and finaly eggs!

[larry lob]

Hi,

The road has been long and hard but the eggs are now here.

This pair were bought and had a real hard time in transit (the post is somewhere).

It started last monday with the customary shimmering, bowing and cleaning of the clay pot in the tank. they would show and peck on and off for a few hours, then it would stop. This happen all week and i was wondering if they were just not ready yet.

saturday evening i had to go away and leave them on thier own till monday (this morning).

After looking in and noticing mum was dark as hell i noticed on the clay pot there were a good few hundred eggs!!!!!!!!

i carefully hovered the bottom of the tank and topped up the water fed them a little and they are now tending the eggs.

There are 2 white ones but not knowing when they layed it's hard to know if this lot will hatch.

I'll keep you posted and try to get the digi cam from a mate but here are the parents.

Larry

[Jeff]

Sure are pretty Larry. They also look very large. How big are they? :)

[larry lob]

Hi Jeff,

Mum is 7" nose to base of tail and dad is 7.5" nose to tail.

they realy are great fish i'm trying to get cam to post regular pics those were taken when they were still stressed from transit.

I'll keep updating daily.

Take care
Larry

[larry lob]

ok we are at 24 or 36 hours lol

out of 250+ eggs i have about 8 white ones which mum isn't taking away.

Dad is now doing some work nudging mum away as if to say you go have a rest girl and is fanning heavily.

down to about 220 eggs now but the fact i have some white ones and they are not removing them i feel i am doomed, time will tell.

Larry

[Jeff]

Larry,

That should not be a problem. Have you considered adding any Methane Blue to the water?

[larry lob]

good morning all,

Methane blue might have helped, but i couldn't get any in time.

from 250+ eggs i have just 35 brown ones left and the rest are white.

at 36 or 48 hours they are a darker brown in colour, the parents are still fanning like mad and not eating any eggs not even the white ones so i am hoping for some wriggles just to make double sure my male is fertile and just maybe a tad loose with his hose.
They are great looking discus and it looks they are dedicated, so if he is fertile i am happy to give them the time.

i'll update later in the day.

Larry

[April]

sounds great. next time im sure there will be more fertile ones. it takes a few times...so just watch and wait . the fact they never ate them yet is great.

[larry lob]

Hi,
40- 60 hours
There are still 30 brown going slightly black eggs left, they are translucent round the edge with what looks like black centres.

mum and dad still attending and fanning the eggs which i am still not sure are fertalised, the white eggs are still mostly presant, they haven't yet cleared those.

still hoping to see wrigglers to confirm a fertile pair.

this poses a question.... if i do indeed get wrigglers should i get rid of them in order for the parents to spawn again or will that upset them and make them not mate?

Larry

I wouldn't get rid of them...the farther along that things go, the more they're learning....and the more YOU're learning...if there's not that many they'll probably eat them, so better to let nature takes it's course.... :)

[larry lob]

Hi,

60 -80 hours and the black eggs have gone, strangly all the white ones are still there so i am not sure if they have relocated them but i doubt it. unless the black ones are now white too. shame all i wanted to know is if i had a fertile pair.

well i'll scrub the pot later in the day and see what happens.

Larry

[larry lob]

I found the wrigglers !!!!!!!!

there are only about a dozen of them and they relocated them into a spong filter !!

the thing is the parents are now not paying too much attention to them.
They go have a look then swim off to the other side of the tank, does this mean they lost intrest?

also the part of the filter they put them on is the dirtiest part of the spong ????????

well at least i know they are a true pair !!!!!!!!!!!!

will update later.

Larry

[larry lob]

hi,

90 hours and the wrigglers are still on the sponge, some have fallen to the glass on the bottom of the tank, are they doomed?

i saw one flitter a foot or 2 in the water then drop to the bottom.
I dropped the water level a little hoping this will help but sadly sucked a couple out and didn't notice grrrrrrrrrrr.
but this is the 1st time they got this far and it is a small amout of wrigglers so we will learn.

parents are still a little disintrested they are not standing gaurd but still go and come.

Larry

[Carol_Roberts]

I have a flat sponge filter in the breeding tank that sits on the bottom of the tank. The parents are not attracted to it.

