than natural parent raised. Its alot of work, but I do believe it is an excellent experience for anyone in the hobby to try.

The fish I posted here....
http://forum.simplydiscus.com//index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=11372
were all artificial raised .

-al