I turn the air down low (bubble. . . bubble. . . bubble) when the fries go freeswimming and try to attach. I just use one air filter in a 29 gallon bare bottom for eggs and small fry. When the fry get bigger I add an Aqua clear 200 with prefilter.
CArol :heart1:

[larry lob]

Good morning,

well 100 hours or so and this are encouraging, there are still the same amount of wrigglers and i am hoping they will become free swimmers soon.

the reason i say encouraging is even if they eat these soon i have learned loads about my fish and myself.

i'll update later.

Larry

Good Deal Larry.!!

I just wish I would have logged the progress of mine as well as you have. Can you post some more pics.? You sure have a nice looking pair. :D

Julz :)

[larry lob]

HI,
Julz thanks for the nice comment.

There are a couple of pics here http://forum.simplydiscus.com//index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=4188 these were taken early november when they were still not too well. i am trying to get some pics more recent and will post.

another update........
Ifind it amusing how flustered the parents are getting with only half a dozon wrigglers, how would they cope with a full brood! the wrigglers are getting loose and flittering about a few feet one of the parents sucks it up rolls it around thier mouth then spit it onto the nearest thing to chase the next escapee. there are about 6 wrigglers i can see and they are distributed all over the place, it's very entertaining to watch.

I'll post later.

Larry

[larry lob]

Hi,

I have decided that i am at 96 hours, how did i decide well it's like this... they could have layed saturday night or sunday night. On monday afternoon there were the first white eggs which would show non fertalised eggs at 12 - 16 hours then on wednesday morning the wrigglers had been moved which would mean they started at 60 hours which also seem right, then now you can clearly see stomach eyes and tails and look like they will soon be free swimming which puts me at 96ish hours.

mum and dad's colours have brightened and the shimming has started. the clay pot also looks cleaner, so i wouldn't be suprised if they lay again this weekend.

i'll update again tomorrow.

Larry

[larry lob]

Good morning,

well it's the 5th day and none or the remaining wrigglers have died. they are still not free swimmers but you can see they have almost doubled in size except 2 of them, they have grown but noticably less.

the largest one has always been on the sponge and those on the glass and pot are smaller.

parents are around but not intrested and bright in colour.

it's getting harder and harder to clean the tank because i am scared of sucking up some wrigglers so i am changing water but not the mess on the bottom of the tank.

Larry

[larry lob]

Good Morning,

Today is thier 1st day as free swimmers and all wrigglers have survived to become free.
Mum and Dad are not that intrested but do from time to time gather them and they attach to the parent for a feed.
mum and dad are clearing a new site for the next spawn so i'll see what happend to these 6 .
it's amazing how the scoot around the tank and how much ground they cover!

i'll update again later.

Larry

[Carol_Roberts]

erm, the fry covering a lot of ground in the tank while mom and dad clean the cone for a new batch doesn't bode well . . . . . but with only 6 left . . :-\ . . . There is always next time.
CArol :heart1:

[larry lob]

hello,

Lol carol i knew it was inevitable and as you so rightly indicated this morning there where no scooters to be seen.
mum and dad have eased up on the shaking but no doubt it is iminant.

have a happy holidays all and i'll update on a new thread when it all happens again.
Just to end this thread i would like to say that without the wealth of information on this site and reading back through threads to answer my questions i would never have got this far.
There were lots of positives to this spawn and it answered lots of question, i have no doubt this pair will give me many exciting experiances..

happy holidays to all

Larry

[larry lob]

Hello and happy new year to all,

sorry it took so long to continue but .......................

after closing for christmas on the 24th i left my fish with clean water and full bellies, i came into the shop on the 26th to feed and clean the tank to find that they had indeed layed eggs again.
Not a massive batch only about 150 eggs with around 110 looking fertile.

i did my water change and feed then left them till the 28th there were around 80 wrigler and the strange thing was that these eggs were layed on the glass at the bottom of the tank.

29th they relocated the wrigglers to the sponge, i did my dutys and left them till the 2nd.

2nd of jan there were about 60 free swimmers.

today there are still about 50 babies attached and doing great, they speed they grow amazes me, you can clearly see little tails at 7 days free swimming, i am trying to introduce frozen bbs and they are starting to get intrested in it.

it goes to show that even if you leave your fish for a couple of days at a time at the stage they have eggs it's not an issue.

The fact that your not feeding and if your filtration is good they will do just fine without your interventions, i may have lost a dozen babies by lowering the maintanance or they might have not made it anyway who knows.

sorry the post is long and i still haven't got a cam (must have been a naughty boy as santa didn't get me one) but i will get pics some how.

i'll carry this thread on.

Larry

x

[Carol_Roberts]

Congratulations Larry :thumbsup:
Carol :heart1:

[larry lob]

ok no digi cam so the pics are bad but here they are anyway....

[larry lob]

daddy

[larry lob]

happy ma

[larry lob]

another of mum

[larry lob]

......

[larry lob]

the love nest

[larry lob]

squabble

[larry lob]

......

[larry lob]

mumm again

[larry lob]

mum again

[Carol_Roberts]

Nice pictures Larry - I especially liked the one of the two squabbling over the fry.
CArol :heart1:

[larry lob]

hi,

How fantastic, the babies just went into thier new home at 13 days old and mum and dad within 20 minutes started shaking out for their new spawn!!!!!

there are 35 babies that made it thus far not having lost that mant in all truth they are in a 3 foot 35g and look totaly lost bless them.
They are eating anything i put to them and even handling live blood worm!! amazing

good luck all i've borrowed a camera and will get some snaps as soon as i work it out lol

Larry

[larry lob]

hi,

It looks like my male has still got some maturing to do. after mum layed a super cluth of eggs, close to 375, it looks like around half furtalized. the first pic is of the spawn and the second is the 36 hours later showing the fertalized batch left.

Larry

[larry lob]

at 36 hours

[Carol_Roberts]

Hi Larry:
It's hard to tell from the pictures - are the eggs still a translucent amber color? By 36 hours they should have changed to black - probably not fertilized :-\ I have a pair that lay every week, but the male doesn't fertilize the eggs and they stay golden just like that . . . . .
Carol :heart1:

[larry lob]

hi carol,

they turned to wrigglers last night but it's strange thet from around 375 eggs there are only about 60 wrigglers.
mum was picking the white ones and there wern't that many i think she was also getting good eggs, i counted over 130 black eggs late yesterday but they were getting less and less every time i looked in.
this morning i found where they moved them to but there are no more than 60.
i was wondering if good none egg eating parents can turn after a few spawns or was it something else that made her eat some?

Larry

[larry lob]

HI,

Batch number 3 just been layed 30 minutes ago. i'll put methain blue in the tank, just to see if it makes a difrence to the hatch rate.

Larry

[larry lob]

Ok call me mad but i was curious, i took a pic of the eggs, blew it up, printed it and marked the eggs. I then counted them and there are 471 eggs. does that seem alot to anyone other than me? i can just about see anything in the tank for methain blue right now but at 15 hours there are 6 white ones.
Mum is attending the eggs and dad is filling his belly which seems to be thier routine.
Dad only comes into action at about 36 hours which is strange but he then take over the main role of parent.
i'll update again soon.

Larry

P.s i got max rezolution simply allows me to post if anyone wants to argue lol

[larry lob]

don't ask me why but i like this pic and thought to share it.
It's just after they finished the curent spawn.
Looks like they are checking thier handy work lol.

[larry lob]

a couple of pics .......
18 hours and methainblue

[larry lob]

...................

[larry lob]

the blue love nest mmmmm

[Pick]

Beautiful pair Larry!

Best wishes!

TC

[larry lob]

Thanks terry,

Sorry i missed your comment but i got preocupied and didn't check back.
While i am here......... there are no more than 40 free swimmers and attached, they are doing good.
Reading through some threads i think my temp might be a bit high at the time they lay the eggs. Is it true that a temp of 86 can kill sperm?
what is an ideal temp to have at the time they spawn.

Larry

[Carol_Roberts]

82F

[larry lob]

Thanks carol,

Those are the lines i was thinking.

Larry

[larry lob]

Hi,

Don't ask me why i reinstated this thread, i just thought it would help with current breeding thats going on in the tanks of the forum.

Larry